Do papel ao digital: problematização, desafios e perspectivas na preservação das fontes na Universidade Federal do Rio Grande - FURG

Abstract

This paper argues that the creation and implementation of policies and specific coordinated actions provide administrators with the tools to preserve memory, identity, and history as the University moves toward digital transformation. In turn, the lack of these policies leads to unimaginable losses and damage, where actions and decisions in educational institutions today influence the writing and research of the history of education in the not-so-distant future. The overall objective is to problematize the preservation of documentary sources at the Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG) and how administrators contribute to the University's memory, history, and identity as it moves toward digital transformation. Based on this, we understand how these conflicts are perceived in the practices and representations of institutional documents and in the narratives of the staff involved through interviews. Specifically, we identified the memory/forgetting conflicts inherent in the process of preserving archival documents at the Institution; The research analyzed the policies (and non-policies) in practices and representations related to archival collections (production, management, preservation, and access) and their relationship with institutional memory. The research also problematized the practices and representations of staff members/managers involved in decision-making regarding the institution's documents. The proposed analysis is grounded in Cultural History, organized based on Chartier's (2002) concepts of practices and representations, discourse analysis, and the concepts of memory and forgetting. In the methodology, I used documentary and oral sources obtained through interviews. Regarding the thesis, it can be stated that although there is a discourse and an intention to preserve memory at FURG, in practice, the actions developed to date are sparse and, in most cases, lacking coordination between the sectors responsible for this responsibility. The lack of digital preservation policies, system adaptation, and the adoption of reliable digital archival repositories causes instability and uncertainty in several aspects, impacting collection management and memory preservation. The result of this research is not intended to be considered definitive nor does it close it for new analyses. We understand that other interpretations and research can be carried out, based on different theoretical-methodological approaches, consultations with new sources or different ways of questioning the subjects or sources.