The appreciation and exploitation of archives has never been greater.
But there is an awareness that archival material around the globe
is in danger. At the 2004 Congress of the International Council
on Archives (ICA), some 2,000 delegates from 116 countries joined
together to discuss how better to preserve the world’s
documentary heritage. UNESCO has recognised the scale and urgency
of the danger by establishing ‘The Memory of the World’ Programme
to stimulate action to safeguard our documentary heritage.
Archives are endangered both by the actions of mankind and the
forces of nature. War may wreak catastrophic effects but other
man-made threats which can be more damaging. For instance, there
are the problems of fragility and obsolescence associated with
the physical formats to which we have entrusted our documentary
heritage – such as audiotapes, glass negatives, and acidic
paper.
Archives not kept under any proper legal system are susceptible
to neglect or destruction. Political ideology may impact directly
on archives, eradicating archives relating to minorities and their
rights. As the ICA Congress noted: “Archives are fundamental
to ensuring the survival of truth, memory and justice.”
The lack of professional training, coupled with the lack of resources,
can pose a threat. It is often the unintentional which is most
damaging – the sheer neglect of documentary heritage for
want of awareness of its significance.
If heritage collections are frequently at risk even when housed
in recognised archives, how much more endangered are private collections?
They may belong to private societies no longer able to maintain
their facilities; or represent the life’s work of one collector
after whose death no further family interest is shown; or be the
papers of an outstanding literary, cultural or historical figure
which suffer neglect after his or her demise. Helping to bring
unknown and unexploited private collections into the international
research domain is one of the aims of the Endangered Archives Programme.
But in recent years there have also been some wonderful examples
of what can be achieved by prompt and positive action. For instance,
at Timbuktu in Mali a number of initiatives have combined to recover
a large part of the documentary heritage of that great seat of
Islamic learning. Or one thinks of the Himalayan monastery of Tabo
near the border of India and China where, under a joint project
of the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences,
some 38,000 damaged leaves from Buddhist manuscripts are being
identified, catalogued and photographed, restoring to mankind a
Western Tibetan Buddhist tradition that was otherwise lost.
Finally, there is what is perhaps the most insidious and growing
danger to archives - the increasing trend towards cultural homogenisation.
As more and more of the world embraces the industrial and technological
revolution, and as the pace of globalisation accelerates, the remaining
evidence of pre-industrial societies, their history and culture,
is fast being discarded. It is this last threat which makes the
creation of the Endangered Archives Programme so timely.
