Almost from the day he started working for the Dutch State Archives Service, international work has been part of the professional life of Eric Ketelaar. So it was no surprise that, when asked what type of book he would like for a present at his departure as General State Archivist, he suggested a collection of the articles he published in foreign journals. Most of these are based on the speeches Ketelaar made abroad throughout the past ten years: at conferences of professional archival associations in Australia, South Africa and the usa, during professional visits to neighbouring countries, and as part of the various positions he held within the International Council on Archives (ica). In the years that Eric Ketelaar was General State Archivist, the Dutch State Archives Service underwent a process of transformation. The service became an agency, a modern client-oriented organization preparing to meet the challenges of the information era. Electronic records, computerization of finding aids, conservation and preservation of paper are spearheads of archival policy. More than one of the ideas from this book has found its way to everyday practice.
Contents: A. Nuis, Preface; Yvonne Bos-Rops, Introduction; Eric Ketelaar, Archives of the people, by the people, for the people; -, The right to know, the right to forget? Personal information in public archives; -, Der Archivar als Vermittler zwischen der toten Vergangenheit und dem lebenden Volk; -, Muller, Feith and Fruin, Archival Theory and the Dutch Manual; -, Exploitation of new archival materials; -, La mise en oeuvre des nouvelles archives; -, Centralization, decentralization and the archives in the Netherland; -, Privatarchive, Sonderarchive und die Benützer; -, Das Berufsbild des Archivars in den Niederlanden heute und in der Zukunft; -, The archival image; -, Can we trust information?