The organization of the Polish State Archives Head Office consisted of the following
divisions: III Research Office, subdivided into four Sections - Methods, Reference
and Information, Publications, and Library and Bibliographical Centre; 121 Personal
Division, /3/ Accounts Division, and 14/ Organization and Legal Division. In 1977
another organization was introduced. The Head Office is now divided in three
general parts: III Scientific Research Division, subdivided into six Sections - Methods
and Archival Theory, Source Editions, Revindication of Documents, Problem Com
mittees, Library and Editions; /2Organization and Legal Division, and /3/ Adminis
tration Divisions i.e. Personal Division, Accounts Division, Archival Information
Centre, and Acces Section. The General Director of the Polish State Archives has
at his disposal an advisory body named the Archival Council members of wich are
well-known scholars and experts in archive problems. There are three other com
missions: III the Central Methods Commission, the object of which is to decide
questions of method in general, /2/ the Central Commission of the Evaluation of
Documents which prepares regulations for the transfer of valuable documents from
offices and institutions and decides which documents are to be eliminated, and /3/
the Editorial Council which supervises archive editions prepared by the Head Office.
Since 1970 some committees for specially important archive problems came into
existence. They have to solve urgent methodical and practical problems, first of all
those concerning old chancellery activities, new sorts of documentation in offices
and data processing.
Till 1976 the network of Polish archive offices consisted of three central, 16 voivode-
ship and about 80 district archives. In 1976 this network has been adjusted to the new
administratieve division of Poland from 1975. As result the district level of the
administration has been abolished and so were the district archives. Today the net
work comprises only the central and voivodeship archives. These three central
archives are situated in Warsaw: III the Central Archives of Ancient Documents,
12/ the Archives of Modern Documents, and 3/ the Archives of Mechanical Docu
mentation. The number of voivodeship archives is now 33 and to them belong 16
branch archives.
Every archive office is divided into sections according to the periods of social
development of the country, i.e. feudalism, capitalism and socialism. In the recent
times an attempt is being made to introduce in some archives a new subdivision into
sections according to the functions of an archive office. In central and voivodeship
archives there are Method Commissions and Commissions on the Evaluation of
Documents.
Five microfilm stations are at the disposal of the Polish State Archives Service.
They are in the Central Archives in Warsaw and in the voivodeship archives in
Gdansk, Kraków, Poznan and Wroclaw. Those archive offices which have no photo
graphic facilities can provide copies in libraries, universities, etc.
The state archive store of documents comprises about 33,000 archive groups which
occupy about 150,000 metre-run of shelving. This means about 11,000,000 archive
units. These figures are continually increasing. About 65 per cent of the whole
archive store are classified, put in order and described in inventories. Among "fin-
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ding aids" subject card-indexes must be mentioned because of their great value for
searching.
The documents preserved in Polish state archive offices are important source mate
rial not only for scientific purposes but also for the so-called man in the street for
his personal needs such as civil condition, learning, possesions, retiring, etc. These
documents are now of a great interest for economic purposes as well. They contain
a lot of technical designs and maps concerning forests, water economy, environment
protection, soil melioration, etc. This is why they are very important when planning
the development of towns and regions. Archive offices carry an active information
on the store and sort of these documents for this new kind of users. Among them
the number of engeneers and technicians is steadily increasing. The whole figure of
searchers in 1974 was 6,317, they came 43,940 times for research. The number of
archive units produced for the public during this year was 215,660 and it shows a
remarkable increase from year to year.
The state archive service gives guidance on archive practice to all the offices, insti
tutions and enterprises throughout the country. In 1974 as many as 5,614 visitations
of record repositories in offices and institutions were made. Offices, institutions etc.
issue their own regulations indicating the method of arranging the repository and
of selecting documents of importance as well as destroying unnecessary records.
Lists of documentary materials are prepared with indications of the time limit of
their preservation. The courses for the staff employed in repositories are arranged.
The staff of the Polish state archives service comprised 60 employees in the Head
Office and 1170 in all the state archive offices at the end of 1976. The staff is divided
into scientific /153 persons/ and other workers. There are now Archive Courses at
the universities at Gdansk, Kraków, Poznan, Torun, Warsaw and Wroclaw. The
archive workers have two organisations: the Trade Union and the Society of Polish
Archivists. Members of the second organization are those employed in different
archive offices and persons and institutions interested in archive work.
Polish archivists have to their disposition two periodicals, i.e. the above mentioned
Archeion, issued since 1927 /to date 65 volumes/, and Bulletin of the Society of
Polish Archivists, issued quarterly since 1965. The Polish archival vocabulary and
guides to some archives are to be mentioned too.
The contacts between Polish and foreign archivitst are very numerous. Since 1956
Poland has been a member of the International Council on Archives and has taken
part in activities of the Table Ronde des Archives. Polish archivists take part in the
Stage International d'Archives in Paris. So they contribute to the solution of diffe
rent difficult problems the archive services in the world meet.
St. Nawrocki.
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