Curators in the ‘Archives’ speciality are responsible for collecting, preserving and communicating France's archival heritage. They supervise and sometimes manage the current and intermediate archives of public services and constitute the historical research documentation, which they are responsible for classifying, inventorying and making available to the widest possible audience.
The training programme for curatorial students in the Archives specialism is coordinated by Marion Humbert, Deputy Director of the Moselle Departmental Archives, and involves heritage professionals.
Points covered
- the policy for collecting and selecting public archives
- appraisal and selection of contemporary archives
- management tables
- outsourcing of public archives. Regulations and procedures
- moving archives
- enriching collections and collecting private archives
- description standards
- archival description
- from writing to publication: practical use of software
- the development of e-government
- the concept of electronic archiving; standards, players, tools and governance
- the role of metadata. Preparing the data to be collected
- collecting and handling data in an archiving system
- organising an electronic archiving project
- ensuring data longevity
- rules on access to public archives and communicability
- digitisation (2D) of graphic and textual documents
- strategy for disseminating archives on the internet
Complementary core courses
In addition, issues relating to the conservation and physical security of archives are addressed in cross-disciplinary modules, with variations by speciality.
In addition, issues relating to the conservation and physical security of archives are addressed in cross-disciplinary modules, with variations by speciality.
For example, issues of preventive conservation, climate management, health and safety, infrastructure maintenance and packaging are covered in the ‘conservation-restoration’ module prior to the week-long work camp on collections.
The condition assessment exercise is organised after the specialist course.
Similarly, an overview of trends in archive building construction and an update on safety and security are provided as part of the ‘construction and fitting out of heritage and cultural buildings’ module, itself accompanied by a visit to a recently constructed archive building.
Speciality work placements
The specialised training is supplemented by two work placements which place students in a professional situation so that they can carry out the tasks - design, supervision, project management - that will be entrusted to them as soon as they start work.
The aim of the internship is to prepare the student curator for his or her future role by working alongside the intern's supervisor to help him or her discover all aspects of the profession.
The trainee is also given a scientific project for which he or she is responsible and which must be delivered at the end of the course. This gives them the opportunity to experience the interaction between the scientific aspects of their job and their administrative responsibilities, while at the same time learning about the practical and human realities of their future role.
This is an immersion course in a heritage institution in the trainee's field of specialisation.
The aim is to introduce trainees to working methods and approaches to heritage other than those used in their own country, and to encourage them to forge links with foreign curators who will be useful in their future careers, developing projects at an international level.
The choice of country for this work placement is made in consultation with the Inp's international relations department. Where appropriate, 2 of the 6 weeks take the form of a work placement on collections abroad, which the student carries out in the company of fellow students doing their work placement in the same country.
