Factors restricting post-1989 access to records in Polish archives

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dc.contributor.authorDRZEWIECKA, Dorota
dc.date.accessioned2025-01-22T08:51:14Z
dc.date.available2025-01-22T08:51:14Z
dc.date.issued2024
dc.descriptionPublished online: 22 November 2024en
dc.description.abstractPurpose: The purpose of this article is to evaluate the laws and rules of accessibility of documentation in Poland after 1989, and the pace of changes, their causes and restrictions. Method/approach: The applied approach was based on the historical and constitutional regime as well as common methods applied in social science – a questionnaire based on the research of 2022 (Friedewald et al., 2023). Results: The evolution of the restrictions of access to contemporary documentation was reproduced based on the analysis of legal acts, ordinances of the General Director of the State Archives, and the internal policies of the archives. The article also presents the results of the surveys conducted in 2024 among 26 Polish scientists (historians) using public archives. Conclusions/findings: After 1989, Poland has undergone evolutionary changes in terms of accessibility to the recent archives for scientists (and citizens as whole). Nonetheless, the rights to protection of personal data have been in effect and continue to have a significant impact on the archivists who decide whether to grant access to the documentation or not. The survey confirmed that older documentation is more accessible than the recent one (including sensitive or confidential documentation). The archives of institutions were not subjected to the Union laws; the historical (national) archives did not struggle with complying with them, since the courageous transformation of the Polish archives in the second half of the 20th century was consistent with the EU policies. However, classified archives (of the central authorities and the Institute of National Remembrance) remain a problem as they have not complied with the Union standards, and the Polish archive authorities are not empowered to interfere in their accessibility policy.en
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationAtlanti+, 2024, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 65-78en
dc.identifier.doi10.33700/2670-4579.34.2(2024)
dc.identifier.endpage78en
dc.identifier.issn2670-4560
dc.identifier.issn2670-4579
dc.identifier.issue2en
dc.identifier.startpage65en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1814/77807
dc.identifier.volume34en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.orcid.uploadfalse*
dc.publisherInternational Institute for Archival Science Trieste – Mariboren
dc.relation.ispartofAtlanti+en
dc.relation.ispartofseriesEUI Research Projecten
dc.relation.ispartofseriesWidening Countriesen
dc.relation.ispartofseriesOPENARCHen
dc.relation.urihttps://www.eui.eu/research-hub?id=open-archives-for-social-science-research-in-widening-countriesen
dc.rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessen
dc.titleFactors restricting post-1989 access to records in Polish archivesen
dc.typeArticleen
dspace.entity.typePublication
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