Archivist for alliance frank saale valley
Sigismund von dobschutz despite the growing volume of archives and increasing digitization, municipal archives and registries in smaller communities are mostly managed by volunteers. The member municipalities of the french saale valley alliance are planning to remedy this situation as quickly as possible by hiring an intermunicipal archivist with the appropriate professional training.
In its most recent meeting, the oberthulba community council followed the example of other member communities and unanimously approved this project. The municipality is to contribute proportionally to the costs of a media and information service specialist, provided that a corresponding demand is promised by the bavarian ministry of the interior.
Archivists for two locations
The archives of the municipality of oberthulba, which are stored in the fire station, are currently looked after by district archivist roland heinlein, who has been responsible in this function for the district of hammelburg since 2007 and additionally for the district of bad bruckenau since 2014. For this reason alone, he can only be active in oberthulba with insufficient time and mostly only in cases of acute need.
Too little space
"Our archive is not the first priority", in her presentation, the manager nicole wehner described the current situation. "Our basement is bursting at the seams", she added to her report the critical condition of the town hall registry, where the old files are stored. The recruitment of a specialist by the alliance is therefore necessary, especially since one of the fundamental objectives of the alliance is precisely to strengthen administrative cooperation.
Only with demand
A condition for the employment of such a specialist, however, would be the request via the program inter-municipal cooperation of the bavarian ministry of the interior. The total cost of an archivist is estimated at 210,000 euros over a period of five years. The alliance municipalities intend to share their own share in accordance with their statutory funding formula. The share of the market oberthulba is then 6300 euros per year.
A later goal, explained head of the alliance nicole wehner, was also the creation of an inter-municipal central archive, as the available space in the town halls was reaching its limits. The location of such a central archive and the place of work of the specialist to be hired will be decided only after the ministry of the interior has approved the request.
Local councillor michael meindl (from thulba), who identified himself as a part-time archivist and was aware of the difficulties faced by contemporary archives, supported the administration’s proposal: "this step is urgently needed."
Compliments for the idea
The third mayor, mario gotz (G hassenbach), agreed and also expressed his "compliments for this idea" to the head of the office from: "this is a real task for allianz." After hiring such a specialist, the city hall employees could concentrate on their actual tasks.
