Archival Building: the Conditions for Safeguarding of Archival Material in Extraordinary Circumstances: experiances of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

The archive building is next to the archival staff and legislation, an important third pillar of the preservation of archives and archive services. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, in practice, most did not pay adequate attention to this issue. Most of the Archives were housed in adapted buildings (temporary but necessary premises), and there were less or no purpose built archival buildings for the protection of archives. In Bosnia and Herzegovina by the end of the twentieth century not a single purpose built archival facility was built, and only in Tuzla, bigger building was renovated and adapted for the Archives. It was only at the beginning of the XXI century when two archive facilities have been built, in Brcko, which was completed and in Travnik, which is still under construction. The consequences of such an attitude to archival buildings are visible and far-reaching. The existing archive facilities in Bosnia and Herzegovina do not fulfil the minimum architectural, technological, biological, climate and other standards, which left a significant mark in terms of protection of archives. Consequentiality of the lack of adequate archival facilities, were particularly visible in extraordinary circumstances, faced by Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war period (1992-1995), and especially in 2014, when Bosnia and Herzegovina faced with demonstrations and large floods. In such circumstances, the importance of archival buildings came to the forefront. In fact, only then one could fully realize how devastating it was, to hold archival material in inadequate facilities. Part of it was destroyed in emergencies because of inadequate archival objects, which did not comply with the rules and archival and building standards. Therefore, in Bosnia and Herzegovina it is necessary in future to give more attention to the construction of adequate archival buildings, if we want to protect our archival material properly.