Slovak National Archives (SNA) - Department of Pre-Archival Care
Activities belonging to pre-archival care have been carried out in Archives since its origin. As an independent department, the Department of Pre-Archival Care was established in 1982.
The contents of work and competencies of the department are regulated by the relevant sections of the Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No. 395/2002 Coll. on Archives and Registries and the Directive No. 628/2002 Coll. of the Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic. Duties carried out by the department concern the following three main spheres:
a) methodological guidance in the field of records and archival management to governmental and other bodies and the state specialised supervising (§28 of the Act No. 395/2002 Coll.);
b) transfer of archival documents for long-term keeping after a disposal process has been done;
c) responsibility for intermediate repository (limbo).
The department staff gives methodological guidance in the field of pre-archival care to governmental departments and institutions as well as other corporate bodies, such as project organisations, institutes and research agencies, industrial companies, banks, insurance companies, educational institutions, unions and associations, political parties and movements as well as to other legal bodies designated by the Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic.
The department’s activities include also instructions, advice and training specially oriented to practical application of record management principles to filing plans systems, disposal of records and archival guidance /see: Správa registratúry a archívu podnikateľských a iných subjektov; KZT, a.s., Kukuričná 1, Bratislava, e-mail: kzt@kzt.sk/; on questions of the formation and maintenance of current files in creators’ registries, and on the preparation of the disposal process and transfer of archival materials into a particular company archives or into the Slovak National Archives.
The department’s staff pays attention to the solving of questions connected with the abolition and dissolution process of organisations, i.e. conveying of archival documents into the succeeding organisation or into the Slovak National Archives, as well as guidance in the creation of lists of records, indexes and other information aids, or further tasks connected with regulations in pre-archival care.
The department temporary carries out tasks of intermediate repository providing custody of semi-current records of some central institutions, offices and institutions from the period after 1969 (including files with initial documents dating back before 1969). These include files of dissolved creators without legal successors, mostly before expiration of their retention period (Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia, Slovak Central Committee of the Socialist Youth Union, general directorates of industrial trusts, etc.).
Archival documents shelved in repository of the department are accessible for research purposes under the conditions stated rules for conduct in the search room. Most frequently are consulted archival documents which are accessible by finding aids (inventories and catalogues). .
