Between parchment and cloud computing

60 Years of University Archives: What was discussed at the anniversary conference on the past and the future

"Do you actually celebrate a 60th birthday?" The rhetorical question of Prorector Prof. Karl Lenz introduced the conference "Potentials, Cooperations and Limits of University Archives" in Dresden on November 29. The occasion was the 60th birthday of the archive of the TU Dresden, which also reconciled a little with the 50th anniversary that literally fell into the water. "Ten years ago, the archive had to struggle with the Elbe flood. Nobody felt like celebrating back then," said Dr. Matthias Lienert, Director of the University Archives. He was pleased that so many colleagues had accepted his invitation to Dresden and also welcomed archivists from Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, who had traveled especially far and whose participation was sponsored and thus made possible by the GFF, to the Rectorate's ballroom.

A 60th birthday must be celebrated, Prof. Karl Lenz continued in his welcoming address, because it shows how successful the company's own work is. In a historical overview, Dr. Matthias Lienert reviewed this work. From the beginnings in 1952, to the early publications on the occasion of university anniversaries, to the turbulent time of reunification, in which various archives merged into the University Archives, making it one of the largest university archives in Germany at present. Lively exhibition and publication activities were and are added and demand respect from colleagues. "Mr. Prorector, you can be proud of the work that is being done in the Dresden University Archives," remarked Stephan Luther, Head of the Chemnitz University Archives. He gave a lecture on the topic of "Anniversaries - Curse and Blessing for the University Archives." Although an anniversary promotes the awareness of the archive, it also brings with it additional burdens beyond the core tasks of the archive. Almost sympathetically, he pointed out that he had already received an invitation for the University Archives Conference in May, so the organization behind the scenes had been going on for more than half a year.

In addition to looking at the past, the panel discussion "Between Parchment and Cloud Computing - On the Future of University Archives" offered a look ahead. Is it even possible to archive the recent past? Will archives even become completely superfluous in the future? A pessimistic undertone mingled with the celebratory mood. While there used to be a single document, the trend is now toward a digital "jigsaw puzzle". Whereas correspondence used to be kept, e-mail or text messages can hardly be archived anymore. Much is inevitably lost. In the future, archivists will therefore be increasingly responsible for identifying and preserving what is worth preserving from the multitude of "volatile" digital information. Long-term archiving over several hundred years, in turn, requires dedicated libraries that have the necessary reading equipment. "When I receive archived data on diskette, I can no longer do anything with it," admits Dr. Matthias Lienert. But the future of archiving was not the only topic of discussion. "Archives are the traditional core of the university," summarized Dr. Jens Blecher, director of the Leipzig University Archives. In this case, tradition also means paper - vast amounts of paper in Dresden alone. Around 5,000 linear meters of files are piled up in the university archive's warehouses. The 60-year-old archive is still in its infancy when it comes to digitally processing these documents and images for the public. With the digitization of Cornelius Gurlitt's letters and the partial digitization of Gustav Zeuner's estate, the first steps into the "electronic future" have been taken in the past. The Leipzig presentation showed where this can lead. Around one million data records on around 700,000 individual objects from the Leipzig University Archive are available online and can be found via a search. Dresden will show how spry an archive can be at 60.

Steffi Eckold