Archives
In the field of archives, the DRAC Grand Est implements, at the regional level, the orientations taken by the Service interministériel des archives de France (SIAF) - Direction générale des patrimoines et de l'architecture of the Ministry of Culture.
The French Archives Interdepartmental Service (SIAF) has a scientific and technical advisory, regulatory and control role over all public archives, regardless of their location.
This control shall cover the conditions of management, collection, selection and disposal as well as the processing, classification, preservation and communication of the archives.
The SIAF intervenes through the inspectors in charge of the archives, the missions established in the ministries and the State staff present in each departmental archives service, which is responsible for the scientific and technical control of the public archives.
To consult the resources on the Professional Access » from the FranceArchives portal
The missions of the DRAC
Within the DRAC, the advisers for books, reading, archives, the French language and the languages of France, in connection with the SIAF, are the correspondents of the departmental, municipal and community archives of the Grand Est.
In agreement with SIAF, the DRAC appsupport to local and regional authorities to:
- the digitalization funds;
- the preventive conservation and the catering Funds (refer to: Keep records) ;
- the valorization archival collections (exhibitions, publications...) (to consult: Discover the resources around archives) ;
- the commemorations (France Memorial: the service of anniversaries and historical commemorations : Institut de France);
- support for the arts and cultural education actions Conducted by Archives Services (available at: Cultural and educational provision).
The Int DRACIn connection with the SIAF:
- in funding and advising for the construction, renovation of archive buildings (see: The archive buildings)and fit-up of premises for improve the conditions of conservation of collections (including at the pre-study stage).
Projects must be reported as soon as possible and at least in year N-1 before work begins. For municipal and intercommunal archives, projects must have the approval of the director of the competent departmental archives.
A consulting architect SIAF, which is responsible for providing expertise and advice, accompanies the files and assists in the development of the programmes through visits and/or reports.
Digitalization and Valuation
The digitisation of archives and their online availability on the Internet is one of the major challenges facing public archives (read more "Panorama of digitized archives").
The DRAC accompanies with financial assistance the projects of digitization of the collections concerning all the supports and the documents of all nature preserved in these services. These projects can be part of the National Program of Digitization and Valorisation of Cultural Content (PNV).
The national program of Digitization and Valorization of cultural contents (PNV) is part of the national plan of digitization launched in 1996 by the Ministry of Culture.
It allows us to accompany all the cultural fields of heritage and creation, since they aim to promote access to culture for the greatest number.
Since 2018, as part of the strengthening of the means devoted to the policies of cultural democratization and arts and cultural education, the Ministry has wanted to reaffirm its support for digitization through this new mechanism. Initiated in 4 regions, it was expanded in 2019 to two new regions, including the Grand Est.
All types of content are eligible: archives, films, photos, images, sound recordings, maps, books, press articles, objects, built heritage, recordings of shows...
The aim is to bring the public closer to the works and to create innovative digital uses in the cultural field.
The projects supported must meet one of the following objectives:
- ensure the digitisation of cultural content by significantly increasing the supply of digital cultural resources made up of coherent and critical sets;
- disseminate cultural content and promote free and open consultation;
- promoting open data and the legal reuse of digitized resources in the context of opening up public data;
- developing digital education;
- promote the emergence of new services and uses online or in the territories.
The structures concerned: the call for projects is addressed to public and private non-profit actors of the Greater East public institutions under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture; local authorities; associations; public institutions of cultural cooperation.
The aim of this scheme is to enhance the heritage of libraries through concerted programmes of reporting, digitisation and digital exploitation. It also concerns the archives services for the digitization of the local old press and the digitization of the publications of learned societies.
The Regional Associate Cluster associates the BnF with the DRAC and the regional structure for the book (Interbibly in the case of the Greater East). It makes it possible to involve, at the regional level, all the structures in charge of heritage holdings (classified municipal libraries, departmental archives, university libraries, learned societies, etc.), and to set up a pooling of resources, to plan operations for which interests are shared, with the support and expertise of the BnF.
Digital archiving
ANET call for projects digital archiving in territories
Since 2019, the Digital archiving in the Territories » (ANET), supported by the Service interministériel des Archives de France (SIAF), in conjunction with the Regional Directorates for Cultural Affairs (DRAC), helps to accompany the archives services of local authorities in their projects for the development of digital archiving, often complex, multi-year projects.
ANET succeeds the AD-Essor (2014-2019) 141 projects over 5 years.
It is open to local and regional authorities, groups of local authorities, local public or health institutions, public structures that are committed to pooling or wishing to engage in a project related to digital archiving.
The call for projects focuses on three main areas:
- processing of data and documents to be archived;
- the implementation of a definitive digital archiving system;
- The deployment of the Vitam software solution.
The 2020/2021 edition aimed at digital content with a high legal or heritage value and to promote sharing, knowledge sharing and reuse of the tools produced.
Of the 20 projects selected at the national level for the 2020/2021 call for projects, 4 come from Greater Eastern European project sponsors:
Departmental Council of Aube : evolution of the X-Sacha electronic archiving service (€9,928)
University Hospital of Reims : development of a connector with the Computerized Patient Record (DPI) software Easily (19,329 €)
Departmental Council of Meurthe-et-Moselle : deployment of an electronic archiving system (pooling project with the city of Nancy and Grand Nancy (€32,281)
Municipality and agglomeration of Thionville : deployment of the Maarch electronic archiving system pilot (€36,036)
Consult the previous call for projects and the list of recent winners
Aid and support from the Grand Est DRAC
- Application for DRAC Grand Est Grant
- Calls for projects (regional and national)
Publications on the heritage holdings of libraries and archives in the Great East
Published by La Nuée Bleue in co-publishing with Place des Victoires, this ambitious project mobilized eighty-eight expert library authors, archivists and researchers- and benefited from the support of six public authorities: the DRAC Grand Est, the Grand Est Region and the cities of Colmar, Mulhouse, Selenite and Strasbourg. Published September 2017.
250 documents selected from the treasures preserved in the collections of the libraries and archives of Champagne-Ardenne unveiled in a book published by La Nuée Bleue and coordinated by the association Interbibly and was funded by the DRAC Grand Est, the Grand Est Region, the Ardennes Department, the Aube Department, the Marne Department, Troyes Champagne Métropole, with the support of ANDRA and CMMA. Published October 2019.
The archives: definition
'Archives are all documents, including data, regardless of date, place of preservation, form and medium, produced or received by any natural or legal person and by any public or private service or body in the exercise of their activity." (Code du patrimoine, article L. 211-1).
The archives can take various forms, parchment, paper, photography, computer file, model, dvd...
Their "conservation is organized in the public interest both for the purposes of the management and justification of the rights of natural or legal persons, public or private, and for the historical documentation of the research" (Heritage Code, article L. 211-2).
The public archives
The public archives shall consist of documents arising from the activities of the State, local authorities, public institutions and other legal persons governed by public law, as well as documents arising from the management or exercise of a public service mission by persons of private law and the minutes and directories of public or ministerial officers and the registers of notarial agreements of civil covenant of solidarity.
They are inalienable and imprescriptible, that is, they can never be surrendered and taken out of the public domain. Read more
Public archives can be accessed as of right (s. L. 213-1 of the Heritage Code: ), except where they contain secrets protected by law (provisions of the article L. 213-2 and code of relations between the public and the administration, art. L. 311-5 and 6In this case, their communication is subject to a deadline (between 25 and 120 years), at the end of which the documents can be freely communicated. During this period, it is nevertheless possible to formulate a early access waiver request (wealth code, article L. 213-3).
In case of refusal of access by derogation, the Commission d'accès aux documents administratives (CADA) can be seized.
The rules of communication of private archives are not defined in the heritage code: in practice, archives tend to align them with those of public archives, but with specific cases (for more details see: The communicability of private archives ».
National treasures are cultural objects which, being of major interest to the national heritage from the point of view of history, art or archaeology, have been the subject of a temporary refusal to leave the territory materialized by a "refusal of certificate". These are not only the most exceptional works and documents, but the goods that each state decides to protect.
Public archives permanently preserved are recognised as national treasures.
As a national treasure, a specific legal mechanism for restitution can be activated and a binding circulation regime imposed. The national treasures cannot leave the territory, except temporarily and after authorization of the Ministry of Culture and Communication and only “for purposes of restoration, expertise, participation in a cultural event or deposit in a public collection” (French only)art. L. 111-7 heritage code).
In the same way as buildings, private archives which, for historical reasons, are of public interest may be classified as "historical archives", at the request of the owner or the Ministers of Culture and Communication, Foreign Affairs or Defence. The measure of classification imposes easements.
Read more :
- on FranceArchives
- on Legitfrance