meetings. Every four years ICA leaves its visiting card in a city where a celebra
tion is being held. So the Stockholm congress of 1960 was held on the occasion
of the completion of the new municipal archives, built in the Swedish rocks, the
Vllth congress in Moscow (1972) was connected with the 50th anniversary of
the Soviet Union, the VHIth congress in Washington (1976) with the United
States' Bicentennial, and the Xllth congress in Montreal with the 350th anniver
sary of the host city.
Over the years a constantly increasing number of archivists has taken part in
the international congresses. Due to the high costs most of the habitués are high
ranking officials of national archives services and associations, but an increasing
number of rank-and-file archivists seem prone to think that a professional
should at least one time in his lifetime attend a happening like this; an inclina
tion which, undoubtedly, also has something to do with the opportunity
congresses offer to pay an employer-paid visit to an exotic country.
The massiveness of congresses and CITRAs, which have developed into
congresses of a smaller size, is being felt as their main drawback. Another
nuisance is politics intruding into professional discussions. The phenomenon
ranges from representatives of states simply proclaiming the excellence of their
institutions and methods to officials acting as would-be foreign ministers and
as such causing rows on political issues which have nothing to do with the
archival profession.
Much of the criticism uttered with reference to the congresses, however, is
ill-founded or at least a result of obviously wrong expectations. It is rather naive
to think that plenary sessions with hundreds and even thousands of attendants
allow having lively impromptu debates. Disappointment is also guaranteed if
attendants expect to hear equally elaborated speeches meeting precisely their
interests. Congresses nowadays are accompanied by hosts of satellite meetings
for ICA's central bodies and other working parties, sections, regional branches.
Manufacturers of supplies and equipment, taking advantage of having so
many practitioners of the archival profession at hand, organise shows and try
to widen their markets.
Although opinions strongly diverge on the value of the international congres
ses, they surely play an important role in confronting habits and cultures with
each other, raising curiosity and reflection, encouraging action, and offering a
forum for specialised discussions and maintaining friendship relations.
3. Some remarks by way of assessment
As I said before, international archival co-operation is a very complicated matter.
Over the last century the world has grown smaller with steadily increasing
rapidity, mainly as a result of revolutionary developments in technology. This
process is accompanied by an equally rapid increase of information which in
combination with the awareness of interdependence of nearly everything in the
world threatens to obstruct our view. Even in a limited domain like that of
records and archives administration the masses of information are of a size that
it would take particular courage and lots of years of study in order to attempt a
serious assessment.
The only alternative to that is to resort to subjective impressions and reports on
particular subjects which I myself am not able to verify.
In doing so it can be useful to listen not only to the in-crowd of people who
populate the international scene and in one way or another constitute ICA. In
my own experience there is a strong resemblance between outsider appreciation
of archival co-operation on a national and that on an international level. In my
own environment I rather frequently observed outsiders being surprised when
they are told about the ways archivists in the Netherlands work together in order
to develop the profession and to take part in the processes of public decision
making on issues of interest. For many people, archives are an esoteric world and
the discovery of archivists acting like other human beings do causes surprise.
The simple fact of being organised strengthens the status of archivists and the
case of archives. The same applies to being organised internationally, but to a
higher degree.54
The attitude of colleagues who themselves are not involved in international
activities has another character. Generally speaking, most archivists have only
limited opportunities to get personally involved in international professional
contacts. Of course, sometimes foreign visitors turn up, incidentally the
presence of particular documents in the archives leads to contacts with
foreigners and in professional journals sometimes articles on archives abroad are
being published. But, to be honest, for most of our colleagues there is no reason
why they should be interested in the publications of ICA. It is not surprising,
then, that colleagues trying hard to combine their local job with international
activities are sometimes met with scepticism and, perhaps a tacit reproach:
isn't there anything more urgent to do than meeting foreign friends?
Another sound is being heard from those whom I would call semi-outsiders.
I have in mind those colleagues who once or twice visited an International
Congress and in this way got an impression of the "international archival
circus". In their reports in the Nederlands Archievenblad they appear to be critical
observers who, in general, are looking without prejudice at what is going on.
Over the years their reports show remarkable similarities. Ungifted speakers have
been tormenting their audience with boring reports ever since the Brussels con
gress. Plenary sessions were always too long, and discussions, if any, unsatisfac
tory. But positive was always the surprising experience of community despite
cultural and linguistic barriers, and for them who were lucky enough to take part
more than once, of meeting friends. As early as 1910 the extra-congressional
activities, not only banquets, excursions but also chats in the corridors, received
a higher valuation than the sessions themselves.
Being involved in international co-operation only since a rather recent date
I do not think myself competent to attempt at a more detailed assessment,
although I have, of course, picked up some impressions. In order to lay a some
what more reliable basis I spoke to some people, read a lot, and made an
admittedly unrepresentative inquiry among A and B members of ICA, asking
DE PROFESSIE
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JAN VAN DEN BROEK FROM BRUSSELS TO BEIJING
54 Cf Judith S. Hornabrook, "The international cooperation of archives form the Pacific viewpoint", in:
Friedrich P. Kahlenberg, ed., Aus der Arbeit der Archive. Beitrage zum Archivwesen, zur Quellenkunde und zur
Geschichte. Festschrift fiir Hans Booms (Boppard am Rhein, 1989) pp. 18-23. Here: p. 20 and p. 23. The phe
nomenon is not restricted to developing countries only.
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