IN2PAST Working Group organises 1st Open Meeting

Towards a radiography of archives in Portugal – I

May 12th, at the National Library of Portugal

 

The first open meeting of IN2PAST’s Working Group on Public Policies for Archives, on the topic ‘Towards a radiography of archives in Portugal – I’, will take place in Lisbon, in the training room (Sala de Formação) of the National Library of Portugal (Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal), on May 12th 2025, between 10 am and 4:30 pm.

 

The Working Group on Public Policies for Archives (GTPPA), in the Portuguese acronym), created within the scope of the Associate Laboratory, aims to debate archive public policies in Portugal, contributing to the safeguarding of archival and cultural heritage, and the preservation of memory.

It is considered that investment in archive public policies is essential not only to guarantee the safeguarding of archival and cultural heritage, but also to ensure citizens’ rights, democratic transparency and the continuity of memory preservation.

In addition to a solid legislative basis, these public policies must be equipped with adequate human and financial resources, based on programme objectives that have been carefully outlined on the basis of prior scientific analysis. In this way, the process of building coherent and articulated archival policies must be established in dialogue between the competent authorities, professionals in the sector, universities and civil society.

 

The GTPPA thus aims to organise and foster a qualified public debate that contributes to the definition and implementation of public policies on archives, reflecting and intervening on two fronts:

• analysing the practices of safeguarding, processing and studying public, private and civil society archives, and discussing the potential and problems inherent in these practices;
• reflecting on the risks of memory loss resulting from not preserving or incorporating documentary funds or collections into existing or future archives.

 

The goal of this first open working meeting is to outline an initial general overview of archives in Portugal, analysing the specificities that characterise different types of archives in terms of their missions, purposes and types of media.

Without pretending to be exhaustive, the aim is to assess the challenges and difficulties that various archives face (common to Portuguese archives in general or specific to certain institutions), as well as to explore the solutions that have been found and the contributions that particular experiences can make to a more comprehensive reflection on archival public policies in Portugal.

 

The GTPPA is coordinated by IHC – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST researchers Joana Dias Pereira, Maria Lurdes Rosa and Rita Sampaio da Nóvoa and includes members from the various IN2PAST research units.

 

Target audience: industry professionals, decision makers, researchers/academics, civil society representatives

Programme available in PDF (in PT).

Text in IN2PAST’s site: https://in2past.org/events/towards-a-radiography-of-archives-in-portugal

 

Free entrance.