the arrangement and description of archives (1898).1 The State Archivist in Groningen who died in 1913 was the man who, together with his colleagues Muller and Fruin, had constituted the triumvirate that published this book, the authority of which was bound to be become acknowledged worldwide. It was the time when archivists became conscious of their professional identity and, again in the Netherlands, by means of an Act on Archives succeeded in securing for themselves a safe position in public administration. In circles of archivists these are facts which continue to deserve to be described and even celebrated. However, what is crucial within the circle of peers, be it Dutch archivists or thousands of colleagues from all over the world here in Beijing, looses its compulsive power if being confronted with the interests which prevail in the outside world. Just as Johan Feith evidently played roles which earned him much more esteem from his Groningen fellow citizens than his being an archival theoretician or even a successful practitioner of the archival profession, many members of today's audience will acknowledge that they do lots of other things than think about classification methods, appraisal strategies and the like. I admit frankly, what I am going to say is a mere truism. We are here in an impressive crowd, calling ourselves archivists. We are from many countries and speak different languages. But, apart from these salient differences there are still others which I think are at least equally important. In my practice as a municipal archivist in a provincial town in an small country, I am constantly aware of these differences, observing colleagues in leading and subordinate positions, colleagues in various municipalities -each of them with its own culture and priorities -, colleagues in the State Archival Service, in big archives, where there is place -and need- for specialisation and competition, and in small ones, where the archivist resembles a single-handed sailor, experienced colleagues in an advanced phase of their personal development and young ones, enthusiastically embarking on their new jobs. Everyone plays his part, and many of us play the roles of a complete cast being at the same time information manager, head of a branch of the public service, historian, welfare worker for drop-outs, computer programmer, editor, teacher, etc. Furthermore, in playing these roles we act at various stages in collaboration with practitioners of a diversity of other professions. Every set of roles entails a specific cluster of loyalties, the inevitable result being that the picture everyone of us has of the profession must be completely different. No doubt, those archivists who can describe their job almost completely in expressions taken from the terminology of archival science constitute a minority here. Given this peculiar situation, one is the more surprised in seeing that it is just this science, even in its everyday appearance of a special attitude towards information, which helps us to recognise colleagues from all over the world. How mutual understanding and international archival co-operation on a global level have developed is the subject of the first part of this paper. After that I will attempt to assess the results of the efforts in this field and even try to formulate an outlook. The topic of the diversity of our contexts will reappear by then. 2. Historical survey2 International archival co-operation is an extremely complex and multi-faceted field of research. Comprehensive studies do not exist. The ICA archives must be an extremely important body of sources but is likely to leave the field of bilateral relations largely uncovered. It is clear that for this occasion no inquiry could be carried out which meets scientific standards. What follows is a sketch in which I concentrate on a series of issues I myself found worthwhile telling. A much more detailed report has been written by Eckhart G. Franz for the IXth International Congress on Archives in London (1980).3 In the subsidiary papers for this session a number of particular domains of international co-operation will be outlined. But let us now turn to the beginning of this century. At the turn of the century, during the World Fair, an international congress of librarians was held in Paris. Technical development and a growing awareness of the international character of societal phenomena was opening up the world. Travelling abroad was, however, still an expedition and international profession al congresses were rare, nouveautés. For the congress of librarians of 1900 no invitations had been sent to archivists, although several subjects on the agenda might have raised their interest as well. At the end of the meeting the enthusias tic participants decided to organise a similar congress every five years.4 One of the participants of the Paris congress was Joseph Cuvelier, who later was to become State Archivist of Belgium. This brilliant professional followed the example given by other archivists in other European countries who united in professional organisations and founded the Association des Archivistes et Bibliothécaires beiges. Only a few months after its start this Belgian association, with Cuvelier at its head, decided to revive the idea of an international congress for both librarians and archivists 1907)5 The World Fair in Brussels, planned for 1910, seemed to offer a splendid occasion for such an international congress. To work out this ambitious plan a preparatory committee was set up. According to the principles of the constitution of the Belgian Association, the committee paid equal attention to archival and library issues. To guarantee the indepen- DE PROFESSIE 1 S. Muller, J.A. Feith and R. Fruin, Handleiding voor het ordenen en beschrijven van archieven (Groningen, 1898). Cf. Eric Ketelaar, "Muller, Feith and Fruin", Miscellanea Carlos Wyffels, Archives et Bibliothèques de Belgique (Archief- en Bibliotheekwezen in België) 57 (1986), pp. 255-268. 2 I wish to express my gratitude to Mr. Hans Ouwerkerk, mayor of the city of Groningen, who enabled me to have the research for this part of my paper done by an assistant, and to Ms. Jet Spits, graduate of the Department of History of Groningen University, who did the investigations I could not do myself and wrote the first draft of this part. 3 Eckhart G. Franz, "Der Internationale Archivrat: Vergangenheit, Gegenwart, Zukunft", Archivum 29 (1982), pp. 155-173. 4 For that reason a bureau was founded, which however failed to succeed in organizing a second congress within the agreed terms. See Henry Martin, "Le Congrès international des Bibliothécaires de 1900. 152 JAN VAN DEN BROEK FROM BRUSSELS TO BEIJING 2.1 The Brussels Congress Résultats matériels et effet moral", in J. Cuvelier et L. Stainier, Congrès de Bruxelles 1910. Actes (Actes) (Bruxelles, 1912) lvi-lxiii. 5 "Assemblée Générale d'ouverture", in: Actes, pp. 601-614. At a statutory meeting of the Association des Archivistes et Bibliothécaires beiges, which was held in Liège in 1907, a proposal to organise a congress of archivists and librarians was welcomed enthusiastically. Probably many librarians cherished favourable recollections of the Paris congress of 1900. According to the initiators library and archives science were to be seen as "maïtresses branches d'un arbre unique, [qui] ne peuvent pas subsister les unes sans les autres Le domaine qu'ils exploitent est presque identique". The objective of the congress was to study technical and professional questions concerning archives and libraries: "Conservation, d'une part; de l'autre, utilisation des documents contenus dans les Archives et les Bibliothèques: c'est en ces deux points que se résumé tout ce qui doit faire l'objet de vos discussions." 153

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