Company archive – the beginning

Many of you, with the so-called scope of your duties as company archive manager, surely don’t know where to begin. Often, you haven’t been trained, and your employer requires you to record, secure, and store file folders that are transferred from individual organizational units (departments) to your company archive. Well, I’m here to help.

The first, and in my opinion, most important thing is knowledge of the legal acts that apply to the institution where you work.
I personally divide the aforementioned legal acts into two types – external and internal.

1. EXTERNAL
   The most important legal act that every archivist should know is the Act on National Archival Resources and Archives of July 14, 1983. You can find it at the following link:
   https://isap.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/DocDetails.xsp?id=WDU19830380173
   As an aside, you should know that on the website isap.sejm.gov.pl (the Online System of Legal Acts), you will find all the acts, regulations, and other similar documents you are interested in.

As company archivists, you must also determine the legal status of your institution from the very beginning, meaning what regulations it operates under. In short, this means whether you work for a state or local government institution, a private company, or, for example, a foundation, association, etc.
Another external document that establishes these internal ones is the Regulation of the Prime Minister of January 18, 2011, regarding office instructions, uniform subject-specific lists of records, and instructions on the organization and scope of operations of company archives. Available at this address: http://isap.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/DocDetails.xsp?id=WDU20110140067
It defines three basic issues:

1. office instructions,
2. the method of classifying and qualifying documentation in the form of uniform factual lists of records,
3. instructions on the organization and scope of operations of company archives

2. INTERNAL
   Based on the above Regulation, you determine the Office Instructions, the Unified Material List of Records, and the Archival Instructions for the institution where you work.
   The Office Instructions define detailed rules and procedures for performing office activities within the entity and regulate the handling of all documentation in this regard. These office activities can be performed traditionally or using EZD (electronic document management). Currently, the vast majority of institutions in Poland use the traditional method (i.e., everything is handled by, for example, sending letters by traditional mail, manually entering outgoing and incoming documents into correspondence notebooks, etc.).
   The Unified Material List of Records – defines the rules for classification (i.e., what goes where) and qualification (division into categories A and B) of documentation. Every JRWA has a similar structure, regardless of where you work. The first four classes are typical:
   0 – Management
   1 – Human Resources
   2 – Material Resources
   3 – Finance
   From 4 onwards, this covers the operations of your institution.
   It should be noted that the above classes are first-order classes.
   Below these classes lie the second, third, fourth, etc., orders, which cover increasingly more specific topics (I call them “matryoshkas” 😉

Let me give you an example (of course, each institution has its own JRWA):

1					HR
	10				Employment
		110			Layoffs	B5
		111			Employment services
			1110		Employment contracts
				11100	Fixed-Term	B50
				11101	Indefinite-Term	B50
			1111		Mnagement Contracts
			1112		Contracts for Specific Work
	11				Insurance	A

Remember, when searching for a document to be assigned to a specific issue within the State Archives Authority (JRWA), look for the document that describes the document’s content in the most detail!
Archive Instructions (or Instructions on the Organization and Scope of Operations of Company Archives – you can call it that).
It specifies:
– the organization and tasks of the company archives
– the location of the company archives
– the acceptance of documentation into the company archives
– the storage, security, recording, and organization of collected documentation
– the provision of access to documentation
– the withdrawal of documentation from the company archives
– the disposal of non-archival documentation
– the transfer of archival materials to the company archives
– reporting by the company archives
It is very important to coordinate the above-mentioned documents with the State Archives, which exercises archival supervision over your institution (usually this is a cover letter requesting approval, plus the IK, JRWA, and IA for approval).

Then, once the director of the aforementioned State Archives approves these documents, the director/head/president of our institution implements them by means of an appropriate Order. Today’s post touched on a bit of law, but unfortunately, without even a basic understanding of the above legal acts, you won’t be able to get ahead in your company archives.
I know that for someone who hasn’t had any experience with document archiving, these matters may seem difficult. I can suggest that when preparing IK, IA, and JRWA for your institution, you can follow the example of others (just search online) or ask for help from someone at the State Archives that governs your institution.
Good luck! I’m keeping my fingers crossed.