Opening of the Archival Remote Storage Korčula-Lastovo

Abstract

Godine 2011. otvoren je novi arhivski sabirni centar. Riječ je o osmom po redu sabirnom centru u Hrvatskoj, drugom Državnog arhiva u Dubrovniku i drugom otočkom. Nije slučajan izbor Korčule kao našeg gospodarski i društveno najrazvijenijeg otoka. Dug je bio put do osnutka centra. U Korčuli se kroz čitavo ovo vrijeme čuvalo gradivo gradskih i kotarskih institucija, od sredine 20. st. u sklopu Gradskog muzeja Korčula, a od 1994. posebnog arhivskog spremišta dubrovačkog Arhiva. Istaknuta je uloga Vinka Foretića u očuvanju zapisa.Uz povijesni prikaz upravljanja zapisima u proteklom razdoblju, u tekstu se govori o dugogodišnjim nastojanjima za formiranjem arhivske ustanove u Korčuli, samom činu osnutka, staroj školskoj zgradi u Žrnovu i njenoj adaptaciji za potrebe arhivskog centra te počecima rada.In 2011 a new archival remote storage was open. It is the eight remote storage in Croatia, the second one under the jurisdiction of the Dubrovnik State Archives and also the second one situated on an island. The choice of the island of Korčula as Croatia’s most economically and socially developed island was not by accident. The path for the opening of the remote storage in Korčula was laid as early as 1944 by collecting the records that were dispersed and damaged during the war. It was during the Second World War that the archives in the district of Korčula suffered at the most. Dr. Vinko Foretić, the Korčula native and the director of the Dubrovnik State Archives, organized the rescue of the records. Initially the records were under the jurisdiction of the local authorities and in 1957 they were stored in Korčula City Museum. All this was semiformal, so nobody was regarded as a sole holder of the records. Still, during that time since the end of the war Dubrovnik State Archives periodically visited and inspected the records, giving at the same time instructions for its handling. When in 1994 the Archives took over the records from the Museum it also took the complete responsibility for their fate. It was in Dubrovnik that the strong initiative was born for the formalization of the repository and to transform it from a passive type into much more. As early as 1945 Foretić gave the initiative to form an archival department in Korčula within a kind of a cultural-historical institute, the latter was later envisaged to be a museum. However, his often initiatives did not get the support of the local authorities. The situation remained the same regarding the new initiatives from Dubrovnik during the 1980is and 1990is. Only in 2003 did Ministry for Maritime Affairs, Transport and Communications, Ministry of Culture, Dubrovnik-Neretva County and the city of Korčula reach an agreement on financing, which became the foundation for establishing the remote storage Korčula-Lastovo. The remote storage centre covers the territorial area of the islands of Korčula and Lastovo, as well as the western part of the Pelješac peninsula (counties of Orebić and Trpanj), while its headquarters is in Žrnovo, a town near Korčula. By adapting the old 19th century school building in Žrnovo, five repositories with the capacity of 2010 linear meters were arranged and the space was equipped with the necessary preservation systems. Access is completely enabled for the disabled. By taking over records from Dubrovnik State Archives, old repository in Korčula, as well as via official transfer and donations, by the middle 2013 the repositories store 194 fonds and 7 collections, which make 817 linear meters of records. The majority of these records are not arranged. The State Archives in Zadar still keeps approximately 83 linear meters of records made by creators from Korčula, dating until 19th century. The need to return the records to the island of Korčula is not only dictated by the rule of the territorial jurisdiction of the Archives, but also by the need to merge parts of fonds made by the same creators. At the start of Storage’s work the emphasis was put on arranging judiciary fonds, due to many users’ inquiries. Several other smaller fonds are being arranged at the same time, while the bulk of the mixed records from the old Korčula repository are still sorted out according to creators. The International Archives Day was observed for the first time in 2013. The first steps have been made