Staff Subjective
Robert Parnica
Staff Subjective

In March 2017, it will be exactly 20 years since I joined OSA. It has been a relatively long period which I spent heading OSA’s Reference Services as the Reference Archivist. Throughout that period, I have met with many students from CEU and foreign universities, academics and other professionals who were seeking information on our archival and digital collections.

It has been a good feeling to be a part of an important intellectual process when users start to form their research question and to apply research strategies in order to obtain the necessary materials. Thus, there has been no better reward for OSA Reference Staff than to help researchers not only to familiarize themselves with the structure of the rich OSA web site but also with the online catalog and finding aids.

The Reference Service is an important “intersection” and mediator between the archival world of fonds and collections, films, photos, documents and records on one side and the interested public on the other. It is also a place where technology, knowledge and tradition meet and for this reason it is important not only to make archives accessible to the researchers but also to prepare archival collections available for research. Digitization and the application of new technologies stimulate the increasing openness and democratization of archives.

Archives have not been just static places, and therefore, being part of OSA Archives also means gaining invaluable experience, learning about the latest archival theories, and developing professional skills. The most valuable experience includes curating some exhibitions such as Sex and Communism, GDR – NDK, or researching others (Srebrenica, Afghanistan), or curating digital collection such as the Free Europe Committee.

Being in a leading position in Reference Services also implies a dual responsibility: towards our final users, who need to obtain proper information, and towards our historic and digital collections, which need to be easily accessible.

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