Archival Oneness in the Midst of Diversity: A Personal Perspective

Archival traditions and practices, together with each archivist's particular situation, not only vary greatly around the world, but within countries and types of institutions within those countries as well. These diverse traditions provide only a limited basis for shared identities between archivists, but they are ultimately linked by the common practice of each archivist of adapting universal archival principles to fit his or her institution's own circumstances. The International Council on Archives provides a forum to encourage international cooperation among archivists and opportunities for those in similar institutions and regions to strengthen their common identities and associations with each other, and to share their approaches to common issues and goals. Several factors account for the advancement of the ICA's goals and for the limitation of its achievements as well. Overall, however, underlying both the similar and diverse ways of dealing with archival issues is the role of archives to provide evidence of the cultural context of societies. The solutions to the challenges facing archivists today should not divide us along theoretical lines, but strive to enable all archivists to work together in fulfilling this cultural role.