ARHIVSKO IZOBRAŽEVANJE - ZADNJE SPREMEMBE IN PRILOŽNOSTI IZVLEČEK V študijskih programih s področja arhivistike in upravljanja z dokumenti prenehajo prevladovati zgodovinski predmeti in arhivska teorija, področje pa prepušča znanju o upravljanju arhivov, vodenju dokumentacije, vprašanjih v zvezi z elektronskim doku- mentom in sodobnih tehnologijah, tako tiste, ki se neposredno uporabljajo pri delu ar- hivarja, kot tiste na področju iskanja informacij ali upravljanja znanja. Takšna sprememba v načinu izobraževanja arhivistov je posledica spremembe pričak- ovanj do njih. Na eni strani pričakovanja delodajalcev, ki izhajajo iz funkcionalne pre- obrazbe arhivov, povezanih s tehnološkim razvojem, na drugi strani družbena pričak- ovanja, ki izhajajo iz potreb nastajajoče informacijske družbe. Ključne besede: arhivsko izobraževanje, arhivsko izobraževanje, strokovna usposobljenost EDUKACJA ARCHIWALNA - OSTATNIE ZMIANY I MOZLIWOSCI ABSTRAKT W programach studiów z zakresu archiwistyki i zarządzania dokumentacją przestają dominować przedmioty historyczne i teoria archiwalna, na rzecz wiedzy z zakresu za- rządzania archiwum, zarządzania dokumentacją, zagadnień dotyczących dokumentu elektronicznego, a także nowoczesnych technologii, zarówno tych mających bezpo- średnie zastosowanie w pracy archiwisty, jak i tych z obszaru wyszukiwania informacji czy zarządzania wiedzą. Taka zmiana sposobu kształcenia archiwistów wynika ze zmiany oczekiwań w stosun- ku do nich. Oczekiwań zarówno pracodawców, co wynika z przeobrażeń funkcjonal- nych archiwów mających związek między innymi z rozwojem technologicznym, ale także oczekiwań społecznych, wynikających z potrzeb powstającego społeczeństwa informacyjnego. 66 ARCHIVAL EDUCATION - LATEST CHANGES AND PROSPECTS Magdalena Marosz 1 MAIN TEXT Since the beginning of the 21st century, among Polish archivists, there has been a wide and quite lively discussion about the model of education. In the decades since the mid-20th cen- tury (when the university education of archivists began in Poland), this is yet another period of growing interest in this subject. At present, this discussion does not result – as it has often been the case in the past – from the dependence of the way of education in general on the political situation but, admittedly, from the needs the modern archival science is facing. It must be agreed that the university model of educating archivists, still dominant in the Polish model of education of archival staff, provides thorough preparation for research work. The curricula and the distribution of specific subjects at various universities are prepared in different ways, but the learning outcomes are the same. However, more and more often we wonder whether such a model of, let us call it ‘university education’, fully satisfies today’s needs of the archives, especially current archives functioning in public administration, institutions, organizations, and companies. Today, it seems obvious that archivists educated following this model are qualified pri- marily to work with historical resources, with the oldest archives, which require also good historical knowledge. A completely different preparation, however, is expected of the people working with the contemporary records, whether of state or non-state institutions, flowing into the archives on an ongoing basis. Also, the professional duties of these two groups of archivists, resulting from the methods of analysing the old and contemporary records, are different. The archivist who analyses the oldest files works mainly for scholars, historians, while the one who works with the contemporary records works mainly for the needs of the general public, of course also a researcher in this group, but only as one of the recipients. He also works with completely different archival materials, requiring different preparation, less in the field of history, and more in the field of documentation management, scientific information (see Marosz, 2014). In 1997, at the III Congress of Polish Archivists, a clear postulate was made: those re- sponsible for university archivist education should ask themselves a question about the problems arising from the needs of the emerging information society. At that time, a proposal was made to establish an independent university subject educating archivists, i.e. to depart from the practice of educating historians with archival specialization (Sku- pieński, 2003, p. 25). Thus, it was the community of archivists itself that contributed to the currently wide- spread change in the way of educating archivists in Poland. It became clear that apart from educating historian-archivists, universities should educate, perhaps even primar- ily, archivists acquainted with the issues of contemporary documentation and familiar with legal and administrative issues, as well as with the broadly understood informa- tion management. In short, specialists prepared to work with rapidly growing contem- porary documentation, both in historical archives and in current archives. There is also the issue of the shaping of the growing archival resource by archivists. On the one hand, new information technologies are entering offices and other institutions, and on the other hand, files that are not official, but produced by various institutions, non-governmental organizations or by the media, begin to acquire a different cognitive meaning for researchers. Therefore, the question arises whether today the key to col- lecting historical archival resources for future generations should not be a system based not on the rank of a given institution in the official hierarchy, but rather on its functional significance (Skupieński, 2003, p. 26-27). 67ARCHIVAL EDUCATION - LATEST CHANGES AND PROSPECTS Magdalena Marosz It should be emphasized that traditional archival science can also work well in the new conditions, when an increasing part of the processes related to the collection, record- ing, and analysis of documents is carried out using computer systems, as it has long been both aware of and has had the ability to solve problems related to collecting, organizing and storing information (Skupieński, 2003, p. 29). This is how we can outline the possibilities that a new approach to documentation opens up for archivists in the era when the information contained in it becomes one of the most valuable goods used by modern society. So, still, an archivist should have competences not only as a person caring for historical sources used for research work but also as a specialist in matters related to the storage of information (see Marosz, 2014). Universities educating archivists are facing new tasks, resulting not only from the need to adapt the educational offer to the new needs of archival institutions but also from pre- dicting what qualifications will be needed by archivists in the more or less distant future. Currently, archivists are being less and less often trained by the combination of their education with historical studies. Such an offer is directed only to a fairly small group of future specialists working with the oldest documentation, most of which is already well-documented and developed. Today, there is a strong trend to educate specialists in document management, combining their professional preparation with scientific in- formation and even computer science. As a result, at universities which educate archi- vists, “documentation management and archivistics” was created as a separate subject, through such a distribution of accents, showing the hierarchy of education. More and more often, the subject of “documentation management and archivistics” is supple- mented with information brokering. Thus, the education of archivists has become interdisciplinary and, as such, naturally con- nects with other fields of knowledge and science, which enables the graduates to broaden their knowledge and skills in such a way that they can also act in other areas, close to archi- val science. The extended professional profile of an archivist also gives him better employ- ment opportunities, both in various types of archives and outside them. From this point of view, it is particularly important to emphasize education that allows acquiring both knowledge and practical skills, allowing the graduate to function in the field of archival science, document management, as well as knowledge and information management. New, rapidly evolving technologies bring new challenges. Voices appear that, especial- ly in the field of archival studies, what would be particularly useful is extensive educa- tion in the field of scientific information, intended to provide the ability to use new tech- nologies in finding and using information both during studies and in future professional work. Two variants of educating future archivists in the field of scientific information could be introduced. The first variant would be addressed to students as users of scien- tific information, but with an extended programme as compared to the basics taught in other fields of study, and would give them the competence to search for information mainly for their own use. The second one would be used to prepare an archive employ- ee with a specialization in scientific information (Pindlowa, 2003, p. 81). We take it for granted that in the educational programme the model of archivists’ ed- ucation is, first and foremost, adjusted to the needs of the archives, so any changes in the education model follow the evolving needs of archival institutions. However, it is also worth looking at the education of archivists from the perspective of archive users. Being better and better educated, and aware of the possibilities and needs of the information society, they put many new requirements and tasks before the ar- 68 ARCHIVAL EDUCATION - LATEST CHANGES AND PROSPECTS Magdalena Marosz chives and archivists. This requires archive employees to develop and improve their professional skills and knowledge continually. It may also cause a change in the way of teaching archivists, both students, and archives employees who want to improve their professional qualifications. From this perspective, in educating future and current archivists, a field opens up for the development of permanent education in the form of remote education, namely e-learning. Universities successfully use the e-learning model for a certain percentage of the teaching hours. The recent months, namely the time of the COVID 19 pandemic, resulted in the transition to a purely remote learning system, allowing us to see the ad- vantages and disadvantages of such a system. Regardless of some shortcomings, how- ever, it must be admitted that such a system is excellent for lifelong learning. The education of archivists, whose role is, among other things, to meet the demands of a modern information society, requires modern and broad curricula that will also include subjects in the field of IT and scientific information, as well as in the field of administration and law. Also, the curricula of specialized, archival subjects should be modernized and expanded, fully taking into consideration the new technologies used in modern archival science. Most of the changes in archivists’ education programs, introduced today at various levels of education and in various types of educational institutions, result primarily from the de- velopment of archivistics as an academic discipline, from the IT revolution, and the result- ing new competence needs of archivists. The faster and faster development of IT influenc- es the changes and innovativeness of archival education. The most important direction of these changes is integration, consisting, on the one hand, in blurring the boundaries between traditional disciplines intertwined in archival education, such as history, scien- tific information, IT, management. On the other hand, in connecting the academic world with the work environment. It is believed that the most effective teaching is an integral one, which helps to achieve innovative education. However, in order for education to fully fulfil its tasks, it must be lifelong learning, which follows directly from the development of information technologies, their impact on documentation management, and the func- tioning of modern archives (see Mamczak-Gadkowska, 2009). The relationship between the education of future archivists, their training and profes- sional development.The needs related to the training of archivists result both from their earlier preparation for work in the profession, i.e. from their education, and from the market needs. Therefore, any training programmes for archivists should address these two factors: namely, they should complement and broaden the archivists’ knowledge and skills acquired within the education process, while also responding to the current needs of archival institutions, taking into consideration especially the technological changes affecting the creation and methods of archival documentation analysis. Archivists are being trained, according to the prevailing method, primarily as historians with archival specializations. Would departure from this method, in favour of occupa- tional studies, and thus educating archivists as primarily being practically prepared for the profession, be a good solution? It seems that yes. Moreover, further professional training of such specialists also seems much easier to profile (see Marosz, 2017). As stated by Theo Thomasen during his presentation at the First European Conference for Archival Educators and Trainers: “Within the paradigm of the knowledge society the four major tendencies in archival education and training - expansion, innovativeness, integration and professionalisation - might be redirected into appropriate channels. In archival education and training the ongoing expansion of knowledge will not primarily be met anymore by storing ever more knowledge in the heads of the students, but by 69ARCHIVAL EDUCATION - LATEST CHANGES AND PROSPECTS Magdalena Marosz the use of networked knowledge systems. Innovativeness and creativity will not pri- marily be promoted by the application of linear, procedural thinking anymore, but by the integration by the student of learning and researching right from the beginning of her or his study. Integration is not primarily realised by designing curricula of ever in- creasing complexity, but by enabling the student to link any specific learning compo- nent to any other component of his learning environment. And the professionalisation of the teaching process will not merely be an attribute of the new learning system, but a major condition for its use and further development.” (Thomasen, 2001). Changes in the methods of educating archivists have a direct impact on the changes in the teacher-student relationship. It is becoming more and more important not just to transfer knowledge, but to enforce creative thinking that helps in a creative approach to perform- ing task performance and problem solution. Such an approach of the teacher helps the students to independently obtain the necessary information, deepen their knowledge, and move freely on the border of various academic disciplines and professions. As for the education focused on the strict professional preparation of the student of ar- chival science, the introduction of a specialist course is quite a fundamental and signifi- cant change in the education system. At the price of a limitation of historical subjects, it introduces an extensive package of professional subjects in the field of archival science, documentation management, scientific information, information management, and the basics of IT. Additionally, the number of hours of apprenticeship held by students is significantly increased, which also allows diversifying the institutions in which each student takes the apprenticeship. At this point, there is scope for close cooperation be- tween universities and the archives which train archivists, since for such a method of education there is a need for people with professional experience and practical prepa- ration in the field of widely understood archival science. Until now, archives have understood their educational function as the activities sup- porting and complementing the educational process of the students of archival science. Today, they are actively involved in the teaching process, both at the stage of academic classes and apprenticeships. An important educational activity is also the promotion of the archives in the public awareness. The archives themselves have a crucial role to play here, but in order to have well-prepared staff, it is important to educate them properly. Universities play an important role here by offering appropriate subjects in their educa- tion programmes to provide students with adequate knowledge and skills in promoting knowledge about archival institutions and their resources. But probably an even more important activity is the involvement of the archives themselves in the appropriate preparation of a specific group of their employees for this type of task (see Rosa, 2016). 2 SUMMARY Continuous technological progress naturally forces the modernization of curricula at all levels of archivist education. Equally important elements that directly affect the model of archivist education are the needs of archival institutions, first of all, their interest in a well and comprehensively educated staff, as well as social needs. Hence, the connection between archivistics and multidimensional information management, which appears in the offer of universities educating archivists. Archival institutions are also interested in directly influencing the process of education of future archivists and the participation in the transfer of practical skills to the students. A separate problem worth considering is the distribution of specialist subjects within the academic curricula, preparation for which duties and tasks should be provided by the 1st and 2nd-degree studies conducted in the Bologna system. 70 ARCHIVAL EDUCATION - LATEST CHANGES AND PROSPECTS Magdalena Marosz REFERENCE LIST Mamczak-Gadkowska Irena (2009), Kierunki zmian w kształceniu archiwistów na przełomie XX i XXI wieku, Res Historica, 28, pp 9-19 Marosz, Magdalena (2017), Professional competence of an archivist – changes that can be expected, ATLANTI, 27/2, pp 149-153 Pindlowa Wanda (2003), Podstawy informacji naukowej w programach kształcenia wyższego dla archiwistów, Archeion, 105, pp 79-84 Rosa Agnieszka (2016), Działalność edukacyjna archiwów w kształceniu archiwistów na Uniwersytecie Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu, Archiwa-Kancelarie-Zbiory, 7 (9), pp. 77-90 Skupieński Krzysztof (2003), Dyskusja nad perspektywami kształcenia archiwistów na polskich uniwersytetach — stadium pytań czy odpowiedzi?, Archeion, 105, pp 23-41 Thomassen, Theo (2001), Modelling and re-modelling archival education and tra- ining. Available at: http://www.ica-sae.org/mrconfpaper1.html (accessed on 14.07.2020) Typology: 1.04 Professional Article 71ARCHIVAL EDUCATION - LATEST CHANGES AND PROSPECTS Magdalena Marosz