Business Archives in Finland

EBNA, Brussels 18th November 2010

Jussi NuortevaDirector General

National Archives Service

Archives Act 831/1994

4 §The duty of the National

Archives Service is to ensure the preservation

and availability of records belonging to the national cultural heritage, to promote

research and to guide, develop and study

archives and records administration.

Private Archives – a Mirror of the

Finnish Society

”The acquisition of private documents

aims at creating archives that offer an authentic, balanced and sufficient picture of various sectors of the Finnish society in

different eras.”

Strategy of the NAS 2010

CHAPTER 5 – Private Archives

17§

Private archives or documents therein can, by agreement with the owner of the archives, be taken into the preservation and care of the National Archives, provincial archives or other archives referred to in this act.

Access to private letters and other documents belonging to private archives referred to above in subsection 1 is subject to agreement with the party donating the material.

CHAPTER 5 – Private Archives

19 §

If an archive in private ownership or a document therein of scholarly or other significance is in apparent danger of being destroyed or lost or is offered for sale, the National Archives Service is entitled, within the bounds of available appropriations and at current prices, to purchase such a document or an archive, or make copies of it. A decision shall be made at the same time concerning access to the purchased material. Stipulations of the Act on the Openness of Government Activities shall be observed where applicable.

CHAPTER 5 – Private Archives

20 §

The National Archives Service is entitled to order a private document, collection or archives, which can be assumed to meet the requirements stipulated in subsection 1 of section 19, to be immediately transferred to the National Archives, provincial archives or some other safe storage place with a public authority until the question of a purchase or copying has been resolved in accordance with the law.

Information shall not be given to unauthorized parties from any document, collection or archives, as stipulated in subsection 1 above, during the retention period or even later, if the demand for purchase or copying has been duly rejected in accordance with the law.

CHAPTER 5 – Private Archives

21 §

No separate appeal shall be permitted concerning the temporary preservation order issued by the National Archives Service as stipulated above in subsection 1 of section 20. Appeals concerning rulings made by the National Archives Service under section 19 may be submitted to the Administrative Court as prescribed in the Administrative Judicial Procedure Act (586/1996).

National Archives Service of Finland 2010

Director General

GUIDANCE AND PRESERVATIONDIVISION

Deputy Director General

REFERENCE SERVICE DIVISIONDeputy Director General

Governmental Archives Unit

Private Archives Unit

Reference Service Unit

Technical Unit

INTERNAL SERVICES DIVISIONAdministration Director

Internal Audit

Advisory Board for Private ArchivesAdvisory Council

The National Archives

National Heraldic Committee

Hämeenlinna Provincial Archive

JoensuuProvincial Archive

JyväskyläProvincial Archive

MikkeliProvincial Archive

OuluProvincial Archive

TurkuProvincial Archive

VaasaProvincial Archive

Hämeenlinna Provincial Archive

Opened in 2009

Provincial Archives 2010

Helsinki – The National Archives

Hämeenlinnan Provincial Archive

Joensuu Provincial Archive

Jyväskylä Provincial Archive

Mikkeli Provincial Archive

Oulun Provincial Archive

- Sámi Archive (Inari 2012)

Turku Provincial Archive

Vaasa Provincial Archive

● Inari

Military Archives and Archives of the Prime Ministers Office to NAS 2008

State subsidy for private archives • Act on State Subsidy for Private Archives (1006/2006).

• Aims to secure the economic basis of the private archival institutions working to safeguard and preserve nationally important archival heritage

• Support channelled from state budget through National Archives (Private Archives Unite)

• Annually ca 5 million euros

• Archives of the Finnish and Swedish Litterature Socities, Labour Union Archives, Political Parties Archives, Sports Archive, Central Archives for Finnish Business Records (ELKA)

Business Archives in Finland • First proposal to create a Business Archives in

Finland already in 1937. • Association of Business Archives 1950• Main focus on records management on private

sector, but questions of keeping historical records discussed actively since 1950´s.

• Some companies have excellent historical archives open for researchers (A. Ahlström)

• Business archives are kept also in the National Archives and Provincial Archives

ELKA - The Central Archives for

Finnish Business Records (1980) • Nation-wide non-profit institution serving the

business community.

• Supported also by the Finnish Industry

• The Repository's tasks include the collection filing and cataloguing of business records, and putting them at the disposal of research while observing for their use imposed by companies or donors who have entrusted the Repository with their records.

• Over 20 shelfkm material, 400 000 photos and images and 9 000 tape recordings and films

Strenghts and weaknesses • Good coordination and cooperation between the

organizations responsible for keeping business records

• Supported from the Finnish Industry• Cooperation between the business archives and

labour union archives• Strong professional associations and good

international expertise within them • Location of ELKA is not easy for researchers• Lack of common search tools • Preservation of recordings and films is not on

good level

Options and threats • Possibility to save resources through

coordinated work with ”strategic partners”• Digitization and electronic research

environments give better access to materials• Business going global – is there going to be

interest to preserve business archive belonging to the ”national” cultural heritage also in the future

• Archives of the global enterprises in Finland and beyond, who keeps them for the future – Google?

• Budget cuts