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10 - History of community archiving in Poland

from PART 2 - ENGAGING RECORDS AND ARCHIVES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2018

Magdalena Wiśniewska
Affiliation:
Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
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Summary

HISTORICALLY, ARCHIVISTS IN Poland have not paid much attention to community archives. Nowadays, however, this challenging area has become a more and more popular field of study for those engaged in research in archival science. I believe, and am supported in this belief by other Polish archivists (e.g. Stępniak, 2012; Czarnota, 2014; Chorążyczewski, 2015), that community archives play an important part in Polish archival reality, due to their considerable number (estimated to be several hundred) and remarkable variety. Moreover, this type of activity – setting up a memory institution from below, spontaneously – is intertwined with a specific stage of development of civil society, as well as historical/archival consciousness. This community archives phase got underway in the West in the latter half of the 20th century (Gilliland and Flinn, 2013; Vitali, 2015), but started much later in Poland, due to its recent history.

The definition of ‘community archive’ still causes some debate, both in countries that have longer traditions of research in grassroots archiving endeavours (Letimer, n.d.; Flinn, 2007; Flinn, Stevens and Shepherd, 2009; Flinn, 2011; Gilliland and Flinn, 2013; Newman, 2012) and in Poland (Czarnota, 2011; Czarnota, 2012; Ziętal, 2012a; Ziętal, 2012b; Czarnota, 2013; Wiśniewska, 2013; Ziętal, 2013; Chorążyczewski, 2015). In this chapter I use the term ‘community archive’ to describe archives endeavouring to ensure ongoing preservation (or at least those that believe their materials deserve long-term preservation) and set up at the grassroots level, often housed by non-governmental organizations, but also by informal groups and, in some cases, private individuals.

There has not been any research to date exploring the history of community archiving in Poland as a whole, complex phenomenon, although in the archival literature one can find isolated studies on individual community archives (mostly the large and influential ones) that touch also on the issue of their origins and history. However, they are not rigorous case studies but are rather superficial and of little value. Minimal work has been done relating to the history of individual community archives; similarly, it is not possible to write a complete history of community archiving in Poland, treating grassroots documentary endeavours as a whole phenomenon.

Type
Chapter
Information
Engaging with Records and Archives
Histories and Theories
, pp. 195 - 210
Publisher: Facet
Print publication year: 2016

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