Spain
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Country Profile for Spain
Legislative and organisational background
The State Archives of Spain are those of state titularity (http://www.mcu.es/archivos/CE/ArchivosCentros.html) which depend on the General Subdirection of Spanish Archives, institution belonging to the General Direction of Book, Archives and Libraries, from the Ministry of Culture (http://www.mcu.es/organizacion/Organigrama/Organigrama.html). The General Subdirection of Spanish Archives has several functions:
- To manage the State Archives (13 archives and 2 centres http://www.mcu.es/archivos/CE/ArchivosCentros.html) .
- To create, provide funds and promote the State Archives.
- To advise State Archives belonging to other Ministries.
- To coordinate the Spanish Archives System.
- To provide documentary heritage preservation, its promotion and national and international dissemination.
- To plan, develop and maintain the Ministry of Culture Archives.
The General Subdirection of State Archives organizes in different areas and services:
- Archival Documentary Information Centre (CIDA) (http://www.mcu.es/archivos/MC/CIDA/index.html).
- Archival Coordination and Programming.
- Document Reproduction Center (SRD) (http://www.mcu.es/archivos/MC/SRD/index.html).
- Economic Programming (http://www.mcu.es/archivos/CE/InfGnral/GestionAutonomica/GestionAutonomica.html).
- Valuation and treatment of administrative documents.
- Institutional relationships.
In order to develop its functions, the General Subdirection of State Archives counts on several consulting and technical organs: - The Archives Upper Council (http://www.mcu.es/archivos/CE/InfGnral/GestionMinisterio/JuntaSupArchivos.html)
- The Administrative Documents Qualifier Upper Comisión (http://www.mcu.es/archivos/CE/InfGnral/GestionMinisterio/ComisionSupCalif.html)
Legislation related to Archives in Spain:
The first law is Spanish Historical Heritage Law (1985). But there are another laws, royal decretes and ministry orders related to archives (http://www.mcu.es/legislacionconvenio/searchLegislation.do;jsessionid=E390E9123E1203F21650E2C2C157086E).
Management of databases
The General Subdirection of Spanish Archives has developed a system in order to manage documents descriptions and digitised images from State Spain Archives, the Spain Archives Portal (PARES) (http://pares.mcu.es/) which is a big effort to unify documentary descriptions from Spain State Archives in the same database.
Other databases elaborated by the General Subdirection of Spanish Archives or created in cooperation with different cultural institutions are:
- Guide-Census of Spanish and Latinoamerican Archives (Censo-Guía de Archivos de España e Iberoamérica) (http://censoarchivos.mcu.es/CensoGuia/) where users can look for information about archives of Spain and Latinoamerica.
- CIDA database “Documentary sources from Archives”: where users can find not only Spanish but international archival bibliography (http://www.mcu.es/guiafuentesdoc/cargarFiltro.do?layout=guiafuentesdoc&cache=init&language=es) .
- Spanish people deported to nazi camps (http://pares.mcu.es/Deportados/servlets/ServletController) .
- Colective catalogue from archival libraries (http://www.mcu.es/ccbae/es/consulta/busqueda.cmd)
- Spanish Historical Legislation (http://www.mcu.es/archivos/lhe/index.html).
Besides, some other projects with databases can be seen in http://www.mcu.es/archivos/CE/BaseDatos.html
Electronic Records Management Systems
Some laws regule in Spain electronic administrative procedures (Law 30/1992 November, 26th about Juridical Regime of Public Administrations and Common Administrative Procedure; Civil Procedure Law 1/200, January, 7th, about Civil Procedure; General Tax Law 58/2003, December, 17th; Electronic Signature Law 59/2003, December, 19th; Electronic Access of Citizens to Public Services Law, 11/2007, June 22th). In February 2007 a Working Group of Electronic Documents was created and Ministry of Culture is there represented. Nowadays this group it’s working in, not only creating an accurate definition for electronic document in Spain, but developing guidelines for ERMS and transfers.
Ingest and pre-ingest in general
This section should deliver a basic understanding on the pre-ingest and ingest workflow. The timeline for separate tasks as well as responsibilities (which tasks are done in agencies and which at the National Archives) could be addressed.
Pre-ingest actions for datasets
A more in-depth technical description of the pre-ingest workflow for datasets and an overview of the tools and standards used (both for archival formats and metadata) should go here. If different approaches are used for different datasets (statistical data, national datasets, personnel and accounting databases) this could also be addressed briefly.
Pre-ingest actions for ERM systems
A technical overview of tools and methods regarding the preparation of transfer of records to the archives. Possible issues are archival file formats (if dealt with in agencies), requirements for metadata, mandatory functionality in ERM systems etc.
Transfer to archives
The Spain State Archives have standards established for transferring documents to archives (general norms, documentary characteristics, formulary, etc.) which can be applied to electronic documents, the same as paper documents. A database or another description instrument is required, in order to control the transference.
Ingest actions for datasets
An overview of the SIP to AIP conversion process. This section should mostly describe issues like generating the archival description for datasets, normalisation and validation, tools used and future plans.
If appropriate the process for initiating a retransfer could be mentioned
Ingest actions for electronic records
An overview of the SIP to AIP conversion process for electronic records originating from ERM systems. Normalisation of files, metadata conversions and the tools used could be some issues to explain.
If appropriate the process for initiating a retransfer could be mentioned.
Other comments and remarks
This is a section for additional comments and remarks, if needed.
References
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