ARCHIWISTYKA JAKO ODRĘBNA NAUKA? GŁOS Z POLSKI
ARCHIVAL SCIENCE – IS IT A SEPARATE SCIENTIFIC BRANCH? THE VOICE FROM POLAND

Summary/Abstract: In the interwar period in Poland keeping of records was perceived as a collection of practical skills of historians employed in the archives. After the war this view changed into the meaning that it was an auxiliary science of history. In the sixties of 20th century the idea prevailed that keeping of records is an independent science with its own topics for research, with its own terminology and research structures. Now, the same view prevails among Polish researchers dealing with theoretical problems of archival science. No one has yet dealt with the consequences of such interpretation especially with separation of a new scientific discipline from history which brings a lot of problems. Thus keeping of records loses its historical identity and face. Problems connected with the use of IT come to the fore. The coherent activities, though understand-able and necessary, divert archivists from more important tasks, e. g. working with archival fonds and gradual enhancing of the quality of archival aids. Separation from historical context can endanger archival science in a way that it may narrow problems and stress a descriptive view before analytic one in spite of the historical context. The weakening of linkage with history opens the way for the archivists to seek inspiration in the works of representatives of various modern philosophical trends including postmodernism, the contribution of these is inconsistent for human subjects. Another consequence of separation archival science consists in the risk of unfavorable changes in educational programmes at universities, as the classes of history of individual periods have been restricted the same applies for auxiliary sciences of history. There prevail subjects broadening knowledge in procedural processes in offices and archives, and in information technologies, it weakens historical and human scope of these studies. The fundamentals of historic character of archival science, though being reduced in the last few years, form necessity of functioning archives as the institutions for accepting documents, preserving them and making them accessible to meet the needs of broad group of historians.

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