OSA / Collections / Fonds / HU OSA 205-4

HU OSA	205-4 C
Authority entry:	Information Services Department

Related records:

HU OSA 205-4

Related Authority Entries

• HU OSA 205C Open Media Research Institute

Names ISD

Date(s) and Place(s) of existence 1994-1997

Business location

Na Strzi 63, 140 62 Prague 4, Czech Republic

Mandate, functions and sphere of activity

The main objectives of the Information Services Department (ISD), according to its original mandate, were to provide RFE/RL with information services and to provide custody for the RFE/RL archives. These objectives were reflected in its initial structure.

ISD was divided into two main units: the OMRI Archive of current materials, located in Prague (Czech Republic) and the Open Society Archives, located at the Central European University in Budapest (Hungary). Material from the last five (most recent) years was kept in Prague, while earlier materials were housed in Budapest.
Later OSA became an independent entity and took over custody of the archival materials of both RFE/RL Research Institute (Munich, Germany) and the Open Media Research Institute (Prague, Czech Republic) after its closure in 1997.

The ISD resources were available for substantive research by those studying the Soviet and post-Soviet world, in addition to continuing to provide support to the RFE/RL broadcasters and to OMRI analysts in preparing Transition, OMRI Daily Digest and other publications.

Administrative structure

The OMRI Information Services Department consists of Archives and Library. In its turn the Archives included East European Archives (EEA) and the Slavic, Baltic and Eurasian Archives (SBEA).

The archives contained a large quantity of files arranged by subject, by geographical area, and by names of important personalities.

Each day it received some 500 pages of press clippings and 250 pages of transcripts of radio and television news programs from in-country contractors.

Daily press clippings were received from some 21 countries and some 23 special weekly clippings covering subjects of topical interest or regions. The clippings were either faxed or send electronically and were filed by special Monitoring staff members according to the Archives filing system. The content and volume of the faxed clippings varied from country to country.

To provide this service ISD signed contracts with independent news agencies in Albania, Moldova, Montenegro, and Serbia, which provided news items. For East and Central Europe and the Baltic countries the faxed clippings covered the major dailies, and additional press surveys were compiled by the ISD staff archivists from weeklies and periodicals. ISD continued cooperation with the What Papers Say as well. (Moscow Information Agency, Russian Federation) and besides compilations by topics (on extremism, opposition, culture, social issues, defense and security features, etc) it received press surveys of daily and weekly publications, monthly magazines, and the regional press.

ISD received radio and TV monitoring materials from six countries (Belarus, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Russia, and Ukraine) electronically and forwarded them to RFE/RL. At the same time hard copies were provided.

Over 60 electronic publications were received and stored in OMRI’s electronic archives and additional databases were developed for Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, Romania, the former Yugoslavia, Albania and Macedonia, Poland and the Czech Republic.

The library stocked current Western and international periodicals and newspapers, main Western book collection, journals from FSU, and Central and East European countries, regional newspapers of the former SU. The library collections were stored in two buildings and courier services existed between OMRI and RFE/RL

Besides providing general reference the Library’s staff also ran additional collections such as the Baltic, Bulgarian, Romanian, Russian, and nationalities collections, Czech/Slovak and Czech Exile collections. They processed electronic news and monitoring services, and ran a ClarisWork catalog for materials required that was accessible as a “shared file” in OMRI’s electronic text archive.

Jeffrey Gardner was the director of ISD, and the staff consisted of about 10 people working at the Library and at the Archives.

Relationships

ISD was the key source for data and information used by analysts, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty broadcasters, and other researchers, scholars and interns.

Rules or conventions

ISAAR(CPF): International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families General Intenational Standard Archival Description; OSA Internal Rules.

Dates of description

Described by Olga Zaslavskaya, 1 October 2003
Online version updated 6 January 2012