Preserving Our National Heritage on Film: The Role of the National Archives

1966 ◽  
Vol 75 (12) ◽  
pp. 1188-1189
Author(s):  
James B. Rhoads
Keyword(s):  
National Heritage ◽  
National Archives

Safeguarding National Heritage through Conservation of Oral History Collections at Bulawayo National Archives, Zimbabwe

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vimbayi Natalie Nhenga-Mugarisanwa ◽  
Peterson Dewah
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Storage Conditions ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Conservation Unit ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
National Archives ◽  
Digital Formats ◽  
Depth Interviews

 Oral history collections are vital assets that represent national heritage. While transcribed collections are kept in a proper archival repository at the Bulawayo National Archives, the audio-visual collections are kept unprocessed and unprotected in unsuitable housing such as cardboard boxes within the Principal Archivist’s office. Storage conditions are not conducive and therefore, unbearable. The study, therefore, explored issues relating to how national heritage contained in oral history collections can be protected through conservation at the institution. In this regard, the study opted to employ the qualitative research methodology, using the case study research design. The informants were purposively sampled, while data were collected through questionnaires, in-depth interviews, and document analysis. Questionnaires were administered to the chosen respondents through hand delivery. Researchers conducted in-depth interviews that lasted between 20–30 minutes. The Director’s Annual Reports from 1990 to 2016 were analysed for the study. The findings of the study indicated that the Bulawayo National Archives captures and stores oral history in paper, cassettes, magnetic tape, and digital formats, and according to various subject areas; which include chieftaincy, minority groups, land question, religion and liberation wars. However, the institution does not have a conservation unit nor an Oral Historian in charge of the collections. In this regard, we recommend that the institution sets up a conservation unit to protect oral history collections, and facilitate the restoration of the already damaged and deteriorated oral history collections. 

The Role of Archives on the Incorporation of the Former Kangwane Homeland to Mpumalanga Province

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nkholedzeni Sidney Netshakhuma
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Records Management ◽  
Record Keeping ◽  
Mpumalanga Province ◽  
Specific Objective ◽  
National Archives ◽  
And Control

This study was conceptualised in order to assess the strategies used to incorporate the homeland of KaNgwane into Mpumalanga province after the cessation of apartheid in 1994. The specific objective of the study was to investigate the compliance of records and archives with the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa Act (Act No 43 of 1996), during the incorporation of the homeland of KaNgwane into Mpumalanga. The study adopted a qualitative methodology through document analysis, interviews and observations. The key findings revealed that the archives of the former homeland of Kangwane were not aligned with the requirements of the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa Act (Act No.43 of 1996.) Institutions seem to lack experience when it comes to the challenges of storing records and implementing arrangement and control systems. The frequent lack of a records management policy and few to no staff with record-keeping and archival backgrounds was also a concern. A shortage of space to store records safely was also one of the major issues that the study uncovered. There appears to be no concerted effort to retain important historical records. Many records are stored in several different locations in government buildings.  I conclude that archives play an essential role to the nation as the institutional memory.

„Arvīd, uz kurieni Tu aizgāji?”: Arvīda Griguļa personības loma Rakstnieku savienības vēsturē

2020 ◽  
pp. 74-84
Author(s):  
Madara Eversone
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
State Archive ◽  
National Archives ◽  
Literary Heritage ◽  
Literary Process ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Impact

The article aims to highlight the role of Arvīds Grigulis’ (1906–1989) personality in the Latvian Soviet literary process in the context of the Latvian Soviet Writers’ Union, attempting to discover the contradictions and significance of Arvīds Grigulis’ personality. Arvīds Grigulis was a long-time member of the Writers’ Union, a member of the Soviet nomenklatura, and an authority of the soviet literary process. His evaluations of pre-soviet literary heritage and writings of his contemporaries were often harsh and ruthless, and also influenced the development of the further literary process. The article is based on the documents of the Central Committee of the Latvian Communist Party, the Latvian Soviet Writers’ Union and the Communist Party local organization of the Latvian Soviet Writers’ Union that are available at the Latvian State Archive of the National Archives of Latvia, as well as memories of Grigulis’ contemporaries. It is concluded that the personality of the writer Arvīds Grigulis, although unfolding less in the context of the Writers’ Union, is essential for the exploration of the soviet literary process and events behind the scenes. The article mainly describes events and episodes taking place until 1965, when Arvīds Grigulis’ influence in the Writers’ Union was more remarkable. Individual and further studies should analyse changes and the impact of his decisions in the cultural process of the 70s and 80s of the 20th century.

Erasing the Past: The Destruction of Libraries and Archives in Bosnia-Herzegovina

1995 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
András Riedlmayer
Keyword(s):  
Human Suffering ◽  
The Past ◽  
University Library ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
National Archives ◽  
Rare Books ◽  
The University

Three years have passed since the beginning of the war in Bosnia. Amidst the reports of human suffering and atrocities, another tragic loss has gone largely unnoted—the destruction of the written record of Bosnia’s past.On 25 August 1992, Bosnia’s National and University Library, a handsome Moorish-revival building built in the 1890s on the Sarajevo riverfront, was shelled and burned. Before the fire, the library held 1.5 million volumes, including over 155,000 rare books and manuscripts; the country’s national archives; deposit copies of newspapers, periodicals and books published in Bosnia; and the collections of the University of Sarajevo. Bombarded with incendiary grenades from Serbian nationalist positions across the river, the library burned for three days; it was reduced to ashes with most of its contents. Braving a hail of sniper fire, librarians and citizen volunteers formed a human chain to pass books out of the burning building. Interviewed by ABC News, one of them said: “We managed to save just a few very precious books. Everything else burned down. And a lot of our heritage, national heritage, lay down there in ashes.” Aida Buturovic, a librarian in the National Library’s exchanges section, was shot to death by a sniper while attempting to rescue books from the flames.

Komunistiskās partijas kontroles mehānisms Latvijas Padomju rakstnieku savienībā: Žaņa Grīvas piemērs

2021 ◽  
pp. 110-118
Author(s):  
Madara Eversone
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
Reading Room ◽  
Creative Activity ◽  
National Library ◽  
Professional Activities ◽  
National Archives ◽  
Literary Process ◽  
Representative Image

It was in the interests of the Communist Party to create a representative image of Latvian Soviet writers, which would represent the interests of the party and at the same time oversee the course of literary life in the Latvian Soviet Writers’ Union. Such was the writer Žanis Grīva in the Latvian Soviet literary process. The influential positions in the Soviet nomenclature gave him power in the creative environment and created opportunities to monitor the implementation of the Communist Party’s course. The article aims to put forward the personality of Žanis Grīva in the context of the research of the Latvian soviet literary process and the Latvian Soviet Writers’ Union, proposing several issues to be further researched and developed in the future. The article is based on the documents of the Latvian Soviet Writers’ Union and the Communist Party local organization of the Latvian Soviet Writers’ Union, and the personal file of Žanis Grīva in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Latvia, and documents of the Žanis Grīva collection that are available at the Latvian State Archive of the National Archives of Latvia, as well as Žanis Grīva’s personal documents regarding his life and professional activities that are available at the Aleksejs Apinis Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room at the National Library of Latvia. Memories of contemporaries were also investigated. It is concluded that the role of Žanis Grīva in the Latvian soviet literary process and the Latvian Soviet Writers’ Union is political and purposefully constructed by the Communist Party, and has little to do with literature and literary talents. It can be assumed that Žanis Grīva has negatively affected the creative activity of some members of the Writers’ Union, such as Gunārs Priede.

‘A Great National Heritage’: The Early Twentieth-Century Tudor Church Music Revival

Tudorism ◽  
2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUZANNE COLE
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Choral Music ◽  
Church Music ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
Early English ◽  
Oxford University Press

This chapter examines the revival of interest in early English choral music that took place in the first quarter of the twentieth century. It pays particular attention to the religious agendas driving this revival, and to the role of the Tudor Church Music edition, published in the 1920s by Oxford University Press, in promoting this music as a ‘national heritage’ of which all Englishmen could be proud.

Beyond the Nation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Mitterhofer
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
National Population ◽  
South Tyrol ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Heritage Discourse ◽  
Italian Province

In this chapter the author explores the effects of the exclusive potential of heritage in culturally heterogeneous European societies and investigates initiatives that seek to make heritage more inclusive and pluralistic. How do minority groups negotiate heritage practices and discourses formulated by the dominant national population? From a war monument in South Tyrol, an Italian province inhabited by a large German-speaking minority, to the role of migrant memories in the making of national heritage discourses, the chapter focuses on processes that seek to include minority voices and contrasting heritage interpretations in what Laurajane Smith terms the “Authorized Heritage Discourse.”

The Commission for the Preservation of Antiquities and its role in the appropriation of İstanbul’s diverse heritage as national heritage (1939–1953)

2020 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 75-99
Author(s):  
Pınar Aykaç
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Significant Aspect ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
Turkish Nationalism ◽  
National Monuments ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Early Republican ◽  
Republic Of Turkey ◽  
The City

AbstractThis paper argues that the early Republican attempts to reintegrate the Ottoman past into nationalist narratives later found their reflections in discussions regarding the preservation of İstanbul’s diverse heritage, coinciding with the redefinition of Turkish nationalism in the 1940s, incorporating Islam and marking a departure from the foundation ideology of the Republic of Turkey. In 1939, the Republican authorities decided to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1953. The Commission for the Preservation of Antiquities (Muhafaza-ı Asar-ı Atika Encümeni)—the body responsible for the preservation of historic monuments in İstanbul—was tasked with conducting restoration and repair works for the celebrations. Although the celebrations did not receive much attention in the following years, the annual celebrations in the city have now become a significant aspect of present-day İstanbul, which glorify its Ottoman-Islamic past. By presenting its negotiations and contestations with other state actors in the context of these preparations, this paper explores the role of the Preservation Commission in appropriating the inherited remnants of İstanbul’s multifaceted past as “national monuments.”

The National Libraries of the Countries of the Francophonie: A Comparative Study

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-146
Author(s):  
Marcel Lajeunesse
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
International Organization ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
National Library ◽  
African Countries ◽  
National Archives ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
National Libraries

The International Organization of the Francophonie (Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, OIF) which developed over the last decades of the twentieth century brings together, as of 2008, 53 State and government full members and 13 observer members, spread out over five continents. The Répertoire des bibliothèques nationales de la Francophonie, which is in its third edition (2008), presents index cards on every national library, or library fulfilling such a role, of each member or observer country. After presenting an overview of the International Organization of the Francophonie, this article looks at the creation of the national library in each country, legal deposit and national bibliography. Then, communication (websites) and international relations (membership of IFLA) are addressed. Of the 63 countries surveyed, only 9 countries do not have a national library, although the majority of these nine countries have another institution – a national documentation centre, public or parliamentary library or national archives – that normally fulfils the functions of a national library. It must be recognized that there is a large disparity between the national libraries of developed countries in Europe and North America and those in developing countries of sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Antilles. In some sub-Saharan African countries, the national library has only a nominal existence.

British Government, British Businesses, and the Indigenization Exercise in Post-Independence Nigeria

2012 ◽  
Vol 86 (4) ◽  
pp. 745-771 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chibuike U. Uche
Keyword(s):  
British Government ◽  
Business Interests ◽  
National Archives ◽  
Equity Ownership

The Nigerian Enterprises Promotion Decree of 1972, which was promulgated in Nigeria after the country gained its independence from Britain, put in place a framework for the varied transfer of equity ownership of expatriate businesses to Nigerians. The decree was replaced by a more stringent order in 1977. Despite the extensive research on the Nigerian indigenization episode, there have been few studies on the role of the British government in the entire exercise. This paper, using newly available evidence from the National Archives London, investigates the role played by the British government during the indigenization episode. Evidence in this paper suggests that the British government explored various strategies, orthodox and unorthodox, in its bid to protect British business interests in Nigeria during the period.

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