Waldemar Chorążyczewski, Agnieszka Rosa - Is the public principle a new paradigm of archival science?


Contemporary archival theory is a coherent system of principles subordinated to the superior principle, or the paradigm, which is the public principle of archives. Nowadays the public principle of archives means that every person can access every archive and record in the world. The understanding of records is guaranteed by the principle of provenance, while their keeping a fond intact guarantees transparency and stability of the distribution. The other principles govern the location of archival holdings: the principle of territoriality (also as: the principle of territorial provenance or pertinence); the principle of respecting historical holdings; and the principle of common heritage; as well as the concept of functional pertinence. Not without significance for the speed of access is the existence of several methods of accessing collections; and so we have, besides provenance, subject pertinence, which is not a system of arranging archival records but of ordering the description of the information.