Debate about Ch. Kecskemeti and L. Körmendy’s Book “Scripta Volent”

Abstract

Former Secretary-General of ICA Ch. Kecskeméti and Hungarian archivist L. Körmandi, who worked with documents on new media in the 1975-2012, have written a book on request of Favre, a Swiss publisher, in 2014, where they show the vulnerability of electronic archives and the great instability of the environment where they exist. Both factors are deeply inconsistent with the fundamental mission of the archives, which is to carry information through millennia. In the present situation, we are not likely to have means of reading the current electronic archives after twenty years whereas some records can be claimed after 500 or more years since their creation. What, where, how and who should maintain records may be answered by archivists but not by computer technologies specialists. The present standards and approaches to maintaining the electronic archives will not solve the problem until the selection of media occurs depending on the duration of their estimated storage.