Activity of the Archives of Serbia and Montenegro
Activity of the Archives of Serbia and Montenegro
The activities of the Archives of Serbia and Montenegro and the specific tasks within it have been defined under laws and regulations specifying the status and purview of the Archives as well as by instructions and rules setting forth the professional methodology of work.
On the basis of our own and world experiences the Archives today follows contemporary principles of work in all its activities, starting with the protection of archival material generated by institutions and registry offices covered by the purview of the Archives, the taking over of archival material, its adequate storage and keeping in the Archives, classification and processing and the provision of conditions for its use, up to the establishment of a modern information system and publication of archival material.
Files are maintained of the sources of archival material and the condition of archival material outside the Archives, established as registers, card files, dossiers and a series of supporting inventories offering data on the number of sources, their names, addresses, quantity of material, condition of material, custody conditions etc. All the date has been entered into corresponding data bases which offer, through computer retrieval, the necessary information needed primarily for current work but also for long- term operations of the Archives related to the schedule for taking over archival material, ensuring space for housing the material in the Archives, etc.
The Rules on the takeover, custody, keeping, protection and use of archival material in the Archives and on the professional responsibility of the workers of the Archives for archival material specify the following: the manner and procedure of taking over archival material; housing of archival material: custody and protection of archival material; manner of taking out and returning archival records to the repositories; conditions and manner of using archival material; professional responsibility of the Archives' workers vis-a-vis the material, optimal technical conditions for the physical protection of archival material from damage and destruction as well as measures of protection of structures and premises housing archival material. The Rules stipulate the mandatory inventories to be maintained by the Archives on received archival material, namely: accession register of incoming archival material, the record groups and collections dossiers, topographic indicators of record groups and archival material stored in the Archives' repositories. The Rules are accompanied by numerous enclosures - forms with pertinent data related to the discharge of the duties regulated under the Rules.
The classification and processing manual for record groups and the preparation of finding aids in the Archives, has been made on the basis of many years of experience that the Archives has acquired working on the classification and processing of archival material, but also of contemporary experiences of other archives in the country and abroad, in particular in respect of finding aids for record groups. The instructions spell out the work procedure in respect of: the criteria for the establishment of a record group; the methodology for classifying and processing archival material defining the principles for the classification and processing of material and their application in the Archives and the types and manner of preparation of finding aids for archival material. Enclosed is also a form with data on the record group and material to be included in the inventory as the basic finding aid for the archival records concerned. The form can be processed by computer whereby efficient retrieval is made possible of the content of the records as well as of other pertinent elements such as; type of document, authenticity, language, period, author, indices etc.
There also exist a series of other instructions and rules related to the discharge of various tasks which must be undertaken by both the Archives and archival record sources with the assistance and under the supervision of the Archives of Serbia and Montenegro.
All these acts, which have been adopted on the basis of legal powers,
cover and spell out the entire activity of the Archives the ultimate objective
being a uniform method of work and the application of state-of-the art
archival theory and practice.
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