Records Management

The Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives’ (Blinken OSA) Records Management Services were established to preserve the institutional memory and history of the Open Society Foundations (OSF) network and to provide record-keeping consultancy services to the Foundations’ institutions. The Blinken OSA Records Management (RM) team thus serves the Open Society Institute–Budapest office  (OSI-Budapest) and other OSF offices throughout Europe, including the national foundations, while also providing  RM services to the Central European University's offices and departments.

For years our strategy consisted in trying to become involved in the creation phase of the records’ life cycle. However, especially in the case of the national foundations, scattered across several countries, we gradually shifted to rescue operations, risk management, and the performance of preservation activities. The reason for this is that the Blinken OSA RM team is understaffed. Additionally, the global network with its geographically dispersed foundations and offices constitutes a real challenge for the team.

The RM team maintains three on-site records centers and two off-site storage facilities for OSI-Budapest and CEU. In 2017, 547 containers (boxes/binders) of paper-based records were transferred from OSI-Budapest and CEU programs/departments/offices to the three on-site records centers, and 461 containers were retrieved by OSI and CEU staff members. Of the retrieved containers 204 files were scanned for CEU, while for OSI-Budapest, 36,648 pages of paper records and 217 audiovisual records were digitized. As a regular RM procedure, 595 containers of records were destroyed after their retention period expired and 18 containers of permanent records were transferred to Blinken OSA for long-term preservation. In addition, last year, the RM team managed to receive some long awaited professional assistance in selecting and describing old floor plans and technical drawings of the university buildings. The 13 big boxes of these records were prepared for long-term preservation with the help of a colleague from the CEU Campus Redevelopment Office.

After the relocation of the OSI-Budapest offices and the first phase of moving the 2498 containers to the new records storage facilities in 2016, the remaining 530 containers of records were moved to the new records center facilities in 2017 as well. All these containers received new specific shelf locations which were registered in the storage control database and the OSI-Budapest Records Center returned to full operation.

The redevelopment of the CEU campus did not stop with the inauguration of the new CEU campus buildings; therefore, CEU offices and departments were moved to new locations. The RM team provided CEU staff with records management and archival instructions and assisted departments in archiving paper records before their relocation. 

In connection with the CEU redevelopment project, the relocation of archival and records storage facilities are planned as well. Blinken OSA’s archivists and RM team members work closely together with the Campus Redevelopment Office (CREO) staff on planning the storage areas and giving advice on special archival and records storage requirements, such as temperature, humidity, safety, and fire protection requirements. In order to protect the archived material from various hazards, OSA staff’s aim is to ensure a suitable environment for the coming decades.

Blinken OSA's RM team assists the OSF network and CEU in recordkeeping and in the preservation of electronic records as well. Electronic records of permanent value are uploaded continuously to the Open Society Foundations’ permanent documents digital repository, which currently stores more than 100,000 individual files.

In 2017, OSA 's RM team continued, within the framework of the Roma Digital Repository Project (RDRP), OSA’s major OSF network related activity, the collection and preservation of Roma-related paper and electronic records of several OSF foundations and Roma programs. Paper records of permanent value were digitized and, along with existing electronic records of permanent value, uploaded to a digital repository. After collecting and describing tens of thousands of Roma-related records, in 2017, selected metadata of the more than 200 binders of the Roma Memorial University Scholarship Program’s (RMUSP) materials, covering the period 2001 to 2006, was recorded.

The RM team also contributes to the second and third parts of the Archives and Evidentiary Practices Specialization course, to Archival Practice and Advanced Coursework, respectively, which are offered to CEU students.

Blinken OSA's RM Service is also increasingly involved in the afterlife of the records it takes care of. The long-term preservation of documents of historical value produced by the OSF network and CEU is an integral part of the work of the RM Service. Though not considered strictly records management tasks, the archival processing and digitization of CEU and OSF records of historical value is now performed by those who know these documents best: the members of the RM Service. In 2017, OSF materials amounting to over 150 archival boxes and CEU materials amounting to 68 archival boxes were processed in this way.