The Archivist Between His Duty to Communicate and the Obligation to Protect

Abstract

Information is an essential and unavoidable fact both in terms of the development of individuals’ leadership and the emergence of companies and societies we’re living in as well. All activities revolve around data and information created or received. These different natural or legal persons aspire to faster access to information. To this end, information and communication technologies are increasingly being used for so-called free access information and need for documentary information managers (archivists, librarians and documentalists) for information related to institutions also increases. With regard to the latter type of information contained in documents held by public administrations, more and more users are wanting to access it, almost without delay, lying on their right to information. However, this consecrated right is not without restriction. These restrictions are linked, among other things to the safety of the state and to the protection of privacy. In this context, the guarantors of the institutional memory that are the archivists, are facing a dilemma: to communicate information to users while ensuring the protection of the privacy of citizens.