• The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
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• no.45
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• pp.51-82
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• 2015

Maeul-making, which is to restore inherent characteristics of maeul as a living community has been proceeded by local communities themselves since the 1990s when political democracy and local government in Korean society has been progressed in full-scale. Although New Maeul Movement has been done in the 1970s before and after, it is different from maeul-making because it was focused mainly on improving physical environments of rural communities and initiated by government. The development of maeul community archives in Korea has been related closely to such a maeul-making since the 1990s. Maeul-based community archives, maeul community archives had been begun to build as part of maeul-making and grass-root movement by the 2000s. Initiated by self-motivated communities, maeul community archives were carried out through cooperations between civic activists and residents in maeul communities and voluntary professional archivists from outside. Although records about the maeul community has been collected by mainstream cultural institutions such as public archives, museum, local historical association, and local cultural center, it was at this time to collect records of the maeul community by self-motivated local residents. This tendency of 'independent' maeul community archives, however, is currently entering upon a new phase with the city of Seoul's project (2012) to support making a maeul community, that is, the governance phase based on private-government partnership. At this point of time, it is important for maeul community archives to be built on privately-led governance model that guarantees their autonomy and at the same time bring government's knowhow and supports into them, as opposed to the way captured or driven unilaterally by government. This article explores the growth of maeul community archives and collections in Korean society through a range of self-motivated bodies; the interaction with government; and as a result of those interactions, the creation of maeul community archives based on governance. To introduce and explicate the motivations behind maeul archiving endeavors, this article will first sketch something of the historical, social, and political context in which 'maeul' communities have arisen, collapsed, and restored. It will then examine in more detail some specific examples of maeul community archives as grass-root movement of maeul community. The third section will attempt to identify the governance model of maeul community archives under the auspices of the city of Seoul and its limitations. Finally through these activities, it will suggest the ways in which maeul community archives commit themselves to their duty of grass-root movement of community and at the same time, secure sustainability, that is, concrete ways of privately initiated governance model.

• The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
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• no.35
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• pp.161-206
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• 2013

'Maeul' is a concept connoting a community. As a place where ordinary people's lives are planned and realized, Maeul is the foundation of their daily lives as well as a place where they work, rest and enjoy pastime activities. In Korea, however, most Maeul communities are dismantled while going though the modern period representing colonization and developmental dictatorship. Growth-oriented industrialization and urbanization turned into such adverse effects as individualization, a sense of loss and a sense of alienation. Recently, through innovations from below, Maeuls are restored, and through Maeul communities restored this way, every Maeul and many researchers carry out activities to build a healthy civil society. This study was conducted on such a background. For a healthy restoration of Maeul communities and a sustainable operation of those communities, it is necessary to establish archives where record the trace of Maeul members' daily lives and relations between those members. The archive of Maeul communities is a place that contains each Maeul's local characteristics as well as human relations as well. It is because this place can be space where Maeul members can record their history, communicate with each other and make a better future. The archive of Maeul communities can be made into various different models, which can be operated by reflecting the identity of a community such as main agents and characteristics, objectives and orientation of objects recorded. Rather than when Maeul communities exist as individuals, they can display more important functions and better effect when they form a network. Therefore, it is needed to provide various and creative methodologies different from the existing government-led record management. Not only on the form of archives, but also all over their functions, such as collection, arrangement, classification, evaluation, management and utilization, Maeul and Maeul residents' norms, orientation and realistic conditions should be thoroughly reflected. Starting from a chance to look back at individuals' lives, the archive of Maeul communities will be a new chapter to restore and build a healthy community in our society and overcome social contradictions from below. Moreover, the archive of Maeul communities has a great significance that it will broaden its prospect creatively with a new paradigm, not only mechanically turning the existing public sector-centered record management into a non-governmental sector.

• The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
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• no.65
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• pp.89-108
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• 2020

Twenty years after the Records Managemen Act was first enacted, the archiving environment has changed a lot. The advent of the electronic records environment, the importance of presidential records management, and the importance of managing private records have been a direct background to the 2006 revision of the Records Management Act. The field of electronic records management and the field of presidential records management have challenges and limitations, but have been steadily developing. However, in the private sector, archiving has not changed significantly compared to the voluntary activity. Now the maeul-community is calling for a response from the records management community. A society develops when the private and public sectors cooperate with each other and form healthy check-ups. In the archiving field, it must also become active through cooperation.

• The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
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• no.69
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• pp.95-128
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• 2021

As interest in private records began to develop in the research of archivists, discussions began about the value of private records and how to collect and manage private records from the standpoint of archivists. After that, the conceptual discussion on community archives, from the point of view of the community, collecting and preserving their own records, and the democratization of records and the sovereignty of records are discussed. As a result of this trend, maeul making projects were started in each region, and citizen archivists appeared who do archives activities. and research on the role and system of public institutions to support them and community archives. Recently, as research on regional record activities has begun, the current status of education and activities in each region is being announced. in addition archives education programs are being actively conducted nationwide to train citizen archivists. The purpose of this thesis is to find out their identity of their, in order to cultivate sustainable citizen archivists and to suggest the direction the citizen archivists training program should pursue. First, we consider that the educational goal of citizen archivists training program is to train citizen archivists who practice the knowledge learned through education, and examine the identity of 'citizen archivist', the goal of training education. In this study, local archivists are regarded as local members who engage in archiving activities based on their locality, and they are judged to be the main actors and core beings in building community archives. Also the activities of citizen archivists are viewed as active and subjective beings that realize 'Archival autonomy' by implementing 'Archival autonomy'. In addition, it analyzes the cases of researchable citizen archivist training programs in Korea that were conducted to foster local archivists and examines the current situation. Finally, the direction of citizen archivists training program for cultivating citizen archivists is presented. In this paper, I think that the citizen archivists training program should be designed as a curriculum to parctice the education goal, not as public program.

• The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
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• no.69
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• pp.7-33
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• 2021

From the beginning of the enactment and implementation of the Public Records Management Act, there has been a steady discussion on the establishment of local archives. Local archives include not only administrative records of local governments, but also private archives such as containing the lives of residents. Along with the academic discussion, there have been movements for local autonomy and decentralization. Currently, interest and discussion on private archiving are in the historical flow. In addition, private archiving has become a social concern because of the establishment of systems such as the Public Records Management Act and the Information Disclosure Act, the establishment of a digital environment, and the spread of the meaning and value of village community activities. There are several government agencies related to private archiving, and the grounds for performing their work are different, and there are many central administrative agencies to which they belong. Therefore, I propose that the National Archives take the lead and form a 'Consortium of Private archives Management Institutions'. The organization should promote first, cooperation of collection information and archives, second, coordination of tasks and functions between institutions, and third, establishment of a nationwide private archives management system. Now is our chance. Instead of reacting on an ad hoc basis, respond systematically with a long-term perspective.