NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF CAMBODIA
1. NAME OF INSTITUTION
National Archives of Cambodia
2. Background and History:
National Archives (NAC) was established during the year of French
hegemony over Cambodia after a period during which the colonial power had
only partial control over the country. French political influence grew in
strength from the beginning of the 20th century.
In the 1920s, an archival service was thus established throughout the
French colonies in Southeast Asia, with its main repositories in Hanoi, Saigon
and Phnom Penh. In Phnom Penh, a Archives and Library building was
constructed between 1921-1926 and the Archives of Cambodia opened it
doors to the public in October 1926. Until independence and beyond, the
primary function of the archives remained to acquire and preserve records of
the successive government of Cambodia that possess national and historic
value. It served throughout this period as an important resource for scholars,
government officials and the public.
On 17 April 1975 the Khmer rouge took control of Cambodia and
immediately began evacuating Phnom Penh of it entire population. Over one
million people died during the Pol Pot period between 1975 and 1979 as well
as document. Records were pushed from the shelves to make way for cooking
implement and food and the records were strewn around the building. After
the Khmer rouge regime in 1979, the NAC reopened its doors in 1980.
In 1984, One decret concerning a creation of National Archives of
Cambodia was be established by the Government. And after that time the
National Archives of Cambodia had separed from Library National (in 1986)
according to the different function between National Archives and National
Library.
3. Institutional structure
The National Archives of Cambodia is a government department, under
the auspice the Office of the Council of Ministers, which 18 staffs. The
department is divided into 3 services:
- Administration Services
- Technical and Training services
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- Archives repository Services
4. Importance of Archives and records management for Cambodia
The role of Archives as a row of material for the researches in history is
uniquely importance in the developing national.
Archives assist the researcher to get a experience as civilization's
collective memory. They transmit our culture heritage from generation to
generation as well as having broad administrative, legal and social uses.
Archives have importance for the individual, for the community, for
cooperate organizations, and for society as a hole.
Historical records provide a sense of time and place. In a country like
Cambodia, which has just emerged from the war, safeguarding the memory of
its national past is of even greater importance. The collection of the National
Archives is the prime source for the reconstruction of the country past and
must be preserved for future generation.
5. The holdings of the National Archives
The National Archives currently manages some 1800 linear meters of
government records from the early colonial times to the present day. These
include records of the French administration and post- independence
Cambodian Governments, created at the communal, provincial and national
levels.
The holding comprise the following collections:
- Records of the Residence Superieur du Cambodge (Fonds RSC):
French colonial Administration 1863-1953)
- Records of the Sangkum Reastr Nyum period and the khmer Republic
(1953-75)
- Trade records from the Pol Pot period (1976- 1978)
- Records of the Genocide tribunal of 1979.
- Records of the People's Republic of Kampuchea (1979-1993)
- Records of the Royal Government of Cambodia (from 1993)
- Magazine, Bulletin and Newspaper
- Map and plans
- Photographic collections from the colonial and the Sangkum Reastr
Nyum periods
- Political and public information posters.
- Audio Visual Archives.
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The National Archives have only very few records that it keeps in digital
format only, mainly photographs that it has received from other archival
institutions on disks only, without prints. It has produced electronic copies of
some documents and photographs which it keeps in databases, but mainly as
part of an effort to make them more easily available and searchable to
researchers, is for access and not conservation purposes. As far as
conservation is concerned, the NAC puts its trust in microfilming rather than
digital scans. It has a well developed microfilming laboratory to this effect.
6. Activities
The NAC has been redeveloping since 1995. Many documents have
deteriorated greatly. Important maps, plans, newspapers, legal documents, and
journals need urgent repair and reproduction.
Foreign funding has been made available to help the NAC purchase
supplies that can be used to repair and preserve documents. We have also a
microfilm section to film documents for preservation purposes. Recently
NAC received the donation of photos from French people: M.Charles
Meilleyer and Elmiger around 8000 photos in digital. To preserve this
collection, NAC received fund from Swizaland Embassy to reproduce into
hardcopy.
The primary activity of the NAC has been the appraisal, arrangement,
and description of the holdings of the National Archives of Cambodia (NAC),
particularly documents created during the French Protectorate period (18631954). Conservation repair of selected materials, preservation management,
the development of research services, and staff training.
The NAC focused on establishing and managing the microfilm to digital
the document in bad condition for preserving the original. The NAC was
successful in achieving this goal and now has a microfilm unit fully functional
and producing quality film for long term preservation.
The National Archives is the Kingdom's premier institution charged with
the preservation of Cambodia's documentary heritage. It is committed to
safeguarding its priceless collections on 150 years of Cambodian history
while making them available to the interested public. It acquires government
records that have become non-current but need to be preserved because of
their legal, fiscal, administrative, evidential or informational value. It serves
as a national resource center willing to share its knowledge how to preserve
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and keep the records with other government departments, research institutions
and the archives of the provincial administrations.
To conserve and preserve the document heritage for accessing, the
Government was issued a law on “Archives “in 2005 with 24 articles.
A major achievement of the NAC was the control all ministries and
provinces to follow the law .The important of the law is:
- Arranging a Structure for Keeping Records in the ministries and
provinces.
- Duration for Keeping Documents of Ministries, Services and
Subordinates
- Transfer of the records to NAC and Archives Provincial after 10 years
- Condition of accessing the records
- Not allow to destroy any record without permission.
6.1. Collections Activities:
The collections covering the post-1979 governments are as yet
incomplete since not all the non-current archives held in the ministries and the
provinces have so far been deposited at the National Archives. In view of this
the National Archives needs to define a comprehensive system to arrange
these records as a first step to assessing, cataloguing and preserving them and
at a later stage making them accessible to the public.
Every year the National Archives of Cambodia received the book,
magazine and Newspaper from organization, Ministries and academy amount
280 titles.
6.2. The Preservation/Conservation/Microfilm:
Preservation/conservation:
As in former times, government records today are being produced not
only in the capital, but also throughout the country at the communal and
provincial level. Since 1979, these records are mostly being stored in the same
offices where they were created, piled up and stored away somewhere on a
bookshelf or in a spare room. The responsible staff is not trained to properly
manage these documents and often pays little attention to their preservation.
As part of its effort to establish an effective record management system and
preserve the country's documentary heritage, the National Archives is
committed to train responsible staff in the provinces in archival management,
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ensuring that government records in the provinces are properly preserved and
at a later stage deposited at the central repository.
The conservation section at NAC was worked at half strength for most of
the year. This was due to NAC human resources being assigned to other
activities. They repairing (maps, plans, posters), reproduction photograph,
book binding, making a boxes and microfilming.
The repairing
The collection of colonial record since 1863 was very fragile and broken.
In some file having the map or plan or Poster holding inside. In this case to
preserve of this record as map, plan and poster must be take out from the file
and move to conservation room to repair and keep the Cabinet with reference
of file number.
The reproduction photos
Recently all the digital format of photograph that received from privet
Archives that was product in hard copy to keep and preserve in album non
acide amount 8000 photos that was supported by Swiss Embassy funding
Microfilming Unit
In February 2001 the NAC microfilming unit began production filming.
The records have to film are in bad condition from year 1891.Since the
beginning to now, microfilm Unit of National Archives has produced films
amount 1200 rolls (Master and Silver copy) which has 25 titles and preserved
in the room with air-conditioning for 24 hours which has Humidify Chamber
6.3. Public Access and Research Services:
Now, the archives is in a position to fulfill its role as a safe haven of
Cambodia's historical heritage. Since the mid - 1990s, it has one more become
a center for research and learning, with numerous Khmer students and
scholars from abroad using its rich collection to learn about the past in order
to better understand the present.
6.4. International Cooperation
The Nationals Archives start to cooperate with the overseas since 1995
and became the member of ICA in 1996, SARBICA in 2004 and is a observer
member of SEAPAVAA and FIAT in 2001
Funding and Assistance:
- Australian Embassy (preservation and computers)
- Swiss Embassy (Preservation, renovation building, create webside)
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- (BIEF) Banque Internationale d'Information sur les Etats Francophones
(Mission, National Seminar and publish of brochures )
- Toyota Foundation and Japan Foundation provided funds for the
conservation and microfilm supplies
- The French Cultural Centre and the French Embassy was continuing to
provide funding for preservation materials, data entry operator.
- UNESCO provided funding to the NAC to hold workshops on
conservation and microfilming as well as to produce the subsequent manuals.
- University of Tokyo has provided the restoration supplies.
- Germany Embassy provided funding to establish Audio-Visual Archives
and Equipment.
- And recently, Cambodian National Commission for UNESCO assist
Archives National of Cambodia on the project of program “ Memorial of
world “ focus on the Training, Preservation, Publication and National
Conference on Archives under topic “ The vision on the Archives
Preservation for Developing “.
7. Problems
The situation now is that records are accumulating in the government
offices since 1979, without preservation.
Records in century 1800s were very fragile and were using with the
original by the researcher from day to day that should be solve in time.
Conservation and bookbinding is a problem. The most basic principles of
document handling and conservation need to be taught.
Cleaning of records is carried out, but precious book in the archives
desperately need rebinding. But there is not enough the funds, expertise or
supplies to carry out these tasks.
The biggest obstacle facing the microfilming unit is the lack of funds
available to replenish supplies of film, chemicals and fix it.
8. Future Plans
- The NAC had planned distribute, on CD-ROM, copies of the database
for the French collection.
- Acquiring equipment and materials needed for arranging, describing, and
conserving material that will be transferred to the NAC repository.
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- Seek for fund to solve the preservation of Audio Visual Archives
Cambodia in time because in the future, it also expects to receive the digital
of the audio-Visual record from the government too.
- Seek for fund to digital Map, Plan and records important in bad condition
to preserve the original.
9. Conclusion
While this year was not as productive in terms of the number of files
processed compared to previous years it was notable for the new areas that the
NAC ventured into. In particular the issue of the law on “ Archives “ shows
that the Royal Government of Cambodia is taking the NAC and its
responsibilities more seriously.
The establishment of the microfilm unit elevates the NAC to a higher
position as the custodian of Cambodia’s documentary heritage and a central
institution, which related institutions look to in the preservation of archives
and documents in Cambodia.
We also feel that there is a need to cover other subjects, in particular
disaster and digitisation, both of which are worthy of a seminar of their own.
It would also prove useful to hold a train the trainer course for those
Cambodian’s who have the knowledge to teach courses on relevant subjects.
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Map and Plan in Bad Condition which using everyday
by researchers
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