Public Service Management within the Specific Field of Archives
dr. István Horváth
Government Office of Győr-Moson-Sopron County
Annotation
This paper analyses the potential decisions to be made in order to improve the efficiency of archives management (either state or local Government based versions). The conclusion of the paper is that a central, hierarchical management system with territorial units is a better option than a decentralized institutional solution, since the central management could provide the same conditions and unified directions to the professional and functional (budgetary, maintenance and coordination work) staff. However, with the territorial units, the organizations of the archives could even support the local particularities to be achieved.
Keywords
public service management, specific field of archives, hierarchical, decentralized
Public Service Management in the cultural sector
In the course of my research I was analysing the rate of the State’s involvement during its public service managemental action on the basis of which characterisations were expressed in essays published in science of administration in view of the extreme range, only an essentially acting apparatus and an interventionist government’s picture has been emerged. Whether what kind of attitude is necessary on the part of governments within the specific field of archives? Is it sufficient for the government to create the relevant legal environment, institutional background or public service management can be solved on a market basis as well? What kind of instruments, organizational solutions should the State use if it takes care of all its moments from legislation that reflects social needs to the conditions for the provision and use of the public service are verified?
To answer the question it should be briefly characterised that what public services might be provided by the government in the discipline of cultural administration at all. Firstly we should consider the highest level of Hungarian legal basis of the State’s activity in the field of cultural management according to which „every Hungarian citizen shall have the right to education”.[1]
This declaration legitimises the activities of the government in this regard, authorize it with the deriving tasks of legislation, organization and control, whereby the State provides a legal framework to cultural management’s operation and for the enforcement of professional rules.
The authorisation entails constitutional obligation as well, which appears as implementation within an institutionalized framework of guaranteeing the right to culture belonging tot he second-generation rights. What values does the apparat protect? What segments are covered by the concept of culture? In order to answer this question, I call Tylor, the English anthropologist’s phrase for help: „Culture…is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society (Tylor 1920 [1871]: 1).”[2]
A prominent criteria, the complexity has appeared in his phrase, which can also be demonstrated in the diversity of relevant administrative disciplines taking into account the fact that this includes -non-exhaustive list of reasons- the press (the media), sciences, community culture, or rather the field specializing in the management of public collections. By highlighting the latter, the area under scrutiny has been reached. The term of public collections has been exactly defined in the relevant legal requirements „libraries, archives, museum institutions, image and sound archives owned or maintained by the state, local self-government and national self-government, public bodies and public foundations.”[3] It can be read from the definition that the collection and preservation of cultural goods and „to make the tangible and intangible cultural heritage accessible”[4] are ensured jointly by institutions operating in separate sectors.
Who is responsible for the performance of the tasks incurred in the field of archival administration?
The archival activities’- of course, measured by the level of development of that age (in ancient times the texts were initially engraved on stone tablets) – right to exist is unquestionable basically from the appearance of literacy, for the protection, continuous enrichment and use of archival material that is a primary source of knowledge of the historical past and essential for the continuous performance of public tasks and the exercise of civil rights, which is part of the nation’s cultural heritage.[5] Our history is accompanied by organizational and professional changes in the development history of archival administration[6]; in the present study I examine the area from the aspect of organizational theory starting from the regime change. The situation of the economic actors producing archival material and the system of state bodies have also undergone significant reforms from the ’90s thus it has become justified to review the relevant legislation developed in the course of the work of the current legislator, but mature for further change, whereas, within the framework of the rule of law, it is essential to develop the highest possible level of regulation in all sectors in connection with the provision of public services. 1995 LXVI. law in public documents, the protection of public archives and private archives (referred to as the Archives Act) was born as a result of the reference period. The purpose of the Act[7] provides clear guidance on government responsibilities in the field: the State has to ensure the preservation of the archives of any organ performing public tasks, as well as the archives of natural persons – as material in public archives and public private archives or as protected archival material – remains intact and usable for future generations.[8] The active involvement of the state in this area is essential: the archival material must be provided in such a way as to ensure that it can be made known within a regulated framework, subject to the guarantee of constitutional rights and the rules of data protection.[9] In order to achieve these goals our Archives Act – in summary- prescribes the performance of the following basic tasks[10] of public archives for public archives[11]: receiving and collecting archival material, professionally handles it, safely preserves it, issue a certified copy or extract of the contents of the archival material, inspect the archival disposal and record-keeping procedure of the business associations and the bodies performing public tasks, ensure the conservation and restoration of damaged or destroyed archival material, conducting archival and historical research, promotes the use of archival material for educational and public cultural purposes, etc. It is clear from the above that human-public services in the cultural sphere provided in the area are non-market-based public services from which no member of society can be excluded. The government fulfills its obligation by the authorisation of the citizens, and the central budget guarantees the cost of the service. Thus, in the case of public services in the archival area, the State may, by its own activities, ensure that the performance of those tasks is adequately ensured in the long term, only this could constitute a guarantee of the proper handling of the public interest. Throughout history, the apparatuses have recognized that the scope and significance of archival material, as well as the heterogeneity of the tasks[12] required to perform, requires the establishment of a network of institutions that can meet these expectations with the highest level of professionalism.
According to the Archives Act, there are two types of archives in Hungary today: public private archives and public archives which are the archives of the general archives, the state professional archives, as well as local governments, public bodies, public foundations or other bodies performing public tasks specified by law. In the following paragraphs, my research focuses on the history of the development of the organizational design of general archives.
Situation of general archives until the Archives Act was born
An idea, based on my own experience, is opening the historical perspective, which – without the need for a rich historical, professional analysis – will go back to history in order to understand the organisational and practical problems that have arisen to the emergence of the system of organs today. In 2007, during a meeting with the directors of the county archives maintained by the Győr-Moson-Sopron County Local Government, a remark was shared with me – raised in other professional forums and in the literature – in connection with the relationship between politics and archives: because a democratic system requires the operation of bodies (the archives) that facilitate the traceability of the statements and actions of government leaders. After World War II, Hungary was under a socialist rule, so by building up the ideologian background – with a high degree of centralisation following a Soviet pattern – there was a reorganisation in the historical archive system.[13] As a result, in view of the fact that the establishment of district archives with more than one county had failed mainly for material reasons, the State Regional Archives with county and capital scope of jurisdiction[14] were set up in 1953, and the National Archives worked besides them, with competence on documents of courts and central government authorities; professional management was in the hands of the National Centre for Archives. The system established under the aegis of centralisation lasted until the end of 1967 and, with effect from 1 January 1968, the territorial archives, as the institutions[15] of the county councils[16], continued their operations.[17] Within a short time, a new, comprehensive regulation[18] of the archives was born, which as the native of the state socialist period, it also determined the legal background of archival administration in the first few years after the change of regime. On the basis of the new legislation, the scope of duties of the National Archives was shared: The National Archives continued to carry out tasks related to the archival material for the period before the year 1945, while the Central Archives of the New Hungarian Central Unit continued to act in respect of the file for subsequent years. These bodies, as well as the council archives, functioned as general archives: the national archives performed the tasks related to the records of the central bodies of national significance (individuals), while the council archives acted as county (capital) competences.
As a result of the change of regime, the restoration of the rule of law had to build on a new foundation for the organisation of the state organisation, which, of course, had a significant impact on the lives of the general archives, so this period will be the next stage of our story. In view of the fact that the legislation of 1969 was no longer suitable for the management of archive management, it became urgent to develop the legal background of the area, in line with the new economic and social policy environment. The „legislative machine“ plunged into the process of regulation of new legal institutions at a rapid rate, resulting in a demanding, active legislative period in the Parliament’s lifetime; it was visible that the resolution of the archives would have to wait a few more years. In view of the need to make the necessary decisions at least on fundamental issues in order to ensure that the area is operational, the legislator resolved the situation by means of legislation on municipalities. This proved to be a right decision, since, in establishing the organisation of the territorial administration, the concepts relating to the construction of municipal systems and the operation of archives are linked to each other on a number of points. In this period, a series of legislative provisions of major importance in the field of archives had seen the world which, as outlined below, will be mentioned in chronological order in order to demonstrate the gradual legal settlement of the area. On 3 August 1990, the Parliament decided[19] on the future situation of the territorial organs of the archival system as follows: „The local authority is the legal successor of the dissolution council and its organs.”[20] The property of the educational, cultural, health, social, sports and other institutions under the management and ownership of the councils became the property of the local governments.[21] In this context, former Council archives continued to operate in the maintenance of the county (capital city) municipalities. Fifthly, the Minister responsible for the sector (in this period the Minister of Education and Education) has been entrusted with the regulation of the professional requirements of the institutions maintained by local authorities and the regulation of the institutions (archives) at regulatory level, and the Minister controls these standards[22] (so that it has been declarable as to how the governance is managed by the government). On 23 May 1991, a further piece of legislation which clearly marked the responsibility of the county authorities to maintain the archives was adopted[23] as follows: „The local government of the capital and the county is obliged to ensure the receipt, collection and preservation, processing and researchability of the municipal self-government bodies and non-central state bodies operating in its territory, as well as its own historical value documents, and other local archival material.”[24]
In addition to the fact that the obligation to carry out tasks in connection with the organisation of the public service (liability) lies with the (municipal) county authorities, that provision also established its competence. Moreover, the legislation also led to specific tasks in the direction of the reservations, for example by setting out that the general meeting of the local authority would approve the work plan or report of the municipal archives. In addition, it should be noted that it was again possible to establish and maintain archives for municipal authorities. Three counties, Székesfehérvár (in 1992), Győr (1993), and Tatabánya (1995) also lived with the revitalisation license, of which Székesfehérvár and Győr had already operated an urban archives prior to nationalisation in the early 1950s. The following relevant legislation, which entered into force on 8 August 1991, provided for the title of the depository substances as follows: „ (1)The ownership of the archival material of local governments and their institutions, as well as their public utilities and their legal predecessors shall be governed by the archival legislation . 2. Archival material created in connection with the operation of the bodies referred to in paragraph 1, as well as non-central state bodies and belonging to their archives for their intended purpose, shall not be marketable. The placement of this archival material in the county and capital archives does not affect the right of ownership.”[25] From the point of view of organizational theory, it is important to emphasize here that according to another legal provision[26], starting from July 1, 1992, “where a law mentions a New Hungarian Central Archives, it shall mean the Hungarian National Archives” so only the Hungarian National Archives continues to operate. Following the change of regime, the National Assembly, while retaining a legislative act regulating the area of archive management, did not leave the area itself: It did not leave the scope of the comprehensive regulation of the archives and the change in the social and economic policy situation and the operational mechanisms of the reformed state organisation complied with its legislative obligations on a number of occasions.
As regards the regulation of the field of archive management, the following milestone was the creation of a historical archives law which had already been referred to earlier on 30 June 1995 in respect of each of its provisions. The number and organisational structure of the general archives remained unchanged compared to that established during the legal regime following the change in the system, included in this circle the county archives, Archives of the Departments of Budapest, the archive maintained by the Municipality of Budapest, and the Hungarian National Archives (general archives can be set up or removed by the National Assembly). The Hungarian National Archives was the central general archives, including the National Assembly and Office, autonomous public administration bodies, ministries, documents of the State Audit Office, etc. The territorial general archives are the Archives of the county archives and the archive maintained by the Municipality of Budapest. Although local governments can still exercise the right to establish[27] an archive, this was done in 2004 in the case of only one settlement, the city of Vác[28], in addition to the three previously mentioned cities with county status.
Until today, the Archives Act has been amended several times, which is a clear indication that some of its provisions have an impact on a range of fields belonging to many other sectors. There has been a change in the text in cases, where legislation specifically designed to adapt or complement the legislation[29] on the field and, on the other hand, when it has been introduced by a switching act, whether or not belonging to one or other sectors (for example, in the field of Interpretative provisions[30], rules governing the definition of archives and the definition of archive collection are still in force).[31] For the sake of completeness, it is appropriate to briefly mention that the historical archives are not, of course, ruled out by the provisions of the Archives Act, but in conjunction with other legislation on the legal settlement of the area. Under the background legislation of the Archives Act, we find other legislation at legal level[32] which is intended to regulate a subarea and thus complement each other as a basis for the proper functioning of the archives. As a study of the underlying background legislation, we will also see a series of provisions adopted under the authority of the Archives Act: These legislation is issued by the Government[33] and by the Minister responsible for the sector[34] on the other.
In light of the above, it could be noted that the apparatus understood and took the importance of public services provided by archives, which resulted in the State having ensured the quality of public services through its legislative activities, operating (operational) conditions and monitoring their compliance. Thus, in the enumeration of the legal institutions of the Archives Act, a strong public presence (e.g. legislation, organisation) has been published, and I will now look for answers to questions raised in practice in the context of the organisation of the public service in an interesting theoretical discussion.
The situation of the general archives over a period of one and a half decade after the constitution of the Archives Act
The general register of archives in the field of archival management, as outlined in the previous chapter, remained unchanged for many years in the public administration, but in the background, a process took place for the public service provided by the archives, which later justified changing historical results of the Archives Act. During the 15 years following the change of regime, although the number of personnel working[35] in archives increased, it was true that a number of new challenges also increased, and a number of new challenges have to be met, and this is an increase in the spectrum of working on the electronic platform through the development of technology. However, a significant number of redundancies occurred after 2006, such as the size of the sector’s territorial level in terms of the size of two medium-sized institutions, for example in 2005 and 2010. The power of the figures points out that, during that period, the capacity of a medium-sized archive increased by an appropriate quantity, not precluded by the increased workload involved, but the rapid decline in the storage capacity of the institutions (in some county archives the archives were essentially filled). When comparing the revenue side of the total budget of the area system organ system for 2005 and 2010, it can be deduced from the figures that on average the amount of the difference in the budget revenue of three medium-sized institutions is sufficient.
According to the Archives Act, the maintenance of the public archives is subject to the budgetary conditions necessary for its proper functioning. How can the maintenance of the public service obligation, which is also reflected in the constitutional level, serve as a basis for securing a culture to culture, may be inadequate? When dealing with problems affecting territorial archives, as detailed above, particularly in the budgetary context, it is appropriate to examine a bird’s perspective for a short period of time, since it is not possible to realistically assess them if they do not look at the sides of the provincial (metropolitan) municipalities. As from 1 January 2007, the county (capital city) competent authorities were integrated into the Regional Directors of the Adoption and Financial Control Agency[36], of course also reducing the „weight“ of the county authorities, their financial freedom and the effects of the 2008 economic crisis in all sectors. In addition, a number of government efforts, generally resulting from policy considerations, have influenced the rules governing the area of operation of the territorial organs of the public administration, which has preferred the principle of regional organisation to the regional allocation based on historical traditions in Hungary. In most of these reform attempts, they are trapped in the maze of conditions governing the regulation of legislative processes, a good example of this when the Government has set up regional administrative offices by means of unconstitutional rules[37] in the context of the regional reorganisation of administrative offices. The county authorities were also not involved in these government ideas, but given that the political will behind the political will was not the power required for the legal moderation requiring qualified majority, so that the organisational changes that could be implemented through legislation were not possible. As a result, other „assets“ have been applied, such as the continued decline in the revenue of the budgets of the regional authorities over the period under consideration, i.e. by increasing their resources from year to year (jol makes sense of the irresponsible nature of such decisions, thus making it difficult to operate institutions such as the home of a disabled child). In this situation, the Heads of State of the Departments responded differently. As a solution, the material resources were stalled by other means, such as loans or bond issuances (the revenue from the bond issue was capable of generating unprofitable loans on the one hand and financing of the operating deficit). The municipality was thus able to provide their institutions with the necessary financial framework for their operation. In other economic policy directions, expenditure was reduced under the increasingly scarce financial framework, which initially resulted in a loss of material in rem and rationalising the use of available real estate (e.g. real estate sales / rental) and the pooling of institutions operating in the same field. Where these solutions have not been sufficient, I have worked in some workshops for the work of 6 and 4 hours a day (a significant financial burden on the shoulders of public employees who are otherwise neither high wages)[38] and, in worse cases, redundancies. Ultimately, none of the directions meant a long-term solution, as many municipalities accumulated tens of billions of dollars in this period, and the application of austerity had significantly „grave“ both the functional function and the professional work (in many cases the aim was to ensure the functionality of archives and professional interests were fully overshadowed). Archives were even more difficult in terms of the nature of the public service they provided, since the reservations were more difficult for a smaller „(society) political storm“ for an institution where the situation of non-children or socially deprived persons is difficult (e.g. child protection centre, mental health at home). Moreover, it was also difficult for archives to have a significant fall in their market interest compared to other institutions operating in the cultural field (libraries, museums).
The direction of change, on the way to the solution
As explained above, it could be seen that in the long term, this situation is unsustainable. Of course, discussions between workshops, reservations and institutions, as well as on the part of the government, have led to a more active exploitation of the possibilities offered by the development of technology, such as technology development, which can help to bring the public services provided by the archives „closer“ to users, while also increasing the need for action and their revenue. It has also been suggested that the potential change in the maintenance body would lead to changes, but it is also true that ideas, proposals at the level of proposals do not provide meaningful assistance (of course they could have given us a good chance to find solutions, but without clear elaboration and implementation, there will be tensions in the field of expertise).
Before I turn to the practical solution to the situation, I would like to briefly outline the basis for establishing a theoretical plane which helps us to understand what the state had to choose between the options for establishing institutional reservations in the context of institutional reservations. In one of the organisational structures under the auspices of decentralisation, the influence of local authorities in the organisation of the public service is strengthened, as they have a decision-making competence in the area. In addition to these administrative provisions, it is common ground that the range of users of public services is thus „closer“ to the provision of public services, which helps to better enforce local needs. The other direction is centralisation, which clearly strengthens the power of central bodies vis-à-vis local authorities; it is argued that the representation of such a major national interest area should be centrally managed and that this level is also decisive for the „division“ of material resources. In Hungary, the legislature had to choose between these two actors: it would continue to provide for the reservation of territorial archives or to take control within the municipal framework.
Before making a decision, it is necessary to consider the expectations of the legislature during this period. In order to answer this question, it is based on the report of the Archives Committee on the Maintenance, Finance, Development and Maintenance of the Historical Archives in the archives of the Archives held on 16 December 2010 by the College of Archives[39] on 16 December 2010. As a fundamental objective, it is stated that, in the context of the ongoing modernisation of public administration, it is necessary to declare the future operational principles and organisational boundaries of the territorial general (county, capital city) archives. Departmental and municipal archives should be subject to central supervision and control, i.e., following a centralisation direction, to be governed by central supervision and management and, consequently, the autonomy of the majority of the documents held in the general archives in the context of public authorities or administrative procedures installed in municipalities, thus ensuring that their survival is essentially a public task. A priority was to create a harmonised professional management which could not be changed between the previous reservations (the problems identified, especially those of a particularly professional nature) were resolved by the reservations (often not complied with by reason of financial reasons). It has applied as an acute problem (also today) that the technical, personal and historical capacities of individual archives vary considerably, resulting in other and other professional practices, in addition to the quality of terms of reference, which are in breach of the rights of equal opportunities for citizens.[40] As a consequence of the previous status quo, the allotment of historical knowledge of historical archives and the adaptation of domestic and foreign experience were quite possible; there was a clear lack of a comprehensive knowledge centre for archival education. The problem is increasing (today) in parallel with the government’s e-administration efforts: In synchronous e-administration with the full e-administration system, archives were to be prepared for the reception of electronically-generated public documents (handling of e-files and maintaining a coordinated, managed function of archives in the future). An efficient, centrally organised, enhanced public engagement has also been requested by the lack of stock in the majority of institutions. In this situation, it is only possible to legalise the e-mail system, because according to the legislation, public documents will be delivered 15 years after their creation, so that the vast majority of the documents that are generated today are still on paper.[41] The report has, of course, set out in detail the model for optimal financing of the organisational and professional environment which is developed in line with the requirements set out above.
Following the national and municipal elections which took place in 2010, there was a clear intention on the part of the government to reform the territorial administration. The first milestone of the relevant legislation is that: as from 1 January 2011, government offices (capitals) of counties, which had been integrated in the following years, had radically transformed the organisational structure of territorial administration and foresaw the direction of changes in the administrative area of local government.[42]
The situation of the county (capital city) municipalities was finally adopted by means of a legislative decree declarated on 25 November 2011[43], with effect from 1 January 2012 that the institutional maintenance of the county (capital city) authorities had ceased to exist, and the institutions were subject to public reservations at the same time as HUF 197,6 billion. The challenge was a major challenge given the simultaneous settlement of the situation of several institutions belonging to several separate sectors (hospitals, children’s protection, education and social institutions, archives, etc.). In the beginning, all the institutions, with the exception of hospitals, were established by a public body at departmental level, maintained by the county institution-building centre,[44] pending the development of a technically sound organisational framework for the long-term resolution of their management in that sector. These public reservations were capable of assessing the operational (functional) needs of each institution and the professional expectations, including proposals for regulation.
The organisational restructuring of the general archives was, of course, carried out by means of amendment[45] of the provisions of the Archives Act, adopted on 21 May 2012. The legal basis for the incorporation of general archives into historical archives at the national level has been declared as the objective of the proposal for a legalisation proposal for submission. In the new organisational structure, the territorial archives have been merged into the Hungarian National Archives and operate as departments at departmental level (as Member States), thus established by the Hungarian National Archives on 1 October 2013. The general archives include the Hungarian National Archives, the Archives of the County Archives and Budapest Municipal Council. The institutional autonomy of the Historical Archives has thus ceased, but the content of the public service provision has not changed: The member institution functions at the county level the Hungarian National Archives, the Director (s) of the Hungarian National Archives is appointed by the Director-General of the National Archives of Hungary, with the agreement of the Minister responsible for culture.
Conclusion
In the introductory lines, I have undertaken the task of following the recent engagement of the State in the field of public service management in the history of historical archives, based on the processes carried out in the archive management area. In the previous chapters, several occasions in the columns of my investigation have been made to express my conviction, making it sound by way of approach to the different aspects of the various aspects, so that only a brief summary will be taken in this chapter. As a result of my analysis, I conclude my findings along the same thought, along with possible variants of public engagement, as I have done in the preparation of previous chapters:
In the field of archive management, the active role of the State effectively responsible for the organisation of public service activities is unquestionable, in particular with regard to the constitutional authority and the obligation of decisive importance in the state of law (taking into account the needs of society and the opportunities given to technical development) as regards the declaration and provision of the scope of these public services. Following the role of the county (capital city) municipal administrator in Hungary, a regional archival organisation established on the basis of the current centralist principle can be a workable solution (of course, in addition to its significant activity in urban areas and in particular in the field of ecclesiastical archives). In order to protect the municipal reserve (a solution based on the deconcentage principle), it is important to note that although the degree of financing problems, a series of erroneous political decisions are likely to result from a series of erroneous political decisions, the central government, which is directly responsible for allocating resources, plays a role in determining the material background. Of course, despite the municipal Autonomia, if the central management does not provide sufficient resources to the municipality, it will only be able to maintain the position of a given sector at an appropriate level for a short period of time. In my view, this centralist approach creates a more optimal situation in the field of expertise: Firstly, because central management is able to create the same conditions and to provide a single direction for professional work; secondly, it is not necessarily justified that the municipality or local particularities determinate the professional work (a responsible director will do so to the extent necessary and if the municipality has a higher level of interest, there is a legal possibility to set up its own archives). As custodians of archives, I agree with the Commission’s proposal, which was previously referred to in the aforementioned Commission proposal, as guardian of the archives in order to protect our identity. The politicised nature of State involvement, as we have seen in the presentation of recent events, has a significant effect (6) in the exercise of power, including in the field of public service organisation. Measures taken under the political / professional / moral responsibility of leaders of a democratic state of law can be achieved through the functioning of the elected government, which is also a constitutional obligation to adequately ensure the complex, complex processes of the organisation of public services, such as the management of the archives.
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The Fundamental Law of Hungary (25 April 2011)
Act XL of 1995 on public procurement
Act CLIV of 2011 on the consolidation of county self-governments, the takeover of county health care institutions and certain health care institutions of the Metropolitan Self-Government
Act CXL of 1997 on Museum Institutions, Public Library Services
and public education
Act LXVI of 1995 on public documents, the protection of public archives and private archives
Act LXIV of 2001 on Protection of Cultural Heritage
258/2011. (XII. 7.) Government Decree on county institutional maintenance centers and amending certain government decrees related to the consolidation of county self-governments, the takeover of county self-government institutions and health care institutions of the Metropolitan Self-Government
7/2002. (II. 27.) NKÖM decree on the College of Archives and the Supervision of Archives
[1] The Fundamental Law of Hungary (25 April 2011) Article XI (1)
[2] from Edvard Burnett Tylor (2 October 1832-2 January 1917) British anthropologist’s book titled „Primitive Culture” (1871).
[3] 1997 CXL. law Museum Institutions, Public Library Services and public education, Annex 1. o)
[4] 1997 CXL. law Museum Institutions, Public Library Services and public education, from the provisions of 3/A.§
[5] Preambulum-1995 LXVI. law in public documents, the protection of public archives and private archives
[6] It is necessary to note that this development history has its own shadow periods too, for example the work of being forced to conform to the socialist ideology of the 1950s did not help the development of the profession.
[7] Archives Act Section 1
[8] Archives Act Section 3 j)
[9] GARAYOVA, Lilla: Information security awareness in public administrations at an international level. In: Public Governance, Administration and Finances Law Review: Dialóg Campus Kiadó ISSN 2498-6275. 2019, p. 30-51
[10] see Section 13 for more information
[11] Public archives, of course, perform their basic tasks within their sphere of competence.
[12] The collection and preservation of the archival material and it also has to be registered, processed, preserved, certified copies (extract) have to be prepared etc. In my view, it is of particular importance to the inspection activities of archives on the basis of records management aspects, given that the constructive attitude of the archivist, in addition to ensuring the lawfulness of the records management processes, can help to understand the need for the proper performance of the documents in the records management.
[13] The reorganisation was made on the basis of Law Decree No. 29 of 1950 on Archives.
[14] The exception is the county of Győr-Sopron, where, the large, valuable historical archives of Sopron and its surrounding area was taken into account, two regional public archives were established, in Győr and in Sopron. The centralisation of municipal and departmental archives located in the same place was also done.
[15] In addition to Győr-Sopron county, there were also two county archives in Csongrád county in Szeged and Szentes (the latter until 1973).
[16] In Budapest, of course, it operated as an institution of the capital city council.
[17] Based on Government Decision 2045/1967 (VIII.8.)
[18] Legislative Decree No. 29 of 1969 on the protection of archival material and archives, and Government Decree 30/1969 (IX. 2.) on its implementation
[19] Act LXV of 1990 On Local Governments (hereinafter: Ötv.)
[20] Ötv. Section 103 (3)
[21] Ötv. Section 107 (1) d)
[22] Ötv. Section 97 b)
[23] Act XX of 1991 on the tasks and powers of local governments and their bodies, republican commissioners and certain centrally subordinate bodies
[24] Act XX of 1991 on the tasks and powers of local governments and their bodies, republican commissioners and certain centrally subordinate bodies Section 108 (2) b)
[25] Act XXXIII of 1991 on some state-owned assets owned by municipalities addition
[26] Act LXXXIII of 1991 amending Decree-Law No 27 of 1969 on the protection of archival material and archives
[27] In view of the fact that the relevant legal requirements have put in place the obligation to maintain archives in the (capital city) county municipalities, local authorities are likely to avail themselves of this option only if it provides significant professional advantages (e.g. to store documents in a better archival area) to offset the financial burden deriving from the maintenance of the institution.
[28] The archives had no predecessor in view of the absence of archives in the City of Vác before 1950.
[29] Act CXLIX of 2005, Act XCVII of 2007
[30] Archives Act Section 3
[31] Section 95 (1) of Act LXIV of 2001 on the Protection of Cultural Heritage was added to the designated passages. It was also amended by Act CXL of 1997 on Museum Institutions, Public Library Services
and public education, the protection of personal data and the public interest in the public interest, Act LXIII of 1992, etc.
[32] e.g. Act CXL of 1997 on Museum Institutions, Public Library Services and public education, Act CLV of 2009 on Protection of Classified Information, Act LXIV of 2001 on Protection of Cultural Heritage
[33] e.g. 335/2005. (XII. 29.) Government Decree on the general requirements for the records management of public bodies, 90/2010. (III. 26.) Government Decree on the operation of the National Security Authority and the handling of classified data, etc.
[34] e.g. 7/2002. (II. 27.) NKÖM decree on the College of Archives and the Supervision of Archives, 14/2010. (XI. 25.) NEFMI decree authorizing the export of cultural goods, 27/2015. (V. 27.) EMMI Decree on professional requirements for the operation of public archives and public private archives
[35] For example, in 1989, there were 522 employees in the capital and county archives, with 608 people in 2000.
[36] Act LXI of 2006 amending certain financial laws
[37] The Constitutional Court finds in its 90/2007. (XI. 14.) AB decision that the local 1990 LXV on governments. The first sentence of Section 98 (1) of Act No. 297/2006 Coll. (XII. 23.) are unconstitutional, therefore they will be annulled with effect from 30 June 2008.
[38] Usually by appointment amendment based on mutual consent for limited term,
[39] 7/2002. (II. 27.) NKÖM decree on the College of Archives and the Supervision of Archives
[40] Citizens can have access to documents to self-sufficient legal certainty in different ways and effectiveness within the different points of the country, to the extent that their rights to the knowledge of the written national heritage can be enforced under different conditions.
[41] According to a 2010 survey, the availability of available storage capacity is 30% higher than the amount of documents not yet taken and the level of that data has been exponentially increasing over the years.
[42] The study only took place in the context of reforms affecting the county authorities, given the fact that the functioning of urban archives for municipalities has not yet been affected by changes in its position. In view of the role of municipalities in the municipalities, some of the public education and social institutions have been subject to public reservations, and libraries that have been operating in the former county municipal reserve have merged into the organisation of urban libraries.
[43] Act CLIV of 2011 on the consolidation of county self-governments, the takeover of county health care institutions and certain health care institutions of the Metropolitan Self-Government
[44] 258/2011. (XII. 7.) Government Decree on county institutional maintenance centers and amending certain government decrees related to the consolidation of county self-governments, the takeover of county self-government institutions and health care institutions of the Metropolitan Self-Government
[45] Act LXI of 2012 Act LXVI of 1995 on Public Documents, Archives and the Protection of Private Archival Material. Act III of 2003 on the Exploration of the Secret Service Activities of the Past System and on the Establishment of the Historical Archives of the State Security Services amending the law