• Journal of Korean Society of Archives and Records Management
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.155-175
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• 2017

This study explores the present state of the National Archives of Korea (NAK) and the branch archives and proposes development programs to reestablish their roles. With regard to the NAK, I discussed five issues, and for the branch archives, I discussed three. The issues on NAK are as follows: 1) Is NAK the nation's record keeper?; 2) Does NAK promote the establishment of local archives?; 3) Does NAK supervise and oversee the records management of all public institutions?; 4) What is the raison $d^{\prime}{\hat{e}}tre$ and the vision of NAK?; and 5) Does NAK perform a simple administrative service? Meanwhile, the issues on the branch archives are as follows: 1) Is the branch archives a permanent records management institution?; 2) Are the names of the branch archives appropriate?; and 3) Are the branch archives simple document warehouses?

• The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
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• no.21
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• pp.247-281
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• 2009

Local governments in Korea, sixteen in total, shall establish local government archives to and manage preserve their permanent archives to comply with the Public Records Management Act amended in October 2006. National Archives of Korea(NAK) directed the local governments to recruit legally qualified archivists by the end 0f 2006 and to plan on the establishment and operation of the local government archives by the end 2007. However, none of the government archives was established by far. Government officials in NAK and the local governments raised the limits of the budget and human resources. What is more serious is that they don't concern why the archives are necessary and what missions and functions the archives should have. In this paper, I summarized the present situation and problems in establishing the local archives, and what we will do to establish normal government archives. First, local governments should establish "local government records commissions" and employ qualified archivists. The local government records commission should comprise concerned and qualified members. The records commission, as a policy and decision-making body, should make plans and implement the plans to establish the local archives, establish professional training programs to produce qualified archivists, promote local archives community activities, determine operational issues, and make a long-term development plan satisfying local demands. Second, the local government archives share existing repositories of NAK. Third, after the establishment of the archives, the local archives should perform normal records and archives management of the local governments as records acts mandate, do general records surveys and appraise the records created in the local governments. The local government archives should collect valuable local archives including private archives, and arrange and make usable them to provide access. They also promote and coordinate various cultural heritage community activities related to the local archives.