The archival training in the post-custodial era, in accordance with a scientific-informational paradigm : the portuguese model

Abstract

After the French Revolution, Archivistics developed as an auxiliary science, in the scope of History and Positivism. By the end of 19th century, when the famous Manual of Dutch Archivists was published (1998), it started a disciplinary autonomy becoming a subject of technical character. The French model that expanded through the Europe is still dominant today, namely in what concerns archival education, and can be designated as the historicist, custodial and technical paradigm. The evolution of the professional education in Portugal in the area of Archives and Libraries, since the creation of the Librarian-Archivist Course, in 1887, and its substitute, in 1982, designated as Specialization Course in Documentary Sciences, has been always in accordance with such paradigm. The impact of the social, economic, cultural and technological conditions of Information Society in Portugal arises a new perspective that understands Archival Science as an applied discipline in the area of Information Science and, because of that, a new education model appeared in 2001, at under graduated level, in the University of Porto. It constitutes an innovative proposal in the scope of Information Science, oriented to educate information professionals able to work in any organisational context.