Between Tradition and Innovation: the State, Problems and Prospects of the Teaching of Archival Science in the Czech
Republic
Marie RYANTOVÄ, Ph.D.
The Institute of Archival Science and Auxiliary Historical Sciences of the Faculty of Arts at the South Bohemian
University in Česke Budejovice e-mail: ryantova@ff.jcu.cz
Michal wanner, Ph.D.
Department of Archives Administration and records Management, The Ministry of the Interior, Prague
e-mail: michal.wanner@mvcr.cz
Between Tradition and Innovation: the State, Problems and Prospects of the Teaching of Archival
Science in the Czech Republic
ABSTRACT
The paper summarizes the current state of university teaching of archival science, record management and related fields at universities in the Czech Republic in terms of accreditation of degree courses and course structure. These data are given to the historical and factual context in the teaching of related disciplines. The
second part seeks to pinpoint the most important changes in archiving and that have occurred in the last two decades as regards changes in the way archives are managed, changes in the structure of employees and their work duties. The description is followed by considerations how and in which measure these changes influenced the system of Czech archival education. This analysis shows that the teaching of archival science in the Czech Republic is at an early stage of a modernizing transformation.
Key words: archival education, course structure, archival science, records management, Czech Republic
Fra tradizione ed innovazione: stato, problematiche e prospettive dell'insegnamento dell'archivistica
nella Repubblica Ceca
SINTESI
Il documento riassume lo stato attuale dell'insegnamento universitario della scienza archivistica, della gestione dei documenti e delle materie correlate nelle universita della Repubblica Ceca, in termini di accreditamento dei corsi di laurea e di struttura dei corsi. Questi dati sono riportati al contesto storico e fattuale nell'insegnamento di discipline correlate. La seconda parte si propone di individuare i cambiamenti piu importanti nell'archivia-zione che si sono verificati negli utimi due decenni, per quanto riguarda i cambiamenti nel modo in cui gli archivi sono gestiti, cambiamenti nella struttura dei dipendenti e delle loro mansioni lavorative. La descrizione e seguita da considerazioni riguardanti come ed in che misura questi cambiamenti abbiano influenzato il sistema di istruzione archivistico ceco. Questa analisi dimostra che l'insegnamento della scienza archivistica nella Re-pubblica Ceca e in una fase iniziale di trasformazione modernizzatrice.
Parole chiave: formazione archivistica, struttura dei corsi, scienze archivistiche, gestione documentale, Repub-blica Ceca
Med tradicijo in inovacijo: stanje, problemi in pričakovanja pri izobraževanju na področju arhivistike
v Češki Republiki
IZV^LEČEK
Prispevek povzema trenutno stanje univerzitetnega poučevanja arhivistike in dokumentologije ter z njimi povezanih področij na univerzah v Češki Republiki z ozirom na akreditirane študijske programe in strukturo študija.
Marie RYANTOVÄ - Michal WANNER: Between Tradition and Innovation: the State, Problems and Prospects of the Teaching of Archival Science in the Czech Republic, 149-158
Drugi del skuša identificirati najpomembnejše spremembe v arhiviranju, ki so se zgodile v zadnjih dveh desetletjih glede na spremembe v načinu upravljanja arhivov in spremembe v strukturi zaposlenih in njihovih delovnih nalog. Temu ^sledijo ugotovitve, kako in v kakšni meri so te spremembe vplivale na sistem arhivskega izobraževanja na Češkem. Ta analiza kaže, da je poučevanje arhivistike na Češkem v zgodnji fazi sodobnega preoblikovanja.
Ključne besede: arhivsko izobraževanje, šrudijski program, arhivska znanost, arhivistika, dokumentologija, Češka Republika
Mezi tradici a inovaci: stav, problemy a perspektivy vyuky archivnictvi v Česke republice
ABSTRAKT
Prispevek rekapituluje současny stav vysokoškolske vyuky archivnictvi, spisove služby a pri'buznych oboru na vysokych školach v Česke republice z hlediska akreditace studijnich oboru a struktury vyuky. Druha čast se pokouši podchytit nejvyznamnejši' zmeny v archivnictvi v poslednich dvou desetiletich z hlediska zmen ve zpusobu vedeni archivu, struktury zamestnancu a jejich pracovni naplne. Tento popis nasleduje uvaha o tom jak, a v jake mire se tyto zmeny projevily v českem archivm'm vzdelavaci'm systemu. Tento rozbor ukazuje, že vyuka archivnictvi v Česke republice stoji ješte na počatku teto modernizačni transformace.
This paper is composed of two parts. The first recapitulates the historical development of the teaching of archival science in the Czech Republic and describes the current state of university tuition of archival science, records management and related fields in universities in the Czech Republic from the point of view of the accreditation of study fields and the structure of tuition. The possibility of non-university specialized archival education is also described. The second part seeks to pinpoint the most important changes in both Czech and international archives that have occurred in the last two decades as regards changes in the way archives are managed and changes in the structure of employees and their work duties. The description of these changes is followed by considerations about how these changes should be reflected in the structure of teaching of archival science. While the first part of the study is written from the position of a university lecturer, the second presents the view of an employee of the central management body. The paper concludes with a brief assessment of the degree to which the teaching of archival science in the Czech Republic has undergone a structural change reflecting both the domestic and global evolution of archival practice.
1 The teaching of archival science in the Czech Republic
The teaching of archival science in the Czech Republic has a long-standing tradition, even though in the past people interested in working in archives or later archivists mainly studied history and auxiliary historical sciences, while there was a lack of theoretical knowledge about actual archival science. The teaching of auxiliary historical sciences began at Prague's Charles University (formerly the Charles-Ferdinand University) at the end of the 18th century. A separate chair of auxiliary historical sciences, i.e. diplomatic studies, numismatics, heraldry and antiques, was created here in 1784 (Hlavaček, 1988, pp 13-134; see also Halek and Kučerova, 2003, pp. 141-146; Sulitkova, 2008, 6/17; Ryantova, 2011, 159-172; 2014 in press). Originally compulsory, these subjects gradually became optional, and the chair, called since 1824 the chair of auxiliary historical sciences, was abolished in 1826. Although the teaching of certain auxiliary sciences continued at Prague's university during the 19 th century, their teaching as a separate subject did not resume until 1871, with the chair revived in 1874. In addition, auxiliary historical sciences were taught at lyceums^^ and arts colleges that prepared pupils for university study and, in Bohemia these existed in Plzen, Česke Budejovice and Litomyšl (Sulitkova, 2008, p. 7/17)1. The monopoly institute in charge of preparation for the occupation of archivist at the time was the well-known Viennese Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, among whose graduates were a number of prominent Czech historians and archivists2. A seminar in
1.	To the content of lessons on Pilsen university and its comparison with teaching in Faculty of Arts in Prague PÄTKOVÄ, Hana (2004). „Von den historischen Hilfsmitteln". K vyuce pomocnych ved historickych v prvni polovine 19. stoleti. In: Documenta Pragensia, 23 (Sborntkprispevku k nedozitym 70. narozenindm doc. PhDr. Rostislava Noveho). pp. 253-260.
2.	Their list is quoted by HLAVÄČEK (1988). pp. 47-48. Praha.
Marie RYANTOVÄ - Michal WANNER: Between Tradition and Innovation: the State, Problems and Prospects of the Teaching of Archival Science in the Czech Republic, 149-158
auxiliary historical sciences was also founded at Prague's German university (after 1882), but most of its historians went on to continue their studies at universities in Germany or in Vienna (Zatschek, 1944; Sulitkova, 2008, pp. 7-9/17)3.
A significant change in the teaching of archival science came after the end of the First World War, when - after unsuccessful proposals from the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire for setting up an equivalent of the Vienna institute - the State Archive School was founded in Prague in 19l9 (Krofta, 1919, pp. 278-282; Kollmann, 1982, pp. 225-307; Štouračova, 1999, pp. 104-107; Hoffmannova and Pražakova, 2000, pp. 20-21; Sulitkova, 2008, pp. 7-10/17)4. It was not part of Charles University, but its three-year courses were opened once every two years to graduates from or students at the Arts Faculty of Charles University. The school's first principal was Gustav Friedrich (18711943), the professor of auxiliary historical sciences at Charles University. Other teachers from Charles University and leading archivists took part in the tuition. As early as in 1931 a government order made it compulsory for document administration officials and higher officials of the state and regional archives to graduate from the archive school. Eight courses of the State Archive School were completed during the existence of the interwar first Czechoslovak Republic; the ninth course took place under the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (during the Nazi occupation in the years 1941-1943) and was only a two-year course so that it could not be affected by the ban on teaching at Czech universities. Teaching at the State Archive School resumed after the end of the Second World War, with two courses held in the years 1945-1948 and 1947-1950. In the years 1947-1950 a course called Archive Study was also run by Masaryk University in Brno. Other principals of the State Archive School were Bedrich Jensovsky (1941), Jaroslav Prokeš (1941-1942) and Vac av Vojtišek (1945-1950). The archive school magazine ("Časopis archivni skoly") came out from 1923 to 1940 and featured a number of important studies (Kollmann, 1982, pp. 282-289; Pešek, 1992, pp. 389-400). In consequence of the educational reforms that followed the communist takeover, in 1949 archive studies were transferred for the following academic year to the Charles University Arts Faculty, resulting in the end of the State Archive School even though it was never officially abolished (Kollmann, 1982, pp. 289-292).
In 1948 the education ministry - at the proposal of the reform commission and the Charles University professorial board - approved the founding of a study field called Auxiliary Historical Sciences and Archival Studies (i.e. archival science) at the arts faculties of the three universities in Czechoslovakia of the time: from the academic year 1948/49 in Prague, and from the following year in Brno and Bratislava. Consequently, from the 1950s it was possible to take archival science as a four-year study field in combination with Latin, history or Czech; it was later changed to a five-year course and then back to a four-year course and a single-subject course (Sulitkova, 2008, p. 10/17). At first it was attached to the history departments - in Prague the archive studies department was part of the Department of Czech History of the Arts Faculty of Charles University from 1949; in 1964 the archive studies department became the separate Department of Auxiliary Historical Sciences and Archive Studies, which exists to this day. A number of external collaborators from other university research centers, the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, museums and libraries were already taking part in tuition in those days. At first the Prague department focused mainly only medieval studies - in particular medieval diplomacy, paleography, history of government and teaching about sources. Interest in modern-day issues gradually developed over time.
A second centre offering archival science courses in the Czech Republic before 1989 (from 1949/50) was the Department of Auxiliary Historical Sciences and Archive Studies at the Arts Faculty of the university in Brno, which was called the Jan Evangelista Purkyne University until 1989 before it resumed its former name of Masaryk University.
Tuition at both universities has continued since the 1990s, when archive studies courses began to be established at a number of other tertiary education facilities in the Czech Republic, in line - especially after 1999 - with the principles of the Bologna Process (see Internet 1, Internet 2, Internet 3), i.e. in three-year bachelor's courses and ensuing two-years master's study courses, although some uni-
3.	Emil Werunsky, Samuel Steinherz, Harold Steinacker, Hans Hirsch, Edmund E. Stengel a Heinz Zatschek gradually red lessons of auxiliary historical lectures at the Prague German University until 1945.
4.	At the time Konstantin Höfler presented the proposals for the establishment of archival school in the sixties of the 19th century, but then stumbled upon a misunderstanding of Frantisek Palacky, and later also archivists Vaclav Kra-tochvil, Jan Friedrich Josef Novak and Josef Borovička at the end of the existence of the monarchy.
Marie RYANTOVÄ - Michal WANNER: Between Tradition and Innovation: the State, Problems and Prospects of the Teaching of Archival Science in the Czech Republic, 149-158
versities offer just the first of these cycles. Conversely, for a long time the departments in Prague and Brno ran to completion the five-year master's courses offered since the start of the 1990s. Apart from the classic presentation form of tuition, in some cases "combined study", mainly taking the form of consultation and independent, individual work could be elected. One essential condition of the study course is accreditation granted to the university in question by the Accreditation Commission of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports; the shortest period for which accreditation is granted is four years, the longest eight years. The period of time and the actual granting of accreditation depend on the quality of the study programme and the guarantee that tuition is conducted by qualified and renowned teachers (see Internet 4). In addition to the basic subject-matter, the tuition is increasingly reflecting the narrower specialization of certain teachers, not just within a department or institute, but throughout a faculty. The final choice of subjects is partly influenced by the number of "credits" the study has to comprise. The course always (in both bachelor's and master's study) culminates in a state final examination and defense of the respective (bachelor's or master's) thesis.
Archival science is currently being taught at seven universities in the Czech Republic. The first of these has traditionally been the Arts Faculty of Charles University in Prague, which offers Archive Studies and Auxiliary Historical Sciences in both bachelor's and master's study programmes (and in both cases in presentation and combined form); the tuition is organized by the Department of Auxiliary Historical Sciences and Archive Studies5.
Another university is the Arts Faculty of Masaryk University in Brno, whose Institute of Auxiliary Historical Sciences and Archive Studies is also a publishing centre preparing the edition of the Czech diplomatic charters (Codex diplomaticus et epistolaris Regni Bohemiae) and papal regesta (Re-gesta diplomatica nec non epistolaria Bohemiae et Moraviae), which is partly reflected in the composition of the tuition subjects. The Archive Studies bachelor's course is accredited as both a single-subject and two-subject study programme. The same is true of the ensuing two-year master's study programme, which can either be a one-subject or two-subject course. Students can simultaneously study the separate study field of Auxiliary Historical Sciences (see Internet 5, Internet 6, Internet 7).
Archive Studies at both bachelor's and master's level are also offered by the Arts Faculty of the University of South Bohemia in Česke Budejovice, where the bachelor's study programme has been accredited since 2003 as a single-subject course and from 2006 as a two-subject course; master's study was accredited in the same year. The course is provided by the Institute of Archive Studies and Auxiliary Historical Sciences. The advantage of this course is that, right from the start, the teaching of archival science is closely combined with practical experience directly in the local State District Archive. Besides employees of this archive, those from the State Regional Archive in Trebon that it comes under also take part in the teaching. In addition, Česke Budejovice also offers a unique two-subject combination of Informatics and Archive Studies, which is provided in cooperation with the Science Faculty of the University of South Bohemia (see Internet 8, Internet 9, Internet 10; see also Bužek and Ryantova, 2004, pp. 183-184, Ryantova, 2005, pp. 104-105).
Another faculty offering bachelor's and master's study programmes is the Arts Faculty of the University of Hradec Kralove, which today has a separate Department of Auxiliary Historical Sciences and Archive Studies (see Internet 11; see also Nemečkova, 2002, pp. 26-29, 2003, pp. 151-154). Archival science teaching began here in the 1997/98 academic year, when first a three-year single-subject combined study programme in archival science and auxiliary historical sciences was set up; at that time at least one year's experience in an archive or related institution was a condition of study (as well as passing the entrance exams). The following year a presentation-form bachelor's course conceived as a two-subject study programme of Archive Studies - History was launched. A presentation and combined follow-up master's course in Archive Studies was accredited in 2011 and launched in the following academic year. Since autumn 2008, the Hradec Kralove University has also offered the somewhat differently focused bachelor's study programme of Computer Support in Archives as a single-subject course in both presentation and combined forms (see Internet 12).
5. Given the potential transformation of current information and often missing print resources will be referenced on the website of the relevant institutions - Cf. http://kpvhas.ff.cuni.cz/node/20 (Chapter) and http://www.ff.cuni.cz/FF-8340-version1-karolinka10_11.pdf?#archivnictvi (Studing programs) - all edited on 6'h April 2014.
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The other universities offering archive studies only offer bachelor's study programmes, so any graduates wanting to take a master's course have to switch to one of the four universities mentioned above. The first university only offering bachelor's study programmes in Archive Studies, either as a single-subject or two-subject programme is the Arts Faculty of Palacky University in Olomouc, which has existed since 1947; the course is run by the archive studies section of the History Department (see Internet 13, Internet 14). In 2005 the ranks of universities offering archive studies were joined by the Arts Faculty of the University of Pardubice, whose Institute of Historical Sciences runs a single-subject, presentation-form bachelor's study programme in Records Management and Archival Science (see Internet 15). Besides these universities, there is the department of auxiliary historical sciences at the History Department of the Arts Faculty of Jan Evangelista Purkyne University in Usti nad Labem. Since the 2013/14 academic year this faculty has o^red a bachelor's study programme in Archive Studies and Records Management in combined form, which is not available at other universities without the alternative presentation form of tuition. Otherwise there is only tuition in the single-subject presentation-form bachelor's study programme of Cultural and historical regional studies specializing in auxiliary historical sciences and the related presentation-form master's study programme of Cultural and historical regional studies focusing on archive studies (see Internet 16, Internet 17, Internet 18, Internet 19).
All these are instances of university education in archive studies culminating in a state final exam, a defense of the respective thesis and the award of a university diploma.
Another level, doctoral study, can be pursued in both presentation and combined form at the universities in Prague, Brno, Česke Budejovice and, recently, Hradec Kralove. To make the picture complete, it should not be forgotten that basic teaching of auxiliary historical sciences, usually lasting one semester, features in most history subjects in the Czech Republic, including teacher-training.
In addition, however, it is possible in the Czech Republic to take a specialized, non-university archive studies course that is mainly designed for archivists (or those working in records and other administrative institutions) with completed full secondary education and also for archivists who are university graduates in a different field and specialization and want to broaden their knowledge. This is the archival course run by the Department of Auxiliary Historical Sciences and Archive Studies at the Arts Faculty of Charles University in Prague in conjunction with the National Archive (see Internet 20). The first of these courses was taught in 1963/64 as a single-year course; since 1967/68 two-year courses were opened roughly once every five years. They ended in a written and oral exam in auxiliary historical sciences, archive studies, Czechoslovak history and the history of government. The last of these courses was completed in 1993/1994; archive courses have been resumed since the year 2000, with the last taking place from the 2010/2011 academic year. The course, which focuses on the modern day, takes the form of lectures, seminars and exercises focusing on practical work with written sources and is held, for practical reasons, in the premises of the National Archive in Prague. In addition to the course teachers, instruction is provided by external teachers drawn from the ranks of archivists (mainly from the National Archive and State Regional Archive) and from the Department of Archives Administration and records Management of the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic, the headquarters of Czech archives. The four-month course is paid for by the participants or the organization sending them to study. The course ends with a final written work, a written test and a follow-up oral. Course graduates receive a requalification course certificate issued by Charles University.
The overview above shows that teaching of archival science in the Czech Republic takes a rather traditional form that is closely tied to the teaching of auxiliary historical sciences or history. As well as the fact that this kind of focus corresponds to the demands of practice, the fact that it also gives students the prerequisites for broader employment opportunities is not insignificant. The only courses with a different focus are the Records Management and Archive Studies course at the University of Pardubice and the Computer Support in Arch ives course at the University of Hradec Karloff, or the combination of Informatics and Archive Studies at the University of South Bohemia. Given the future development of archiving, however, it is a reasonable assumption that demand for an education in archive studies will grow both in the traditional format and with a focus on new technologies and techniques. The future will also evidently bring a need to address the question of the profile of an archive studies graduate, which has not been thoroughly resolved yet.
Marie RYANTOVÄ - Michal WANNER: Between Tradition and Innovation: the State, Problems and Prospects of the Teaching of Archival Science in the Czech Republic, 149-158
2 Archives - their changing structure and requirements
^ere is no doubt that archives have undergone major changes in the past decades. ^is process is perhaps best reflected in the transformations in the posts of national archive directors. While the founder members of the International Council of Archives were generally historians with many years of archiving experience who stood at the helm of relatively small organizations and did not enjoy the backing of large professional organizations at national level, the situation today is completely different. Even though they head large institutions and sometimes entire networks of archives, most of today's national archivists do not come from an archivist environment and have no archival education. ^ey are economists, public administration professionals, public relations professionals, librarians, journalists etc. Most did not study history. ^ey have close ties to political structures and tend not to spend too long in office (Huskamp Peterson, 2013, pp. 41-47).
Archives have changed equally. ^e great "anti-government campaign" designed to pare down the state and reduce its interventions in the life of its citizens that took place throughout Europe in the 1980s and 90s led to a decrease in archives' revenues. ^at made securing funding for operations and development one of the key concerns of archivists, who had to justify their existence to both political structures and the public. ^at turned originally scientific institutions into large service organizations providing a mass of information not just to educated historians but, above all, to the general public. In a number of countries that led to closer cooperation with the private sector, e.g. in the digitization of archival records. ^is process is evident in the majority of European countries, where archives come under the departments of education or culture. ^e archives in the Czech Republic and Slovakia are something of an exception: here, archives are a direct component of public administration and have played and continue to play a key role in the societal processes of property restitution, rehabilitation, compensation for citizens, proving state citizenship etc. Even so, these changes can be observed in the Czech and Slovak archives, albeit to a lesser extent.
^e last major change affecting present-day archival practice is digitization, in the broadest sense of the word. ^e introduction of e-government has confronted archivists with a reality of records in digital form and has established the need to create digital archives. ^e creation of digital copies and information systems for providing access to them was brought about by societal pressure for better-quality, fast and mass access to archival records and, secondarily, led to a need to make the creation of archival descriptions more flexible and to reassess the existing archival legislation and archival theory (Wanner, 2010, pp. 207-218; 2011, pp. 101-111; 2013, pp. 87-97).
^ese changes were also reflected in altered employee structures in archives. Naturally, the situation was and is different from archive to archive depending on the nature of the records in their custody, the function they fulfill etc.; even so, some general trends may be observed.
^e creation of records in digital form, the need to ensure they are standardized, converted into output formats and equipped with the relevant metadata and the need to create devices to validate these formats and metadata and tools for appraisal of archival records resulted in more-or-less successful attempts to standardize document and records administration systems and deploy them en masse. ^at required a massive increase in the number of staff dealing with pre-archival care, which was often, to a greater or lesser degree, involved in the implementation of records management and its tools at the originators' workplaces. In large archives this process resulted in 2/3 to 3/4 of the workforce being allocated to this work.
^at left fewer staff working on archival descriptions and the provision of access to archival records. ^ese employees were also compelled to formulate more flexible rules for creating archival descriptions, to resolve the description of previously non-existent forms of archival records and, last but not least, to create software tools capable of creating archival descriptions more quickly, providing remote access to them, working with archival records in digital form and with digital copies of records, transferring data between systems etc. ^e actual provision of access to archival records was also affected to a greater or lesser degree and took on some elements of automation (remote ordering of archival records for a research centre etc.).
As archives acquired their own budgets, experienced changes in their ownership structure, became engaged in a wide variety of projects with the involvement of the private sector, the owners of all
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kinds of archival records, international projects etc., developed a need to cope with the financial side of these processes and ensure the working of the necessary computer technology, digital copies repositories etc., the managerial nature of senior functions in archives was strengthened and there was an increase in the number of lawyers, personnel managers, economists, auditors, records management staff, ICT administrators etc., i.e. the "operational" components of archives.
Actual digital archives only form a small segment in this context. The high financial costs associated with preservation of records in digital form led to the creation of centralized concepts, in which so-called digital archives fulfill the functions linked to the actual technical maintenance of records, i.e. ensuring the credibility of records' origin and the inviolability of their content and legibility and creating and managing metadata pertaining to these records and proving the records' existence in time.
One way or another, there was a fundamental shift in the substance of archival practice, its strategy, work procedures and results. That makes it relevant to ask to what extent these changes were reflected in archival education; whether archival education still has any value and, if it does, what value; and what form archival education should take. Only when these questions have been answered will it be possible to judge to what extent these considerations correspond to the current state of archival education in the Czech Republic as we described it in the first part of this study.
3 The ideal content of teaching of archival science
Let us try, then, to define a kind of core of teaching of archival science that matches the current needs and nature of most of the archival records in the vast majority of archives in the Czech Republic. Further specializations can then be added onto this core.
It follows from the above that students of archive studies should first and foremost be familiarized with the legislation, focusing on the laws governing the administration of documents and archival records, the protection of personal data, open access to information, the administrative procedure code etc. They should also be taught about document administration as practiced by the agencies and originators of archival records, i.e. they should be familiar, both in theory and in practice, with records management systems, separate registers of records, content management systems, database systems, the standardization of these systems, the creation and checking of records management plans, and the theory and practice of appraisal of archival records. User-level knowledge of the related information and communication technologies is also appropriate in this context.
This should be followed by tuition on the basic registers of archival records, archival theory, and the rules for creating archival descriptions and other metadata. As far as actual digital archives are concerned, archivists should know the structure and functions of digital archives, basic preservation technologies, including the practice in the field of audiovisual records, preservation of digital photographs etc., the approaches to and principles of preserving the authenticity of records in digital form, the principles of creating digital copies, standards in these areas etc. The practical performance of digital archives may be left to ICT experts, however.
On the other hand, contemporary archivists should certainly also be aware of the principles of the construction of archive buildings, the parameters of archive depositories, risk management and the basics of archival records conservation. The traditional history of administration and basics of the auxiliary historical sciences should also be taught, with the emphasis on modern times paleography, language training and possibly the study of history.
The above list is merely a product of the author's ideas and experiences. It is necessarily subjective and would no doubt be criticized by some colleagues, especially those from specialized or security archives. Even so, it is worth comparing the structure I have described with the structure of archival education at Czech universities as presented in the first part of the study.
This comparison shows that archival education in the Czech Republic is rather traditional. It remains closely tied to the teaching of auxiliary historical sciences or history. This focus purportedly guarantees graduates more diverse opportunities on the job market, but it does not always meet the needs of archives, and in a number of students it often leads to disillusionment and confusion when they start to work in an archive. It is no coincidence that a number of them complain (in the author's
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experience at least) that what their archival science lacked is actual archival science, i.e. a functional set of rules for the various stages of an archivist's work. There is still some deficit in records management, which is taught at Hradec Kralove, Pardubice and Usti nad Labem, but in lesser and different measure also in Ceske Budejovice and other universities. One indisputable factor in this is the considerable unpopularity of this field: Czech archives were put in charge of this field partly against their will and in many places it has developed into an unnecessarily intractable problem (Ryantova, 2011, pp. 159172).
Yet the situation cannot be viewed entirely negatively. Compared to research from 2011, there has been progress at least in formal terms, i.e. the differently conceived study fields off Records Management and Archival Science at the University of Pardubice and Archive Studies and Records Management Usti nad Labem and Computer Support in Archives at the University of Hradec Kralove, and the combination of Informatics and Archive Studies at the University of South Bohemia. According to the latest reports, other universities are going down a similar path.
Overall one can say that the teaching of archival science in the Czech Republic is at an early stage of a modernizing transformation. If we leave aside the several practical problems faced by universities with regard to archival science subjects (the shortage of teachers with the necessary specialization, the absence of methodological compendia and methodologies per se etc.), the current picture of the teaching of archival science in the Czech Republic is colored by the confusion and uncertainty that prevail in a number of questions in the field itself. But that is another chapter.
Reference list
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Marie RYANTOVÄ - Michal WANNER: Between Tradition and Innovation: the State, Problems and Prospects of the Teaching of Archival Science in the Czech Republic, 149-158
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Marie RYANTOVÄ - Michal WANNER: Between Tradition and Innovation: the State, Problems and Prospects of the Teaching of Archival Science in the Czech Republic, 149-158
SUMMARY
^e first part of the study summarizes in the introduction the historical development of teaching of archival science in the Czech lands, whose roots date back to 1784. Following is a description of the current state of higher education teaching of archival science and related fields. One essential condition of the study course is accreditation granted to the university in question by the Accreditation Commission of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports; the shortest period for accreditation is four years, the longest eight years. ^e period of time and the actual granting of accreditation depend on the quality of the study programme and the guarantee that tuition is conducted by qualified and renowned teachers. ^e final choice of subjects is partly influenced by the number of "credits" the study has to comprise. ^e course always (in both bachelor's and master's study) culminates in a state final examination and defense of the respective (bachelor's or master's) thesis. Archival science is currently being taught at seven universities in the Czech Republic. Master's study programmes and bachelor's programmes are at the universities of Prague, Brno, Ceske Budejovice and Hradec Kralove, archive studies on bachelor's level are offered at universities in Pardubice, Olomouc and Usti nad Labem. ^e second part of the study describes the changes that have occurred in the Czech archives in recent decades. Transformation of archives from research centers in service institutions, need to preserve records in digital form and series of changes in legislation and methods of archival work place new demands on the content of the archival studies. Knowledge of the legislation, all forms of records management in agencies, theory and practice of appraisal of records, knowledge of information and communication technologies, archival theory, rules of archival description and metadata structure, principal functions of the digital archive, basic preservation technologies of records in digital form, approaches and principles of preservation of the authenticity of records in digital form, the principles of creating digital copies etc. Comparing these requirements with the current structure of teaching of archival science at Czech universities shows that the study is rather traditional. It remains in close association with the teaching of auxiliary historical sciences and history. Nevertheless, we can point to many positive changes, particularly in the education of records management. Overall, however, teaching of archival science in the Czech Republic is only at the beginning of this transformation.
Typology: 1.02 Review article Submitting date: 06.01.2014 Acceptance date: 07.02.2014