How to develop an archive management vision
An archive management vision is a short text in which you outline why you care for your archive and what goals you want to achieve with it. You might engage in archive management to easily find documents and work efficiently, to reconstruct the history of your practice or organisation, or to showcase (parts of) your archive (such as a photo collection). It’s worthwhile considering what you want to achieve to take targeted steps in archive management. Artists or arts organisations receiving operational subsidies under the arts decree are also required to develop an archive management vision.
To formulate an archive management vision, it’s best to consider questions like: what do I consider to be archival material? Why am I keeping this material? Where do I want to go with my archive management? Then link concrete actions to your goals and think of a realistic timeline. Consider how you will achieve these goals and what you specifically need to do. It’s also best to document responsibilities: who will carry out these actions and/or maintain an overview?
The step-by-step guide with questionnaire that we created for the meeting on 16 November 2023 can help you to develop an archive management vision by asking targeted questions. Involve colleagues in answering these questions, so you can formulate a vision that everyone can agree with and is supported within the organisation. The Flanders Architecture Institute (VAi) also created a checklist for archive management for designers, which provides insights into what you’re already doing in terms of archive management.
Author: Justine Van Gysel (CEMPER/en), Delphine Vanoverberghe (VAi/en)