To understand what happened later, it is important to realize that in the
Netherlands at the beginning of the new millennium the whole archival
community was divided into two big groups: those who follow the new idea of
the records continuum and those who began to establish "[regional] historical
centers" and focus their activities on the interest of users and the role of archives
within the cultural heritage area.
The curricula of both courses contained not only typical themes of an archival
education like appraisal or description, but also preparatory subjects like
bibliography, financial management and business administration.22 Since the
archival education programmes have established themselves at the Polytechnics
and the University, the curricula have changed again in some respects. In
September 1999, for example, at the University the "major Archiefwetenschap"
[major in Archival Science] was introduced.23
Archival education in Marburg since 1999
After the big changes in structure and content of archival education in Marburg
within the second half of the 90s, a phase of relatively little change followed.
Almost every year since 1995, the contents of individual subjects were revised and
additions or changes in their dimensions were made, as would be expected in any
education programme. Nevertheless, it is obvious that a lot of hours were added,
especially where management skills like human resources management and
business administration were discussed in order to fulfil the needs of the future
leadership in German archives.
The Archivschule has always adhered to the expectations of the profession that
it should train generalists, who can handle not only medieval documents but
also modern files and electronic records. This naturally means that the student
cannot deal with all areas as comprehensively as would be desirable when they
left the school. Therefore, the Archivschule is taking the same route as colleagues
from The Netherlands have taken since the 80s and is offering a program for
continuing education. The limit of commitment of student time was reached in
2007 and the amount of lessons had to be reduced. Since then, new contents can
only be implemented when others are removed.
In recent years, the importance of records management within the German
administration became more and more evident. Since there is no education
in R.M. [records managment] in Germany, archivists often had to advise the
staff in the agencies how to deal with their files, but this situation did not
lead to the idea of a records continuum system. In Germany, the traditional
distinction between archives and registrations and records management is still
PROFESSIONALITEIT
22 An overview of both curricula and some first impressions from some students can be found in: Dick
Brongers: 'De archiefstroom aan de afdeling IDM van de HVA: Het programma en de mensen' in:
Archievenblad, mei 1997, p. 15-17.
23 Eric Ketelaar: 'Archiefwetenschap studeren' in: Archievenblad, september 1999, p. 24-25.
24 Hans Scheurkogel: 'Whose master's voice?' In: Karsten Uhde (Ed.): Berufsbild im Wandel - Aktuelle heraus-
forderungen für die archivarische Ausbildung und Fortbildung, (Veröffentlichungen der Archivschule Marburg
Vol. 43) Marburg 2005, p. 141-151. Reprinted as the preceding article in this yearbook.
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