199 ATLANTI • 27 • 2017 • n. 2 Education of Archivists in Hungary at the Beginning of the 21 st Century Tibor Csaba REISZ, PH.D. National Archives of Hungary, Bécsikapu tér 2-4, 1014 Budapest, Hungary e-mail: reisz.t.csaba@mnl.gov.hu Education of Archivists in Hungary at the Beginning of the 21st century ABSTRACT Between 1867 and 1948 Hungary did not have any archivist education. Research positions existed only in the National Archives, either legal degree, or university degree, and later doctorate level, as well as passing the profes- sional exam defined by the minister were the requirements for their fulfilment. The organisation of a course prepa- ring for the exam was proposed several times during the era, however it was never realised. The archivist education started on the Faculty of Humanities of ELTE in 1949. First those history students were allowed to apply for the studies that wanted to learn archival studies from the third year of their education as their secondary subject, then it was organised into a four-year and then five-year education. The curriculum was continuously shaped upon the experiences and proposals of the teachers, students and the archivists. The 21 st century archivist education basic feature is its continuous change; first the introduction of the credit system and then the Bologna system caused difficulties in the education. Currently the archivist education is mainly supplied by the MA education, however, the knowledge that had to be obtained in 6-8-10 semesters earlier, has to be taught within 4 semesters. The example subject syllabi reflect on the depth of knowledge provided by the education. Key words: archival education, archival science, Hungary, master studies, Bologna system, credit sistem Formazione degli archivisti in Ungheria all’inizio del XXI secolo SINTESI Tra il 1867 e il 1948 l'Ungheria non ha avuto alcuna formazione archivistica. Le posizioni di ricerca esistevano solo nell'Archivio Nazionale, sia di grado giuridico, di laurea e di dottorato, e passare l'esame professionale definito dal ministrero era il requisito per la loro realizzazione. L'organizzazione di un corso di preparazione all'esame è stato proposto diverse volte, tuttavia non è mai stato realizzato. La formazione archivistica ha avuto inizio alla Facoltà di Scienze Umane dell'ELTE nel 1949. Innanzitutto gli studenti di storia sono stati ammessi agli studi di archivistica dal terzo anno del loro percorso come materia secondaria, poi è stato organizzato dapprima su quattro anni e poi su cinque anni. Il curriculum è stato continuamente modellato sulle esperienze e proposte degli insegnanti, degli studenti e degli archivisti. L'elemento fondamentale della formazione archivistica del XXI secolo è il suo continuo cambiamento; prima l'introduzione del sistema a crediti, e poi il sistema di Bologna hanno causato difficoltà. At- tualmente la formazione archivistica è fornita principalmente dalla laurea magistrale, tuttavia le conoscenze che dovevano essere ottenute nei 6,8,10 semestri precedenti devono essere insegnate entro 4 semestri. Gli esempi dei syllabi riflettono sulla profondità della conoscenza fornita dalla formazione. Parole chiave: formazione archivistica, archivistica, Ungheria, master, sistema di Bologna, sistema a crediti Izobraževanje arhivistov na Madžarskem na začetku 21. stoletja IZVLEČEK V času od 1867 do 1948 na Madžarskem ni bilo izobraževanja arhivistov. Samo v Državnem arhivu so obstajala delovna mesta raziskovalcev, zahteve za njihovo zasebo pa so bile univerzitetna diploma iz prava ali druga univerzi- tetnba diploma, kasneje je bil potreben doktorat, kot tudi uspešno opravljen strokovni izpit, ki ga je predpisal mi- nister. V tem obdobju so velikokrat razmišljali tudi o tem, da bi organizirali posebno izobraževanje za pripravo na strokovni izpit, vendar je ostalo samo pri načrtih. Izobraževanje arhivistov se je pričelo leta 1949 na Filozofski fa- kulteti Univerze Eötvös Loránd. Sprva so lahko študij vpisali študentje zgodovine v 3. letniku jot sekundarni pred- met, kasneje pa so se arhivisti usposabljali v okviru štiri in petletnih programov. Učni načrt se je na podlagi pobud in izkušenj profesorjev, študentov in arhivistov ves čas spreminjal in dopolnjeval. Značilnost izobraževanja arhivi- ATLANTI • 27 • 2017 • n. 2 200 Tibor Csaba REISZ: Education of Archivists in Hungary at the Beginning of the 21 st Century, 199-208 stov v 21. stoletju so stalne spremembe. Sprva so težave v izobraževanju povzročale uvedba kreditnih točk, kasneje uvedba bolonjskega sistema. Dandanes izobraževanje arhivistov poteka v obliki magistrskega študija (Master of Arts), čeprav je potrebno namesto prejšnjih šestih, osmih ali desetih semestrov, sedaj podati študentom znanj v samo štirih semestrih. Sami opisi predmetov zelo dobro kažejo, kakšno poglobljeno znanje daje študij. Ključne besede: izobraževanje arhivistov, arhivska znanost, Madžarska, magistrski študij, Bolonjski študij, sistem kreditnih točk Levéltárosképzés Magyarországon a 21. század elején ÖSSZEFOGLALÓ A polgári korszakban (1867-1948) Magyarországon nem volt levéltárosképzés. Csak az Országos Levéltárban voltak tudományos munkakörök, azok betöltéséhez jogi végzettség, egyetemi diploma, később pedig doktori foko- zat kellett, továbbá a szakminiszter által előírt szakvizsga letétele volt szükséges. A korszakban többször is felmerült, hogy a vizsga letételét megkönnyítő képzést szervezzenek, de ez mindvégig csak terv maradt. A levéltárosképzés 1949-ben indult meg a budapesti ELTE Bölcsészettudományi Karán. Kezdetben a már egyetemi történészhall- gatók vehették fel harmadévtől a tárgyat, később négy-, majd ötéves képzés keretében képezték a levéltárosokat. A tananyagot a tanárok, a hallgatók és a levéltárosok tapasztalatai és javaslatai alapján folyamatosan bővítették, alakí- tották. A 21. századi levéltárosképzés első jellemzője a folyamatos változtatás: előbb a kredtirendszer, majd a bolo- gnai képzési rendszer bevezetése okozott nehézségeket az oktatásban. Napjainkban elsősorban az MA-képzés biz- tosítja a levéltáros szakképzést, bár a korábbi 6-8-10 félév helyett 4 félév alatt kell valamennyi modern tudást átadni a hallgatóknak. A minta tantárgyleírások jól tükrözik, hogy a képzés milyen mélységű ismeretanyagot nyújt. The great challenges of the beginning of the 21 st century, especially the open society, globalisation, booming of IT and its everyday use have resulted in changes in the expected and applied knowledge and capabilities in professional archivist work. The changes and their realisation are continuously forming the proper answers by the preparatory institutions aka the education. How has the education founding and shaping the knowledge of the archivist professionals, changed for the past one and a half century? Before 1948 there was no applied archivist education. There were only some professional specifica- tions to fulfil the position. At the end of the era however, some trainings were organized to help to take the necessary exams. Different preconditions were demanded from applicants for different types of ar- chives. Only the employees of the National Archives worked as research fellows. The education of archivists started in Faculty of Humanities of Eötvös Loránd University in Buda- pest in 1949. For these 70 years it has changed significantly both in its form (2-5 year-education, day- time, correspondence courses, supplementary courses, speed trainings, traditional or credit-based or mul- ti-level education) and in its content. The current study describes this development pointing out the answers given to the challenges of the era. Professional data regarding 19 th and 20 th centuries, based on archival documents are available that supports the introduction. Unfortunately no documents (minutes of meetings, preparatory materials, proposals, etc.) regard- ing the last 15 years are available, thus besides the curriculum of the archivist education I have to rely on oral input by the participating colleagues 1 . This lack of information marks the necessity of the written registration of events and thoughts regarding the development of the education. 1 The Archivists of the National Archives between 1874 and 1948 The National Archives was established on the foundations of Archivum Regni founded in 1756 upon the Act XLV in 1723, by its significant reorganisation in 1874 (for details see Reisz, 2015, pp. 71- 81). The new institute has been acting as the background institute of public administration and the treas- ury of sources of history sciences since then; it had to report to the Minister of the Interior between 1875 and 1922, and then, except a short period to the Minister responsible for the cultural affairs. 1. Dr. Tamás Körmendi, University Senior Lecturer of ELTE FA, Department of Auxiliary Sciences of History, helped me a lot supplying documents and consultation. I am also thankful for the help of my colleagues at the National Archives of Hungary, Zoltán Szőke, Csaba Sasfi and Gábor Balázs for their oral input. 201 ATLANTI • 27 • 2017 • n. 2 Tibor Csaba REISZ: Education of Archivists in Hungary at the Beginning of the 21 st Century, 199-208 The personnel of the archives was quite small in number in the first some decades, moreover, not all the positions were fulfilled. The total headcount was 13 people in 1875, two of them had higher de- gree, three of the positions were not taken. The jurist Gyula Pauler (1841-1903) was the first director of the archives, upon his proposals the governmental budget allowed some humble level developments; since 1877 there were three draftsman, nine office assistants and three servitor positions in the archives (for details on the history of Archives see Lakos, 2006). While Pauler was the senior archivist the headcount was almost stable (20-26 people), it is increased only in some research fellow positions: form 1880 a new archival draftsman position was created, the number of the archival clerks was decreased by four while the number of draftsmen was increased by the same number from 1892, from 1895 one, from 1898 two oth- er draftsman apprentice position were created, however from 1902 they were postponed. All the archival scientific positions requiring university degree like (senior and junior) archivist, draftsman apprentice, belonged to the so called draftsmen staff, the positions requiring secondary school certificate like service director position, handler (vice) director, data processing clerk, office incumbent or archival officer belong to the handlers staff, while the service positions were grouped in the servant staff positions. The current study focuses on the necessary preconditions and education of the scientific posi- tions. Gyula Pauler defined the employment requirements of the positions, which remained untouched while they reported to the Ministry of Interior 2 . During this period there was no archivist education, an archivist exam was required from all applicants upon the proposal of Pauler (1876). The lowest position among the scientific positions was the draftsman, after sufficient years and in case of an open position the officer became a vice-archivist and then an archivist. The office incumbent position was a good prepara- tory step for research positions, thus it was also applied by university degree applicants. According to Pauler’s accepted proposal the following knowledge was required to fulfil draftsman position: knowledge of Latin language, legal degree, knowledge of the history of Hungarian history, stud- ies in palaeography and diplomacy, calligraphy, and knowledge of one or more foreign languages. The applicants had to take both an oral and written exam. The final pre-degree certificate of legal or humani- ties - unfortunately not only history - was a requirement from the applicants, later the final degree, teach- ers’ degree or PhD was required. Since only a few people with legal degree applied, the Minister of Interi- or allowed the application of legal students as well. The knowledge of the history of public administration and legal services as well as the German language was missing from the requirements, however they were parts of the requirements for clerks and county archivists. Act I. of 1883 regarding the qualification of public officers defined the requirements of archival positions (A magyar királyi Országos, 1884, pp. 7-8). Only that Hungarian citizen could become a public administration officer that was not under guardianship, was not bankrupt, had a clean record and led a virtuous life, who also possessed the necessary knowledge required by the law (1. §). The person who completed a legal course or a course of humanities and took the exam could be employed as a draftsman of the National Archives. ‘The subjects of this extra exam are the following: Hungarian history, Hungar- ian and Latin palaeography, diplomacy, Latin language, Hungarian public law, civil law and canon law, most importantly the status before 1848’. A person after the 8 years of secondary grammar school could become a handler in case of taking the handler exam. ‘The subjects of the exam are the following: Hun- garian, German and Latin languages, good spelling and calligraphy.’ Archivists working for the county archives had to meet at least the requirements of the handlers, especially the knowledge of Latin was im- portant so that the documents written in Latin would be understood and copied without any mistakes (13. §). Since the first director of the archives had a legal degree, legal knowledge was required from the archivists for a long period. Around the turn of the 19 th and 20 th centuries however, in most of the Euro- pean countries the importance of legal or historical knowledge is more important was decided in the fa- vour of the knowledge of history, although in Hungary legal knowledge has always been claimed as quite important. 2. The summary is based on the following study: Sashegyi, Oszkár ( 1987). Az Országos Levéltár dolgozói a Belügyminisztérium főhatósága alatt: fogalmazók, kezelők és szolgák, 1874-1922. [Staff members of the National Archives under the Ministry of Interior: draftsmen, clerks and servitors, 1874-1922]. In: Levéltári Közlemények, 58, pp. 195-208. ATLANTI • 27 • 2017 • n. 2 202 Tibor Csaba REISZ: Education of Archivists in Hungary at the Beginning of the 21 st Century, 199-208 In 1913 Ferenc Dőry (1875-1960) vice-archivist suggested that courses should be organised in the National Archives so that the knowledge required for the draftsman exam could be obtained. According to his proposal only that person was to take the exam who either participated in the course or had worked for the national or a municipality archives at least one year. Nothing was realised of this proposal. During the Hungarian Soviet Republic (21 st March - 1 st August 1919) Péter Niklai (1885-1967) Commissar of the Archives prepared a proposal about the foundation of an archivists college that would have supplied both university level education and with a little supplement the education of history teach- ers. It was not realised either, because of the short existence of the regime. Not only did Pauler consider the necessary professional knowledge of the applicants when the good candidate was chosen, but also thought it important that the employed people would be historians that write a lot of articles and studies outside their working hours. Its result was that in the year of the Hungarian Millennium, in 1896 six out of the twelve draftsman employees were the members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and three of them were members of the board of the Hungarian His- torical Society. Edition of scientific periodicals, issues of documents as well as the operation of scientific societies (Hungarian Historical Society, Hungarian Society of Heraldics and Genealogy) were all assisted by archivists. After WWI Kuno Klebelsberg transferred the archival issues to his new position in the Ministry of Church and Education in 1922, which resulted in great changes. The public collections were organised under a common frame and management in this period. In 1922 the Hungarian National Collection University was founded, which continued its operation under the name of Hungarian National Museum from 1934, and it united the great national collections with the Hungarian National Archives among them. The laws establishing the new organisation defined the employment requirements of the scientific staff as well. In 1922 people with PhD in Humanities or other university principles or engineers/archi- tects with the degree of the Budapest University of Technology, or those some people, who did not have any of these degrees, but could verify their literary or practical activities could be employed as members of the research staff (4. §). The minister could organise practical courses so that the educational and practical qualification of the scientific staff would be in line with the regulations (6. §). Between 1922 and 1927 secondary school teacher degree that is university level education was also accepted as prerequisite of be- coming a scientific employee (11. §:V.) (Act XIX, 1922). In 1934 the requirements became stricter, however the already employed staff did not have to meet them (their employment right could not be breached). Scientific fellow could only be a person with PhD, the regulations of the professional and practical exam were defined by the minister with his decree (Act VIII, 1934). The first - and the only for a long time - law level regulation of the archives was enacted after WWII in 1947. The law defined the necessary qualifications of the research archivists (draftsmen) employed by the national and municipal archives that the applicants had to have ‘PhD in humanities in history or its auxiliary sciences as a main subject or at least as a secondary subject or legal or political sciences’, archivists in the county archives needed a year practice before they could take the exam, archivists in city archives needed to have a maturandum exam of Latin language and the exam taken after half a year of practice in the field. The field practice and the exam were defined in a decree by the minister ( Act XXI, 1947). In the civic era before 1948 there was no archivist education. Different requirements were applied in the different types of archives. In the national archives a degree in humanities or legal degree was re- quired, later PhD with a very short exception period and for very few people. In smaller archives people with lower level education could be employed as archivists. The required field practice and the exam were defined in a decree by the minister. 2 Education of Archivists in the 20 th Century The professional education of the archival scientific employees started only after 1949 3 . One of the 3. The chapter is based on the following study: Borsodi, Csaba-Szögi, László (2010). A levéltár szak első hatvan tanéve, 1949- 2010 [The first 60 academic years of the archivist major, 1949-2010]. In: „Vedd ezeket az iratokat…”. Jubileumi kötet az ELTE 203 ATLANTI • 27 • 2017 • n. 2 Tibor Csaba REISZ: Education of Archivists in Hungary at the Beginning of the 21 st Century, 199-208 reasons was the centralisation aim of the system that was becoming more and more like that of the sovi- ets. It also concerned the archival organisation as well. In the new political era the documents of the ear- lier public administration got a historic value, the quantity of the documents arriving to the archives in- creased, and it demanded the increase of the headcount as well. I have to add that the new university reform in 1949 changed the education of the historians, the duration of the education was decreased, thus the students had less time to deal with the auxiliary sciences of history and their source handling knowledge decreased as well. It resulted in a new demand that was answered by the new archival studies. 1949-1954. The inauguration of the archival studies is related to Emma Léderer (1897-1977) Uni- versity Professor. Those history students were allowed to apply for the studies that wanted to learn archi- val studies from the third year of their education as their secondary subject. The education lasted for 6 semesters, and the following subjects were taught: the history of literacy sciences; diplomatics; Latin, German and Hungarian writing in Hungary; the history of the office sys- tems (from Medieval time to current years); reading charters and documents; document types (source knowledge); a second language (chosen from Russian, Slavic, Romanian, Turkish, or French). The stu- dents had a field practice in the National Archives in the last year of their education (material warehous- ing, the safeguarding of materials, history of diplomacy, modern document types). Furthermore the stu- dents had to study some subjects on economy (industrial management or bookkeeping). Those students applied for the faculty that did not get sufficient education on the faculty of history and that had ambi- tions for researching history; they wanted to be employed only by the National Archives. In 1952 the committee that evaluated the results of the historian-archivist education wanted to put emphasis on the latter, they wanted to increase the length of the education to 4 years, and introduce the education of German language. The reform of the education, however, was not completed, from the academic year of 1954/1955 new courses were not started. 1960-1988. From the academic year of 1960/1961 the three-year archivist education started again from the third year of the education. According to the programme of the subject ‘the task of the archivist education is to supply stable auxiliary science, archival science and language knowledge based on archival practice. This knowledge is obtained in diplomatics, palaeography, heraldry, sigilliography, chronology, office and public administration history, basic archival and legal studies lectures as well as the charter and document reading, Latin text reading, and early German language and palaeography practices’ (see Bor- sodi, Csaba-Szögi, László, 2010, p. 15). All the important auxiliary sciences had emphatic roles, while the history of archives and professional knowledge had a tighter lesson frame. In 1964 the curriculum was evaluated based on the experiences and it was supplemented with the subjects of modern archival science and archaeography, while the duration of practice was also increased. This study was quite popular, 6 to 8 students studied and got a degree every year. In the early years even more archivists were needed, that is why a special 2-year course was introduced between 1966 and 1968, mainly for the leaders of the labour workers’ movement archives. Several negotiations were held including university educators and archival specialists about the reform of the curriculum. At the end of 1970 the introduction of ‘IT and its application’ was proposed as a special subject. In autumn 1971 the 3-year long supplementary education was started with 24 stu- dents. Based on the initiative of the students a conference was held about the structural reorganisation of the archivist studies in 1973. The students proposed that after the basic education, everybody could choose a chronologically determined - medieval, modern or contemporary - archival specialisation. The 5-year long archivist education with history-archivist subject pairs started in 1976, and parallel the three-year education and the supplementary education were also kept. According to the new educa- tional plan in the fifth year there was a possibility to specialise in an era. The increasing interest was not answered by the educational facilities, thus the subject was degraded, and some chosen university stu- dents were allowed to study the subjects in a 4-year education between 1983 and 1988. 1988-2001. The education of archivists became a 5-year long major again from the 1988/1989 academic year. 10-15 students were taken to the faculty in the 1990s. The curriculum was continuously updated. levéltár szak alapításának hatvanadik évfordulójára. Edited by: Mihalik, Béla - Zarnóczki, Áron. Budapest. pp. 9-48. ATLANTI • 27 • 2017 • n. 2 204 Tibor Csaba REISZ: Education of Archivists in Hungary at the Beginning of the 21 st Century, 199-208 At the end of the 20 th century the following subjects were taught in the archivist education: Latin (3 semesters), German (4 semesters), reading of source texts, historic geography (Hungary and Eastern Europe, 3 semesters), reading Latin documents and charters (2-2 semesters), history of public adminis- tration (5 semesters), ecclesiastical administration (2 semesters), diplomatics, palaeography, archival sci- ence, chronology, heraldry, sigillography, genealogy, archontology, handling records, archival sorting, stock safeguarding, reprography, modern data and their archiving, computer systems, history of archives, international archival relations, special seminars, and professional field practice. 3 Archivist Education in the 21 st Century 3.1 The Credit System (2002) After the political changes in Hungary (1990) and joining the EU in 2004 several changes were made in the education of the archivists (see Borsodi, Csaba-Szögi, László, 2010, pp. 27-34). The credit system was introduced in the Hungarian higher education in 2002, thus the curriculum and the educa- tional system had to be renewed as well. The educational aims of the archivist studies were the following: ‘To educate archivists that have up-to-date knowledge on history and archival studies, which are inevitable to fulfil the tasks concerning the collection, safeguarding, processing and making available the valuable docu- ments, supplying primary sources of history, and that are necessary for the continuous fulfilment of public administration and the interests of the citizens’ (Borsodi, Csaba-Szögi, László, 2010, p. 28). The subject could only be taken after 2 semesters of history or Latin studies, the length of education was 4 years (8 semesters, 1200 contact hours). The preparatory subjects (31 credits of the 140): language studies (Latin and German), historical, geographical studies, basic economic studies. The main body of the education (40 credits) were the following: reading and analyses of documents (from Medieval to 19 th century), documents in Latin, German and Hungarian languages, the history of administration and insti- tutes (from Saint Stephen to the political changes). The special studies (24 credits) contained the follow- ing lessons: the auxiliary sciences of history (diplomatics, chronology, heraldry, sigillography, genealogy, archontology), archival studies (handling documents, archival sorting, stock safeguarding, history of ar- chives). The field practice (10 credits) had to be completed in the National Archives, the archives of the self-governments or in a private archives, the thesis was worth 25 credits. The continuously changing curriculum resulted in the degradation of the quality of the education. Parallel education systems were operating, which generated chaos in organising the education. However, there were positive effects as well, the earlier rigid system could be supplemented with up-to-date sylla- buses, which were significantly important in the area of informatics. 3.2 Start of the Bologna System (BA system) The planned changes in the archivist education could not be introduced as the Hungarian higher education went through some major changes, in 2006 the multi-level higher education was introduced, which consists of a basic (Bachelor Artium, BA, 6 semesters), master level (Magister Artium, MA, four semesters) and a doctorate level (PhD, six semesters). This system operates currently as well. The reform generated the decrease of the number of basic subjects; the archivist education was not kept. The colleagues in higher education had been fighting for the education of archivists, thus in history basic education a specialisation was created with a 50 credit content that prepares archivist on master level. The students obtain a degree of Philologist in History Specialised in Archives. People with this de- gree can ‘fulfil the task to collect, safeguard, process and make available the valuable archived documents using their up-to-date knowledge about archives’. The general subjects cover the syllabus of the previous basic subjects, at least in their titles, moreover the archivist specialisation supplies the students with knowledge about the history of administration and institutes, archival and document studies, and requi- res field studies as well. The first year in BA system started in 2006, in that year archivist education was operating in three systems; 10 semester-system without credits, and the 8 semester credit system, as well as the Bologna sy- stem. This transitory period was difficult for both teachers and students. One of the lessons drawn from this period is that changes in the education should be well prepared, supplying the necessary conditions and taking the necessary time. 205 ATLANTI • 27 • 2017 • n. 2 Tibor Csaba REISZ: Education of Archivists in Hungary at the Beginning of the 21 st Century, 199-208 3.3 Proposal for Founding a Methodology Centre The Archival College, which has been operating as a consultative body of the Minister responsible for culture, containing the issues of archives since 1999, stated that ‘several employees in the archives do not have archivist degree’, that is why the body found it important to complete a proposal about the foundation of a professional methodology centre and the training of the archivists in 2005 (see Report on the Activities of the College in 2005). I have to add, that at that time the organisation of the Bologna sys- tem had already been started (see the previous chapter), however the education itself was not started yet. The archivist were seeking the solution for the problem themselves, judging from now we can say, some- times even by a selfish manner, they did not participate in the parallel processes, they were searching for solutions independently. The (lack of) results prove the uselessness of these activities. The Archival College founded a work committee with the participation of archivists to evaluate the issue, and their report was finished by spring 2006 (The proposal of the work committee). The report states that only 39% of the employees in archivist positions have got archivist degrees, thus the deficit in knowledge is significant. The archivist education is completed by ELTE, however due to its contradictive interests (?) they cannot rely on the university, thus the post-gradual education has to be handled by the archivists’ community. The report made a detailed proposal of a six-semester, 1000-contact hour post-gradual course, describing the preparation of the necessary legal framework (changes in the decree), the circle of students and the teachers, the necessary infrastructure and the curriculum. The total costs of the education was calculated to be 330-500 thousand HUF (1250-1900 EUR) based on the number of students (20-30 people). The post-gradual model described here is similar to the later starting BA educa- tion of the universities in several of their elements, thus the proposal was realised without taking it really into consideration. The other important element of the proposal was the education of the archivist-IT specialists, which was evaluated upon two aspects; the archivist education of IT specialists and the IT education of archivists. A detailed plan was prepared for a two-semester, 192 contact hour course of the latter. The Archival College discussed the report of the work committee in June 2006, and stated that however, the development of the higher education of the archivists, as well as the evaluation of the em- ployment requirements were necessary, the changes would need sufficient financial background and changes in the legal framework, the issue had to be discussed later (see Report about the operation of the Archival College in 2006). This story proves that the archivist cannot solve the problem without the higher education system, thus the good solution should be found within the framework of the university education. 3.4 Masters Education of Archivists (2009) The first year of the masters that provides archivist degree in 4 semesters, started on the Faculty of Humanities of ELTE in September 2009. Two specialisations can be chosen: the Middle Ages and Early Modern History, and the Modern and Contemporary History. Students with the degrees of BA in history, legal, sociology, economy can apply for the master ed- ucation. ‘The aim of the education is to prepare professionals that are capable of fulfilling the tasks of the archivists based on their archival, historical, and IT knowledge in each type of archives, and meet the new requirements of the society of the service archives functions. They are capable of supplying the use of the knowledge accumulated in both the traditional paper based and the digital documents regardless of space and time. They have sufficient knowledge for continuing their studies on PhD level’ (Borsodi, Csaba-Szögi, László, 2010, p. 42). The curriculum has been increased in the areas of archival informatics, archival systems and organ- isation and legal studies. In the framework of professional subjects archival knowledge, knowledge on document record office, scraping, collection areas, document evaluation, preparation of study-aids, data safety, e-documents, e-archive and stock safeguarding were taught. The novelty of the education was the opportunity to choose from two specialisations. ATLANTI • 27 • 2017 • n. 2 206 Tibor Csaba REISZ: Education of Archivists in Hungary at the Beginning of the 21 st Century, 199-208 The medieval and early modern specialisation aimed at supplying mainly the necessary knowledge for the traditional researcher-archivist role; professional language knowledge (German, Latin), medieval and early modern administration, Latin, German and Hungarian palaeography, documents, source han- dling and source publication. The modern and contemporary specialisation prepared professionals for contemporary filing sys- tems and practices, its curriculum contained knowledge on economy, contemporary administration, cur- rent document studies, document knowledge, processing documents, and evaluation of documents, his- tory of economy, private and economy management, archiving private documents, e-records management. The MA archivist education was reorganised in 2013, the specialisation that had been based on chronology, was reorganised on thematic bases. Three specialisation could be chosen in theory: medieval and early modern, modern and contemporary and information and records management. The curricu- lum of the three specialisations were overlapping in some areas. The traditional archivist education em- phasizes on the knowledge of document evaluation, document processing, while the modern archival science specialisation puts the emphasis on the work in the collection areas. The aim of the reorganisation of the education was to reframe the medieval and early modern specialisation into ‘Document processing and document publication’ specialisation, and the modern and contemporary specialisation into ‘Archi- val sciences’ specialisation. It has been realised in their content, but not in renaming the specialisations. The reason is that renaming would have needed the re-accreditation of the total education. It will be completed in the next accreditation period in 2017. The general and the special education of the MA studies is as follows: Similar basic education is compulsory for both specialisations: archival systems and organisation, basic archival legal knowledge, archival IT knowledge, document studies, document handling systems, document handling and archival standards, organisation, preparation of finding aids (different content for the specialisations), data safety (freedom of information and data safety, safety of personal and quali- fied data), Hungarian administration, field training. The subjects supplying different professional knowledge in the medieval and early modern and the modern and contemporary specialisations cover the traditional subjects, however, the subjects like data base building, communication, the preferred teaching of collection area work and document evaluation, and scraping supplementing the subjects of stock safety and reprography with digitalisation knowledge, answer to new challenges. In the modern and contemporary specialisation the curriculum contains the following subjects as well: record mamanement softwares, digital documents and their safe-keeping, e-ar- chives, and the data base building with deeper knowledge. As an example see the detailed introduction of three lessons: Archival IT studies: Main topics: basic IT knowledge and notions; supplying the documents with metadata; identify- ing the archival information saved on non-traditional data media and the elements: identifier, content, structure and context; the problem of authenticity and availability of digital documents; requirements of digital signature; basic principles and risks of digitisation; digitisation equipment; quality and technical requirements of digitisation; principles and use of building digital recording and warehousing systems; handling and use of digital and internet systems; archival informatic strategy and planning; use of digital and internet content in archival work; digital publications and internet surfaces as elements of archival marketing; main suggestions and requirements of archival web pages. Communication knowledge for archivists: Main topics: the aims of community culture activities of the archives; the aims and importance of the presence of archives in the media; media genres: how to write scientific or cultural news, why is it important to write news; media market: supplying news and professional PR, the communication prac- tice of the other public collection types and branches of science; printed vs. online media: what does the editor need, how do the two types of media operate; the role of blogs to introduce the work of the ar- chives, as well as in community culture and public knowledge spread: what does a reader want, who is our audience, how to address and keep them; the basics of web design; social media; press photo and video: the message and importance of pictures; preparation of press materials: what does a reporter need, how to write a press release; TV report: the power of picture representation, oral improvisation; other ele- 207 ATLANTI • 27 • 2017 • n. 2 Tibor Csaba REISZ: Education of Archivists in Hungary at the Beginning of the 21 st Century, 199-208 ments of audience relation strategies: organisations of archival pedagogical visits, the open archives pro- gramme, customer service. Archival and record management standards: Main topics: the importance of standards and standardisation; data migration and standardised data exchange; data processing and data system standard ISO 15489; Model Requirements (MoReq) and their developed versions: (MoReq2, MoReq2010); the international archival standards of ISO and ICA; Open Archival Information System (OAIS), and the minimal requirements of long-term archival keep- ing digital documents; the most important international standards of finding aids preparation: ISAD/G, ISAAR/CPF, ISAF, ISDIAH; the HTML and the XML standard system about the general rules of document coding; standards of registering meta data: Dublin Core (DC/DCMI), EAD, EAC, EAG, METS; standardisation of data content and data organisation of archival recording in the national prac- tice. The inauguration of the third specialisation has been planned since 2013, however, due to lack of finances it has not happened, the first real course will start in autumn 2017 (in cooperation with the Na- tional University of Public Service). This education prepares the professionals working for public admi- nistration for the relationship with the archives. The subjects to be taught are e.g. public administration legal knowledge, document production of economic institutes, basics of information and record manage- ment, archival knowledge and systems, collection area work, evaluation of documents, scraping, safeguar- ding stock, reprography, digitisation, data processing softwares, e-documents, e-archives, e-government, data system building, project management. 4 How to Go on? The experiences of the past 150 years can be summarised as follows: The scientific employees working for the archives have to get their education in the framework of a direct archivist education. The elements of the curriculum should be reassessed continuously by the teachers, students, the junior archivist (0-5 years of experience), the senior archivists and the document producers of public administration. Public administration has to create the necessary legal background of the efficient development of the education (educational requirements, finances). The scientific profes- sional archival employee has to get emphasis in the educational work. Besides university education the possibility for professional basic education, re-freshening education and further trainings has to be creat- ed. The continuous possibility for international experiences has to be created as well (IIAS, Stage, and others). The National Archives of Hungary is currently working on a unified methodology and profession- al concept that would provide a middle and long-term programme in general framework for the above listed issues (it does not have an open documentation yet). I hope the experiences, aspects and remarks of this article will supply them with useful information. References Reisz, T. Csaba (2015). The History of the NAH Central Building’s Construction. In: Atlanti, 24(2), pp. 71-81. Lakos, János (2006). A Magyar Országos Levéltár története. [History of the National Archives of Hungary] Buda- pest. Sashegyi, Oszkár (1987). Az Országos Levéltár dolgozói a Belügyminisztérium főhatósága alatt: fogalmazók, ke- zelők és szolgák, 1874-1922. [Staff members of the National Archives under the Ministry of Interior: draftsmen, clerks and servitors, 1874-1922]. In: Levéltári Közlemények, 58, pp. 195-208. Act I. of 1883. A magyar királyi Országos Levéltárra vonatkozó máig érvényes törvények és rendeletek. Budapest, 1884. pp. 7-8. Available also at www.1000ev.hu. Act XIX in 1922 about the national public collections and their personnell. Available at https://1000ev.hu/index. php?a=3¶m=7530). Act VIII in 1934 about the Hungarian National Museum, 10. §. Available at https://1000ev.hu/index.php?a=3&pa- ram=7951). Act XXI in 1947 about the organisation of archive issues. ATLANTI • 27 • 2017 • n. 2 208 Tibor Csaba REISZ: Education of Archivists in Hungary at the Beginning of the 21 st Century, 199-208 Borsodi, Csaba-Szögi, László (2010). A levéltár szak első hatvan tanéve, 1949-2010 [The first 60 academic years of the archivist major, 1949-2010]. In: „Vedd ezeket az iratokat…”. Jubileumi kötet az ELTE levéltár szak alapításának hatvanadik évfordulójára. Edited by: Mihalik, Béla - Zarnóczki, Áron. Budapest. pp. 9-48. Report on the Activities of the College in 2005. Available at http://mnl.gov.hu/download/file/fid/37518. The proposal of the work committee Available at http://mnl.gov.hu/download/file/fid/37531. Report about the operation of the Archival College in 2006. Available at http://mnl.gov.hu/download/file/ fid/37516. SUMMARY The great challenges of the beginning of the 21 st century, especially the open society, globalisation, booming of IT and its everyday use have resulted in changes in the expected and applied knowledge and capabilities in professional archivist work. The changes and their realisation are continuously forming the proper answers by the preparatory institutions aka the education. How has the education founding and shaping the knowledge of the archivist pro- fessionals, changed for the past one and a half century? Between 1867 and 1948 Hungary did not have any archivist education. Research positions existed only in the National Archives, either legal degree, or university degree, and later doctorate level, as well as passing the professional exam defined by the minister were the requirements for their fulfilment. The organisation of a course preparing for the exam was proposed several times during the era, however it was never realised. The archivist education started on the Faculty of Humanities of ELTE in 1949. First those history students were allowed to apply for the studies that wanted to learn archival studies from the third year of their education as their secondary subject, then it was organised into a four-year and then five-year educa- tion. The curriculum was continuously shaped upon the experiences and proposals of the teachers, students and the archivists. The 21 st century archivist education basic feature is its continuous change; first the introduction of the credit system and then the Bologna system caused difficulties in the education. Currently the archivist educa- tion is mainly supplied by the MA education, however, the knowledge that had to be obtained in 6-8-10 semesters earlier, has to be taught within 4 semesters. The example subject syllabi reflect on the depth of knowledge provided by the education. The scientific employees working for the archives have to get their education in the framework of a direct archivist education. The elements of the curriculum should be reassessed continuously by the teachers, students, the junior archivist (0-5 years of experience), the senior archivists and the document producers of public administration. Public administration has to create the necessary legal background of the efficient development of the education (educational requirements, finances). The scientific professional archival employee has to get empha- sis in the educational work. Besides university education the possibility for professional basic education, re-freshe- ning education and further trainings has to be created. The continuous possibility for international experiences has to be created as well (IIAS, Stage, and others). Typology: 1.04 Professional Article Submitting date: 09.04.2017 Acceptance date: 05.05.2017