Priit Pirsko Cooperation and Written Heritage ICARUS-Meeting #19 | 5th co:op partner meeting 29–31 May 2017, The National Archives of Estonia, Nooruse 3, Tartu, Estonia

1. Cooperation and
Written Heritage
Priit Pirsko
ICARUS-Meeting # 19 / 5th co:op partner meeting
29 May 2017, Tartu

2. Co:operative Janus
beginnings
gates
transitions
time
duality
doorways
passages
endings

3. Cooperation
… process of groups of organisms working
or acting together for common or mutual
benefit, as opposed to working in
competition for selfish benefit.
Many animal and plant species cooperate both
with other members of their own species and with
members of other species …

4. Modernization
• progressive transition
• process of social evolution
• adaptation of new (data) technologies
• society of more wealth and more power
• spread of education
• citizens enjoying a higher standard of living

5. [Postmodern approach] does not mean that archives are no longer
about power.
Rather power is shared, power is refocused,
power is held accountable. And that will be archival
performance worth seeing.
Terry Cook and Joan M. Schwartz, Archives, Records and Power: From
(Postmodern) Theory to (Archival) Performance. – Archival Science 2: 171-185,
2002.

6. Archival paradigms
(last 150 years)
• Archiving: judical legacy -> cultural memory -> societal
engagement -> community archiving
• Archivist: passive curator -> active appraiser -> societal meditor ->
community facilitator
• Archival thinking: evidence -> memory -> identity -> community
• Concepts: pre-modern -> modern -> postmodern -> contemporary
Terry Cook, Evidence, memory, identity, and community: four schifting archival paradigms. –
Archival Science (2013) 13:95-120

7. • Without trust no cooperation happens!

8. Legal preconditions
• the records created upon performance of
public duties are freely accessible
• no closure period for accessing public
information
• free access to archival records
• (online) access free of charge

9. Organisational/technical
preconditions
• Archival Information System (2009)
• all the descriptions as easily searchable
database on the web
• Digitized records (2005)
• hundred–fold increase of usage 2005-2015
• 99% of unique visits are online visits
• ca 3500 visits per day

10. Mental
preconditions
• understanding about the possibilities in
using the volunteers
• ability to apply the archives customers as
volunteers for gaining mutual benefits

11. Visibility as
precondition
• on-line services
• social-media
• archives as a modern meeting point

12. 20.5.2017: 850 visitors in 6 hours

13. cooperation with communities is a need!
trust between archives and communities
access, on-line services, open mind-set,
visibility

14. Thank
you!