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Women and Minority Documentation and Digital Presentation.
The Serbian CaseMiroslav Jovanovich, Jovana Pavlovich, Slobodan Mandich
Archives Network in Serbia
The year of 1898, when The Law on the State Archives passed, is considered a corner stone of modern archival science in Serbia. The State Archives was actually established in 1900 after few unsuccessful attempts to establish this kind of institution in the previous period. In the period between the two world wars and following the formation of the Kingdom Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the newly formed State Archives collected the documentation created by the Yugoslav institutions due to nonexistence of the Yugoslav Archives. In such centralized state, the archives remained scarce, with no developed network on the level of the whole country.
From the modern and legal stand point of view, the archival service began profiling itself in the early years of so-called “new” Yugoslavia. After the liberation, i.e. in 1944-1945, the archive network was developed and as soon as 1950 the Overall Law of State Archives was adopted being the first archival law effective on the whole territory of Yugoslavia. During that period, previously formed “archival departments” changed their status of (1948) archival institutions into municipal state archives, thus comprising the network of eleven city archives in Serbia and nine in Vojvodina. The Archives of Yugoslavia was founded in 1950; “Arhivist”, new federal archival magazine was launched. The Archives of Yugoslavia (State archives of FNRY, nowadays Archives of Serbia and Monte Negro) began its work in 1952.
SFR Yugoslavia used to be a federal country; each of its constituent (republic or province) had a central archives, in addition of the federal archives which preserved the documentation created by federal bodies and organisations. After the dissolution of SFRY, these networks continued to work on the state level of the newly formed states, respectfully; central institutions (except Archives of Serbia) resumed the position of central state archives.
Nowadays, Serbian archives network is comprised of the Archives of Serbia, as a central archives, two provincial, thirty inter-municipal archives, and four city archives.
Preservation of the archival material in the Republic of Serbia is regulated by the Law on Cultural Assets, adopted in 1994. One of the bylaws is a Decree on Determination of archives territory, which determines a territorial jurisdiction of 34 archives on the territory of Republic of Serbia (20 on the territory of central Serbia, 5 on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija and 9 on the territory of Vojvodina). The latest authority subdivision was determined in 1996: just recently a Commission for drafting a new Law on Archives has been commissioned.
In addition to archives organized on the territorial principal, there are specialized archives (diplomatic, military, film, corporative, etc.), in-housed archival departments, for example, the archives of Jewish historical museum in Belgrade.
Information Center of the Archives of Serbia processes overall information on the archival material and archives network of Serbia: record management in the creating agencies, archival ; holdings, finding aids and archival services.
New information technologies greatly affected the workflow in archives as well as information processing on archival material in Serbian archives. The information activity is based on the draft project called JAIS (Integrated archives informational system), initiated in 1995, with the goal to collect overall information on the activities/evidence of the central archives (Archives of Serbia), of all archives, by a specially designed application.
At Historical Archives of Belgrade in 2004 first modules were designed within the scope of project system called Janus. The first modules to be designed were Depot and, within it, Acquisition Inventory where, so far, 2 858 units of description have been stored, retrievable by the description unit name, date of acquisition, inclusive years of the fond/collection, and the module Funds and Collections of the Historical Archives of Belgrade (HAB) with the processed data on 2,452 funds/collections. In the data processing of the fonds and collections, the designed module fully supports professional standards ISAD(g) and EAD DTD for the creation of electronic finding aids. The card file comprising 1,600,000 units of description, arranged by themes and classifiers is an unavoidable source of information. A digitization of the card file would result in a fast, efficient and easy retrieval system. For the purpose of a retrospective conversion of the card file into an electronic format an application was designed which makes it possible for a simultaneous digitization of both the card file and the documents.
Large number of archives have their own Web presentations with the lists of fonds and collections they preserve, in rare cases detailed descriptions are provided. The Historical Archives of Belgrade has provided an advanced research of its funds and collections. 1
However, implementation of new technologies and digitization projects are still at developing phase. Archives need to find ways for acquiring sufficient financial means and to pay attention to keep up the continuous education of archival staff, especially in the field of international standards of archival descriptions. At this level, the basic access to information on archival documents is by traditional information resources – inventories, catalogues, guidelines, published documents, as well as guidance of archivists.1. Separate archives institutions for documents of women and minority groups: how they were organized? It will be interesting to know stories of such collections. How are such documents ordered and separated in the national, regional and municipality archives, in private archives and collections? For example: personal archives of women, archives of women, charity, minority societies etc.
According to our knowledge, there are no specialized archival institutions in Serbia which preserve the documentation on the women and minority groups, except for The Archives of the Jewish Historic Museum in Belgrade. That Archives comprise the documents of the Union of the Jewish Municipalities and the records documenting the life and work in the Jewish community during the World War II; Jewish press from the prewar period; documentation on antisemitism and Holocaust (1941-1945); archival material of the Union and other Jewish municipalities from 1945 until the dissolution of the Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992. One can research press clippings as well. In addition to the original and photo documentation, the archives developed two electronic databases: Holocaust victims in the territory of former Yugoslavia and the Register of births, marriages and deaths of Jews in Belgrade. 2
The documents on the women and minority groups in Serbia are to be found in different funds and collections. On the rare occasion one can come upon a sole collection consisting of documents relative to women and minority groups. The Historical Archives of Belgrade preserve the following funds that contain documents linked to the history of women movement: The University Educated Women Association (1922-1941); Female Doctors of Belgrade Association (1919-o 1939). The Archives of Serbia preserves a collection of journals for women: The World of Women and Housemaid (end of 19th century- beginning of 20th century). Archival material of schools specialized for women can also be interesting for the research of this theme, likewise some personal and family funds, for example personal fund of Jelena Santic (1944 – 2000), famous ballerina and peace activist, and the Glavinic family fund preserved in the Historical Archives of Belgrade.
The situation with documents on the minority groups is not much different: the material is interspersed in many funds and archival institutions: Archives of Serbia and Montenegro, Archives of Vojvodina, Military Historical Institute… Researchers confirm that there is a lot of material covering this theme situated in archives in smaller towns. In addition, one can find useful numerous published books, monographs and editions. Historical Archives of Kikinda published in 1995 the book under the title Culture of Hungarians in Vojvodina by Andras Barat.
Visiting Internet presentations of some minority groups or NGOs can help in searching for the information on both themes of interest, for example in the Internet presentation of Ruski Krustur, a small town / village in Vojvodina, inhabited with the majority of 86% of Rusyns (Ruthenians) one can consult some digitized archival material and at the same time make contacts with the people who possess interesting private archival material. 3 On the website of the Women Studies and Sex Research Center in Belgrade, NGO, a researcher could eventually get some information on literature related to the history women movement and famous women. 4
Books of published documents represent reliable sources for the thematic research on women and minorities. Especially useful could be indexes of names. Researchers should consult series of 5 editions under the title Living in Belgrade, edited by the Historical Archives of Belgrade, which represent documents of the City Government of Belgrade (1837-1889). One can find plenty of records documenting political, social, economical, cultural and military history.2. The kind of research access to documentation on women and minorities in the archives: are there special archives thematic guides or other issues making easier the access to the documentation?
There are no thematic guides or other finding aids and sources reliable for the research purposes on the above specified themes. Traditional finding aids: inventories, catalogues, guides, published documents and competent personnel can help. The collected information should be entered in a database, in compliance with the international standards for processing electronic inventories which will enable sharing of information between different platforms and users.
3. “Privileged” women and minority documentations: documents of which women categories (Artists, feminists, writers, teachers etc.) and of which minorities are better preserved and presented?
The detailed research of documents preserved in different archives in Serbia will give a better prospective on the documents relative to women and the minority groups. At this point, it is evident that the female writers, artists, eminent members of the partisan resistance movement and Communist party, etc. are definitely more covered by documents than everyday women.
1. On the Web site of the Archives of Serbia there is a list of all State’s archives, provided with links to their internet presentations, if they possess one. See: Arhiv Srbije, Arhivska mreza, last modified: 22 August 2007, <http://www.archives.org.yu/amreza.htm> (30 September 2007).
2. Jewish Historical Museum – Belgrade,, Archive, 02 May 2007, <http://www.jimbeograd.org/osnovna/arhiv/index.html>, (30 September 2007).3. Ðóñêè Êåðåñòóð - Ruski Kerestur, Äîêóìåíòè çîç èñòîðè¿ Ðóñêîãî Êåðåñòóðà, 07 March 2007 <http://www.ruskikerestur.com/> (26 September 2007).
4. Belgrade Women’s Studies and Gender Research Center, 01 March 2007, <http://www.zenskestudie.edu.yu/pages/start.htm> (20 September 2007).
