Posted on November 22, 2010

Archivists Without Borders: website headers

Archivists Without Borders: website headers

Archivists without Borders Spain (AwB) is a on-profit organisation, based in barcelona and made up of volunteers that collaborate in the development of cooperation projects and solidarity in the field of archival science and documentary heritage

As the Archivists Withour Borders website notes, "The principles of identity, memory, right to information and defence of human rights are inherent elements in our daily work and constitute universal values that inspire the actions of our organisation".

Archivists Without Borders aims to:

  • Protect the identity and historical memory of nations in the context of cultural diversity. Collaborate in the preservation of archives and documentary heritage in those societies subjected to a relevant risk of documentation loss.
  • Foster cooperation projects in the area of records management and public administration archives of developing countries as one of the policies of promotion and modernisation of institutions' administrative organisation.
  • Promote and watch over the conservation of archives because they guarantee the application of citizens' rights, as records constitute the proof or the documentary evidence of people's identity, the acknowledgement of their property and of their activities and relationship with public organisations.
  • Foster citizens' right of access to the records of public institutions and favour the administrative transparency of public organisations as an inherent right of democratic regimes.
  • Promote archivists' training wherever the lack of resources prevents the education of professionals specialised in archival science, according to international archival knowledge and best practices.
  • Cooperate with organisations and associations in the field of archival and documentary heritage, as well as with entities related to the defence of human rights.
  • Favour human and supportive relations within the international archival community.

Archivists without Borders members

The members that make up Archivists without Borders Spain are mostly archivists that contribute with their professional knowledge and experience elsewhere, for example to organisations and entities that due to political, economical or social circumstances do not have their records properly treated and arranged for consultation, and at the same time properly preserved as befits documentary heritage.

What Archivists Without Borders offers

Archivists without Borders Spain can contribute the archival know-how and method that allows the arrangement of an institution's records during the course of the documents' lifecycle. Within this framework the archivists' task includes from the definition and implementation of records management systems at the administrations to the organisation of historical records.

Another main line of work promoted by AwB is basic and specialised training of archival professionals from those countries that due to lack of resources or other political or social reasons face some difficulty in training archive professionals.

At Archivists without Borders Spain we are backing the more innovative technologies that are continuously appearing in the labour market and we incorporate the latest advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into our daily work.

Sphere of influence

Archivists without Borders Spain (AwB) takes action in countries with a documentary heritage risking loss or irreversible degradation due, mainly, to a lack of development or sufficient resources.

At the same time AwB collaborates with countries that have suffered political transitions or have been immersed in social conflicts in which records are a major element for the exercise of people's rights.

Likewise, Archivists without Borders Spain collaborates with those settlements that have suffered some natural disaster, be it a flood, an earthquake or other catastrophic event, where, once the bare necessities are covered, it becomes necessary to act to ensure the preservation of documentary heritage as one of the most important sources of historical memory

Source: Archivists Without Borders website