The definition of archivist is a term that is rarely known by many people. Even though it is often used in several fields, many people do not know what archivists mean. In fact, archivists can be said to be a profession that has quite important tasks in several state agencies to private institutions.
Currently, the archivist profession is less attractive to young people. This is of course because many young people do not really know about archivists themselves. So, in this article, we will discuss the meaning of archivists and their duties and responsibilities in full and depth. Let’s see until the end!
A. Definition of Archivist
According to the Big Indonesian Dictionary or KBBI, an archivist can be interpreted as someone who has competence in the field of archiving obtained through formal education or archiving education or training. Archivists are also people who have the functions, duties and responsibilities to carry out archiving activities, either as state employees or private employees.
Almost the same as KBBI, based on Law no. 43 of 2009, an archivist can be defined as someone who has competence in the field of archiving obtained through formal education and/or archiving education and training and has the functions, duties and responsibilities of carrying out archival activities.
Meanwhile, according to Permenpan No. 48 of 2014 concerning Functional Positions of Archivists which have been amended by Permenpan & RB No. 13 of 2016, an archivist can be understood as a civil servant (PNS) who has competence in the field of archives obtained through formal education and/or archiving education and training and has the functions, duties and responsibilities of carrying out archival activities appointed by officials appointed authorities in the environment of state institutions, regional government, village government and organizational units of state universities. An archivist must be able to carry out his duties and roles in any agency or institution so that he can improve the performance of his agency or institution.
So, someone who works as an archivist needs to have a character with a strong personality. This is because the archivist is the party responsible for managing the archives. Not only that, archivists themselves must also be able to carry out their duties and roles with a high spirit of integrity and full responsibility. This is because archivists are parties that have an important role in managing information, guardians, and custodians of national cultural heritage for the benefit of present and future generations.
B. The Role of Archivists
As explained in the section on understanding archivists, an archivist has a role as an archive manager. The purpose of the archive manager can be understood as someone who maintains accountability for the collections they have. Furthermore, archivists also have a role in carrying out promotions so that users become aware. Then, the role of an archivist is to create authentic archives so that they can be used as material for accountability and legal evidence.
Regarding the role of the archivist, some of the main points and functions in the agency or institution have been reflected in PP no. 28 of 2012 concerning Implementation of Law no. 43 of 2009 concerning Archives. So, here are some of the roles or functions and duties of an archivist, including:
1. Maintain the creation of archives of activities carried out by state agencies, regional governments, educational institutions, companies, political organizations, and community organizations;
2. Maintaining the availability of authentic and reliable archives as legal evidence;
3. Maintaining the realization of reliable archive management and utilization of archives in accordance with statutory provisions;
4. Maintain the security and safety of archives that function to guarantee archives related to civil rights of the people through the management and utilization of authentic and reliable archives;
5. Maintaining the safety and preservation of archives as evidence of accountability in the life of society, nation and state;
6. Maintaining the safety of national assets in the economic, social, political, cultural, defense and security fields as national identity and identity; And
7. Providing information to improve the quality of public services in managing and utilizing authentic and reliable archives.
C. Authority of the Archivist
After learning about the functions and duties of the archivist, this section will present the three authorities possessed by the archivist, including the following:
1. Closing the use of archives which are the responsibility of archive users if it is deemed that the use of archives can damage the information security and/or physical archives;
2. Closing the use of archives which are their responsibility by users of archives who are not entitled in accordance with the provisions of laws and regulations; And
3. Searching archives for archive creators based on assignments by the leadership of the archive creator or the head of the archival institution in accordance with their authority in order to save the archives.
D. Main Activities of Archivists
In addition to the functions, duties and authorities of the archivist, the following are five parts of the main activities of the archivist, namely:
1. Appraise
Appraise is the activity of determining which records have permanent value and should be maintained and maintained. Decisions are usually made by archivists with key administrators and records managers.
2. Acquire
Acquire can be understood as an activity after deciding which records will be stored where they add them to the organization’s archives
3. Arrange and describe
Arrange itself is an activity of organizing files and preparing finding aids or retrieval tools that assist users in finding these archives
4. Preserve
Preserve can be interpreted as a preservation activity that includes a number of activities including storing archival material into acid free folders and boxes, and consulting with preservation experts in special handling of damaged archives.
5. Provide access and reference services
This archivist activity can be understood as an activity that seeks to make the archives available for use by people who need them, whether the archives are open to the public, or limited to researchers or only open to organizational staff.
E. Duties and Obligations of Archivists
After knowing the meaning of archivists, duties, functions, authorities, to their main activities. above it has also been explained that there are tasks that are detailed in nature of this profession. In this section, we will discuss the task of managing dynamic archives based on Article 8 paragraph 3a concerning the functional positions of management of the national archives, including the following:
1. Make an Archival Evaluation and Assessment Report
The first duties and obligations of the archivist are to make an evaluation and assessment report related to the field of archiving.
2. Make Archive Service Reports
The second duty and obligation of the archivist is to make an archive service report. Unlike the archive evaluation and assessment reports, this report is made to find out the services of the archival sector.
3. Registering the Submitted Archives
The third duty and obligation of the archivist is to register the archives. Any archives that are submitted to other parties, such as the same agency or agencies from outside. Archivists are people who can register the archives.
4. Register Destroyed Archives
The fourth duty and obligation of the archivist is to register the destroyed archives. Not only submitted archives are registered, archivists also need to register an archive that is destroyed.
5. Make an Approval of Archive Destruction
The fifth duty and obligation of the archivist is to make an agreement for the destruction of the archives. In addition to registering destroyed archives, archivists are parties who have the right and obligation to make an approval sheet for the destruction of an archive. This becomes a mandatory duty of an archivist when the retention schedule period arrives.
6. Create an Archive Retention Schedule
The sixth duty and obligation of the archivist is to make a record retention schedule. Archives are basically not stored forever. Each archive has its own duration of time to be archived. Well, the duration of this archive time is often referred to as the retention schedule. Archivists have the duty and obligation to compile a retention schedule for an archive.
7. Moving Archives
The duties and obligations of the archivist are to move the archives. When archives that have the form of documents need to be transferred. An archivist has the authority to transfer each archive based on considerations and decisions that support it.
8. Create a Vital Records List
The eighth archivist’s duties and obligations are to list vital records. In the field of archives, there is the term vital archives. The vital archive itself can be understood as an archive that is considered very important. Archivists have the duty and authority to make a list of every archive that can be said to be vital. If so, organizing vital archives will be easier.
9. Create a Media Transferred File List
The ninth archivist’s duties and obligations are to make a list of archives transferred by the media. The next task of the archivist is to make a decision regarding permission for an archive to be published or transferred to the media. Here, the archivist needs to communicate and consider with various parties who have authority regarding the archive.
10. Create a Safe Archive List
The tenth archivist’s duties and obligations are to make a list of maintained archives. An archive of course must be maintained at all times. As one of the data that has important value, an archivist develops duties and authorities that are strict enough to keep a list of archives maintained.
11. Make Archive Authentic Copies
The eleventh archivist’s duties and obligations are to make an authentic copy of the archives maintained. After making a list of protected archives, the next archivist has an obligation to make authentic copies of the archives that are maintained. This will make it easier if at one time, an archive becomes very important or very confidential. As important and confidential items, there must be a copy of the archive. Making an authentic copy also needs to be done if there are parties who need it. By making copies of authentic archives, authentic archives can be safely maintained.
12. Verify Authentic Active Archives
The twelfth archivist’s duties and obligations are to verify records that enter the archives field. In this section, an archivist has the duty to ensure that incoming records are kept in original or authentic form. This is very important because to ensure the authenticity of data or archives that must be stored.
13. Perform Archive Registration
Duties and obligations of archivists who register records. Archivists who work in an agency or institution can be sure that it will continue to increase over time. This can make each archive of various existing data manageable properly.
Archivists also have the duty to register incoming archives for later storage. For this task, a specific room and place will usually be provided so that the archive can be stored properly. Archivists may not just put archives, when archives are entered, archives must be sorted. This is done in an effort to keep the archives stored properly.
This is a discussion of the meaning of archivists, functions, duties, authorities, and obligations of archivists. Of course the information about archivists is very easy to understand as an initial insight into the various duties that professional archivists have. Archivist is a profession that has a very important role, both in government circles, agencies, and companies. Therefore, not everyone can become an archivist. Those who wish to become archivists must first attend formal education or training.