Arquivo e sociedade: formação e acesso ao patrimônio arquivístico nos municípios do estado do Rio Grande do Sul.

Abstract

This study raises the role of the Municipal Public Archives as active institutions in the elaboration of managerial policies and access to the municipal archival patrimony. The archival documents, generated by their functions and activities of its maker and the its social context that surrounds them, are formed with administrative, legal and fiscal purposes and can remain in history for their historical-cultural aspects. While the cultural heritage carries by itself a great potential of use in the formation of the identity endowed with functions and significances, the formation and access to the Municipal Public Archives is conditioned to the implementation of procedures and management standards in all parts of the Municipal Executive Branch Units. Law 12,527/2011 extended and ratified the right to information, and various aspects of Law 8.159/1991 as it concerns management and preservation duty for access to information. In order to raise the significance of having archives, in the elaboration of archival policies, that benefit the municipal archival patrimony; it is necessary to investigate activities developed by the state of Rio Grande do Sul’s municipalities in relation to the national policy of archives, the right to access information and potential use of documents as cultural heritage. The results of the research indicate that vast discussions and norms on archival policies and access to public information in Brazil guaranties rights, including the right to memory, at the same time guaranties greater access to the archives by society and a firsthand posture of archival units. Although such advances have influenced the expansion of public policies toward cultural heritage and the importance of documentary of heritage in Brazil, the Municipal Public Archives still lack a management and access policy to express its cultural inheritance. In the state of Rio Grande do Sul, 8% of the municipalities were located with archives published in the worldwide web (internet), of which 13% were established by law or decree to the policy of archives or to the municipal file system. The justification for management and preservation, besides public transparency and efficiency, is that a portion of the documents generated by the administrative machine is potential cultural heritage that can be used as activators of combined memory and contribution to social development.