Enhancing Access to the Archive (TN0034)
Overview
At-a-Glance
Action Plan: Tunisia Second National Action Plan 2016-2018
Action Plan Cycle: 2016
Status:
Institutions
Lead Institution: National Archive Institute
Support Institution(s): NA
Policy Areas
Capacity BuildingIRM Review
IRM Report: Tunisia End-of-Term Report 2016-2018, Tunisia Mid-Term Report 2016-2018
Early Results: Did Not Change
Design i
Verifiable: Yes
Relevant to OGP Values: Yes
Ambition (see definition): High
Implementation i
Description
Enhancing access to the archive
IRM Midterm Status Summary
14. Enhance access to the archive held by the National Archive institute
Commitment Text:
The aim is to facilitate access to a significant volume of historical documents since the Husseinit period until today. These documents are characterized by their originality, uniqueness and diversity of their content, dates, languages (Arabic, French, English, Turkish, Italian, and Hebrew).
Opening up these documents will offer enumerable benefits for many users, especially for researchers and developers of web/mobile applications in several fields.
Milestones:
- Developing an archival platform to allow access to documents that have been digitized,
- Organizing training in this field for all dealers with documents in order to have the necessary skills regarding organizing classifying and coding documents.
Responsible institution: Tunisian National Archive
Supporting institution(s): None
Start date: June 2016 End date: July 2018
Context and Objectives
The Tunisian National Archive holds a document collection that goes back to the Ottoman Empire. However, the maintenance and functioning of the institution is archaic, relying more on classical methods of storage and indexation.
The objective of this commitment is to develop a platform for providing access to the National Archive by creating a new portal with digitized archives, and to train its staff for digitization, coding and classification, which is an essential step for publishing information. Therefore, this commitment is relevant to the OGP value of access to information.
The National Archive started to develop a more modern project allowing visitors to research part of their digitalized content online, though this service is no longer available due to technical issues and underfunding. The current website is static and often unavailable. [43] If fully implemented, this commitment will have a minor potential impact. It will allow Tunisians, mostly researchers and academia, to access the content of the National Archive online.
Completion
This commitment is not started.
According to the National Archive officials, Terms of References have been developed for the platform, however, no documentation has been made publicly available.
Next Steps
The IRM researcher recommends the following:
- This commitment overlaps with commitment 2 of this action plan. Therefore, they should be combined to address the challenges of implementing the access to information law.
- Seek other implementing partners to support the National Archive financially and technically, such as: The Presidency of the Government, the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, the Tunisian Institute for Strategic Studies (part of the presidency) and UNESCO.
IRM End of Term Status Summary
14. Enhancing access to the archive
Commitment Text:
The aim is to facilitate access to a significant volume of historical documents since the Husseinit period until today. These documents are characterized by their originality, uniqueness and diversity of their content, dates, languages (Arabic, French, English, Turkish, Italian, and Hebrew).
Opening up these documents will offer enumerable benefits for many users, especially for researchers and developers of web/mobile applications in several fields.
Milestones:
- Developing an archival platform to allow access to documents that have been digitized,
- Organizing training in this field for all dealers with documents in order to have the necessary skills regarding organizing classifying and coding documents.
Responsible institution: Tunisian National Archive
Start date: June 2016 End date: July 2018
Editorial Note: This is an abbreviated version of the commitment text. For the full commitment text from the Tunisia National Action Plan, see here.
Commitment Aim:
The Tunisian National Archive documents were not available online and its website was not functional. This commitment aims to develop a platform for providing access to the National Archive by creating a new portal with digitized archives, and to train its staff for digitization, coding, and classification.
Status
Midterm: Not Started
The implementation of this commitment did not start by the midterm assessment. The IRM researcher requested information on the implementation of this commitment but did not receive any evidence from the National Archive or the government.
End of term: Limited
The national OGP steering committee confirmed to the IRM researcher that lack of funding blocked the implementation of this commitment. The government end of term self-assessment report confirmed that the terms of reference were developed. [63]
Did It Open Government?
Access to Information: Did Not Change
Since the implementation of this commitment did not start, the status of the government remained unchanged.
Carried Forward?
The commitment was not carried forward.