A importância histórico-social dos arquivos e a atuação do arquivista na sociedade da informação

Abstract

The present paper highlights the historical and social role of the archive as an institution destined to document organization, aiming the awareness of the importance in keeping the integrity of historical records, in order to permit that the next generations could have access to information about their past. It aims to emphasize the performance of the archivist and his importance for this integrity to occur, and it also describes the policy of document management in the institutions. Moreover, it underlines the importance of document preservation to the divulgation of the memory of the historic and cultural collection of mankind. The research discusses that the document remains with its social and cultural importance and that the technological evolution has increased the quantity of brackets, facilitating the access and its recuperation, showing that the safekeeping and conservation of writing documents was a practice since the ancient times which has assured the preservation of memory. Nowadays, due to the information democratization, there is a growing need for creating methods of document management which could offer better conditions of production and access of this information. This way, it is concluded that the promotion of training archivists is important. In addition, it is essential that the entities which are responsible by the document preservation make available the needed resources in order to assure that past and present will be preserved, enabling the next generations to have the knowledge and the privilege of having access to the records of our past and rebuild history.