Kvalifikationskrav på arkivarier : en undersökning av svenska myndighetsarkiv

Sammanfattning: The aim of this master’s thesis is to examine which competencies and qualifications Swedish government agencies require when hiring records managers today. Recently, the archival sector has encountered several challenges regarding technical solutions for electronic archiving. This thesis also attempts to address whether these changes affect the need for specific qualifications in records managers. Records managers and those responsible for the recruitment at seven government agencies in southern Sweden have been interviewed about what skills they consider important for records managers. Additionally, required skills in ten job advertisements from these government agencies have been analysed. Only government agencies have been analysed, as it is mandatory for them to transcend to an operationally based file classification system, a method that seems to play an important part in Swedish records management when an increasing number of archives go digital. The theoretical framework is based on Per-Erik Ellström’s taxonomy of qualifications, and his analysis of how these are affected when organisations decide to increase their computerised areas. The results show that all qualifications in Ellström’s taxonomy are required when employing records managers today, except psycho-motorical skills and some of the skills known as tacit knowledge. Also, none of the informants thought that the need of any qualifications should be replaced when archives go digital, but rather that records managers need to know more today than previously. He or she needs to be able to work both in the traditional paper-based archive, as well as in the e-archive. The records manager also needs knowledge in both the previously used file classification system (allmänna arkivschemat), and the new operationally based file classification system. It appears that the introduction of the operationally based file classification system has affected the qualification requirements to a certain degree, but the informants have different opinions and experiences regarding this question. Most of them agree that the increased amount of digital material and the challenges concerning e-archives, combined with the operationally based file classification system, affect which qualifications and knowledge records managers need today.