The Importance of Outreach and New TechnologiesMaria Jose Justo MartinDirector of the University Historic Archives. Santiago de Compostela Paper Presented at the 2007 Annual Conference of the International Council on Archives Section on University and Research Institution Archives, University of Dundee, Scotland, August 14, 2007 Introduction Since its beginning the Historic Archive of the University has been tightly bonded with the University as a whole and has played an essential role in all fields of education in Galicia. It contains documents that are older than the Archive itself and includes documents created by the very founders of the University. This university was founded in 1495. In the sixteenth century the Archive came under the authority of the Secretary of the university, taking responsibility for documents from the University cloister and the rector, disposing its dual function of management and education. In that century the colleges of Fonseca and San Xerome began to function and went on until the nineteenth century. The college of Fonseca also known as the college of Santiago Alfeo, was founded by the archbishop Alonso III de Fonseca. In 1529 Fonseca decided to build a new building on a lot owned by his family. The college was probably transferred to this new building in 1550. In 1730 it was given the privilege of being called a 'Colegio Mayor' putting it on equal footing with the universities of Salamanca, Valladolid and Alcali. Since its founding news of the Archive can be found in constitutions statutes and visitors' books. Among these we should point out the visit made by Alonso Munoz de Otalora in 1600. The nineteenth century also saw the archives becoming more involved in care taking documents for outside the University of an Academic Nature including those from the Primary and Secondary schools as well as specialised schools and Teacher Training schools. It will be at the beginning of the twentieth century and in the 1940s when it began its involvement in documentation related the city of Santiago and it surroundings. In its initial stages the archive did not have a building of its own. Like all early archives it consisted literally of storage trunks for protecting documents. But through its history is has been housed in various places. In their visits in 1635 and 1636 Molina and Medrano saw the need for the housing of the University's documents in a specific place. As a result the archive was placed in the sacritium of the College of Fonseca. When on September 1769 the university took possession of the 'Regulares Expulsos' building, the archive was transferred to its new home with great solemnity. The documents were moved to the new building in a procession in which all the college students were on hand dressed in full regalia. In the 1980s the archive achieved its highest level of institutional support with a restored independent building and it own funding. Since this moment it is a dynamic growing institution which is developing a data base system along with the use of internet. This increased activity included censuses, deposits, donations and acquisitions made by the university itself, including documents from the Santiago civil government monasteries, fraternities etc. Collecting policies The Statutes of University described the University Historical Archives as a deposit of local archives, which allows other archives to be integrated in the archives itself. This is a clear example of the relationship between the University and the Galician society. In a recent publication about the Spanish University Archives it is said that the University of Santiago and its archives has an aggressive policy for having documental sources or archives from very different origins and ownership. Knowing of the existence of a wide range of interesting materials and documents, the archive embarked on a policy of outreach with the various owners of documental sources. Aware of the changes involved in this task, I accepted the challenge. With this in mind we initiated a consistent campaign of diffusion through personal contacts, courses, lectures and publicity. The archives also opened its doors for the public to visit the facilities guaranteeing the safety and caretaking of their documents. As a result of this, the owners deposited documents in these Archives with different juridical status. Why are these archives important to the University? What is the reason for the University's interest in the archives? Keeping in mind that the two primary objectives of a university are education and research, the two fundamental reasons for its interest in the archives is: their importance in research and the role the university should play in the conservation and diffusion of the archives. The archives of other institutions and private organizations make up invaluable documental sources which sustain and aid in research not only for university researchers but also for outsiders. In some cases they even complete the archives of the very institution itself, for example the archives of an individual professor. Because of this it is necessary for the institution to have a varied acquisition policy: including donations, deposits and purchases. In any of these methods a formal contract is agreed upon in which the holders are given a digital copy of the document or the document is available to be used by researchers, etc. Nowadays, the holders themselves can follow up on their documents through the online database. Who decides on the acquisitions? Recommendations for acquisitions normally come from the archives itself, and the archivist is the one who has the relationship with the owners, either through direct contact or through persons who have informed the archivist of the documental sources. Besides, it is the archivist the one who can estimate the value or interest of the actual document. In the beginning the archivist contacted with the owners of the documents in order to inform them of the possibility to keep their documents in the archives through a legal procedure. But today it is the owners themselves who take the initiative to contact the archives since they already know of its existence. The archivist then meets with the Vice-rector of Research who gives permission to include the document in the University Archives. This decision will have to be approved by the Rector and the Governing Council. Acquisitions, collaborations and funding The inclusion of such materials gave a big projection at both national and international levels. To continue these policies various institutions of the Galician Autonomous Community have made economic collaborations with the Archive. This was made possible by relating the services offered by the archives to the scope or competences of such institutions. For example: To help the General Secretary of Immigration of the Xunta of Galicia which deals with relations with international Galician communities, immigration policies and the return of immigrants to Galicia, an offer was made to allow the introduction of holdings and documents of major interest in our on-line data base. The University Archives has made an important contribution to the above mentioned institution through the so called 'Roots' programme. The archives of the Royal Hospital were incorporated too. It is especially important for the history of the pilgrimage of Saint James from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. It contains important documents relevant to study of medicine in Galicia. Another highly important incorporation has been the archives of the protocols of the Santiago Notarial district (sixteenth to the twentieth century) which were added to the Archive in 1969. In 1993 protocols from eight different districts from the College of Notaries were incorporated as well. In accordance with the Notarial Institution descriptive instruments were developed, first in hard copy and recently on data base and images of the Archives. Besides, the Department of Education of the Xunta of Galicia gives economic help to the description and digitalization of these documents in the date base of the archive. The notarial protocols are an irreplaceable source of research and give information on all persons in all situations at anytime in their lives. Documentation from the Santiago City Council was incorporated beginning in 1994 with records from sixteenth to 1950 and biannual incorporation. The Consortium of the city of Santiago has placed its funds in the archive. It is fundamentally an institution that is dedicated to the restoration and preservation of historic buildings in the old city and also is involved in cultural projects. It therefore has a close relationship with the Archives Council in town-planning and cultural matters. It collaborated economically with the archive in the maintenance of theirs documents. In its outreach policy the archive has contacted with private companies including banks, the fishing industry, maritime transport, and mining among others which has allowed for the incorporation of documental sources of these industries. Some business archives are kept by their owners as long as they think the documents have administration value. Once these documents have lost their administration value, the University Archives, aware of their cultural value, exert a policy of approach to the different businesses. Also in some cases the business owner offers the historical sources to the University. Rodolfo Lama appears to be a very interesting archive. We could say that is an architecture archive. It contains about 4.000 building plans of the town of Santiago de Compostela. Also there are many restoration projects of historic buildings. This archive was a donation of Rodolfo Lama's widow through the NEORSA business. The archive of Vilaodriz has documentation about the mines of Vilaodriz in the province of Lugo in the Autonomous Community of Galicia. These mines are open cast exploitation. (Vilaodriz is an open cast mine.) They are a very interesting source to study the working life in the mine. Also interesting are the plans of the coalmine and the freight train that connects the mine with the port of Ribadeo to carry the mineral. This documentation was acquired by the University in 1997. Simeon Garcia is a business dedicated to commerce and banking. In the University Archives there is documentation from Santiago, A Coruna and the Vigo branches. Their origins come from the province of Logrono, in Ortigosa de Cameros, where they had a textile factory. It is one of the most important businesses in Galicia in the nineteenth and twentieth century. The University Archives happen to be located in what used to be the commercial building of the firm. The University follows the same process to acquire family and personal archives. Such is the case of the documentation of the Vilar de Ferreiros manor house whose owner contacted with the archives through someone who had previously deposited valuable documents in our Archives. So, he looked into the possibility of selling the holding and so I estimated the value. At that moment the archive's budget was going through a not very good economic period and I explained to the owner the impossibility of purchasing the documents then. After a period of silence, the contact was restablished aiming towards a final placement. As a result of this the documentation has finally been given in deposit for an indefinite period in the University Archives. These are perhaps the most important innovations that the archive has seen in recent times allowing for a wide diversity of materials that have added greatly to its resources along with holdings that originate in aristocratic records. New Technologies As far as New Technologies we must say that these changes have gone hand in hand with the new technologies of information (TIC) that have opened multiple possibilities for the archivist. They are being used by the University of Santiago and its archives which work with Archi-DOC- Archi-GES program with the module of description, search, users management, digitalization, etc. that permit the access in Internet of digital images and data. At the moment a new internet version in Java of its on-line database is being presented in response to user demands that should greatly improve the service. This database is economically maintained partly by the institution itself and also with financing from other institutions including the 'Conselleria of Culture of Xunta of Galicia' with a large input in the digital field. Conclusion As a Conclusion we should point out that all of these recent acquisitions have truly made the University Archives an 'Archive of Archives' and has changed the profile of the user that before was only interested in actual university materials to someone who today has an ever-widening field of information to draw from. Today documents of non University nature are the forty per cent of all the records. Because of all of this the University Archive is an example of the changing institution, especially in the last part of the twentieth century which has been decisive for the archive. |