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The Open Society Archives (OSA) welcomes you to its fifth electronic update, with information about recent and upcoming events, recent acquisitions and newly processed materials, and long-term projects that might help deepen your academic work. OSA, in fact, functions as a teaching, research and cultural institution dedicated to recent history and the study of human rights violations. | |||||
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IN FOCUS - POLISH SAMIZDAT IN OSA COLLECTIONSThe documents related to the phenomenon of the underground press under late-Socialism occupy a very special place within our archival legacy. Unlike in many national institutions, at OSA you can find and study the history of Polish, Hungarian and Soviet samizdat all under one roof. However, in this newsletter we want to draw your attention to our Polish Samizdat holdings. The Context In Poland the underground press phenomenon went beyond “samizdat” proper (self-publication of manuscripts chain-copied by the author and overlapping circles of his friends and committed others using unsophisticated duplication techniques) to transform itself into a vast and dense network of “second circulation” of culture, exploiting advanced technology and employing a complex division of labor for printing, editing and distribution. Radio Free Europe (RFE) analysts documented the development of Polish samizdat from its beginnings in the late 1970s. However, given its exponential growth in the aftermath of Solidarity and the declaration of Martial Law, in 1983 RFE’s Polish Underground Publications Unit (PUP) was created to collect, monitor and analyze the independent press in order to support the broadcasting activities of the radios. The Fonds Today the PUP Unit subfonds available at OSA includes the biggest Polish independent publications collection outside Poland and a substantial collection of ephemera prints, as well as reference materials, internal radio publications and other documents. The archival documents are supplemented by the IDC microfiche collection of Polish samizdat at OSA Library. Please consult our webpage for further details. The Highlights The Polish ephemera collection counts around 500 objects. Next to typical items of political propaganda, such as posters and leaflets, the collection of stamps, envelopes and postcards testify to the extraordinary phenomenon of the underground postage system that emerged in Poland in the 1980s on the margins of the underground press. Another highlight of the Polish samizdat legacy are the internal RFE publications based on Polish underground press. Designed to overcome the language barrier in the study of independent thought under late-Socialism, the collection of Polish Underground Extracts is the largest single corpus of articles from the Polish underground press translated into English. Similarly, the Polish Independent Press Review consists of regularly published content analyses of the independent publications, covering multiple issues such as independent politics, state repression, society, the economy, the environment, youth etc. These are supplemented by the standard RFE Situation Reports and Background Reports which were also prepared by the Unit’s staff members, but published irregularly. Recognizing the importance of internet for free access to culture and for independent scholarship, OSA is pressing forward with the digitalization of Polish underground press materials. Within the framework of the HOPE project, we will make accessible the digital copies of various fonds related to Polish samizdat: RFE Publications based on the underground press and the Ephemera collection, as well as a large part of the underground journals collection. This year the Pokolenie Association, an NGO dedicated to the preservation of Solidarity's legacy, joined the ranks of our partners. | |||||
EVENTSTo keep abreast of upcoming events at OSA, please see our regularly updated News Section. Recent Event Highlights
Upcoming Events
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COLLECTIONSOSA has recently acquired several new collections, either as donations or as deposits, while several others are now fully accessible online.
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PROJECTSEuropeana Awareness (2012-2014) OSA became a member (Country Partner) in the 48-partner consortium working on the Europeana Awareness project, which is a Best Practice Network of libraries, archives, museums, and universities, as well as digital developers and innovators, led by the Europeana Foundation and funded by the European Union under the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework (CIP). OSA will work specifically on the national public media campaign and the end-user engagement to generate new content by organizing thematic campaigns and collection days of private archives and memorabilia related to the fall of the Iron Curtain in Hungary. http://pro.europeana.eu/web/europeana-awareness HOPE Project May 2012 saw the publication of the paper entitled HOPE Best Practice for Trusted Digital Repositories, a guide for social history institutions in trusted digital repository practice. The document looks past the short-term objectives of the HOPE project and issues raised by the 12 partner institutions across Europe, and provides a thorough analysis of organizational attributes and local repository practice characteristic of the sector. http://www.peoplesheritage.eu 100 year old Buildings of Budapest 2 Launched in 2011, this highly popular project returned in the spring of 2012 with the public celebration of the city's buildings that reach the age of one hundred in the current year. These centenary events gave the residents of the buildings the opportunity to get to know each other and to discover the often hidden treasures of their houses. | |||||
ANNOUNCEMENTSThe Research Room is open every day from 10:00-17:45, except weekends. This year the Research Room will close for summer break on July 30 and will reopen on September 3, 2012. Visegrad Scholarship at the Open Society Archives, annual fellowships for research in our collections. For a better and deeper understanding of the interdependent recent history of (Central) Europe, the International Visegrad Fund offers 15 research fellowship grants annually at the Open Society Archives at Central European University, Budapest on a competitive basis to support scholars who wish to conduct research in the holdings of OSA, and whose current research projects are relevant to the holdings and the stated research priorities of the Fund and the Archives. Chachipe Map Contest Winners Announced The international jury of the Chachipe Map photography contest has selected nine winning photos from among the 1,117 photos entered in the contest. In June, an exhibition of the best photos from the contest was opened to the public in Budapest. |
We hope that you have found this update valuable and look forward to further cooperation with you. Should you wish to inquire further about our recent and upcoming events, exhibitions, book launches, film screenings, ongoing projects, acquisitions, and research possibilities, please visit our website www.osaarchivum.org, or contact us at info@osaarchivum.org. | |
Sincerely, |