What do the KIT Archives stand for?
For whom?
The KIT Archives provide an infrastructure for researchers from across the globe and put usage at the center of its services. In addition to welcoming those conducting academic research, our Archives are accessible to all.
For the university institutions, the KIT Archives act as a knowledge repository that offers answers to historical questions. The Archives contribute to KIT's historical public relations work and to legal protections. In addition, the KIT Archives are a partner for teaching and contribute to researching and communicating the history of the KIT.
The KIT Archives provide all users with information on its holdings, advise on research, and help answer other questions.
Basic functions
The KIT Archives constitute the groundwork for the history of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and make this tradition publicly available. For this purpose, the analog and digital documents created at KIT and its predecessor institutions -- above all files and photos, but also sound recordings and films -- are assessed for their historical value and, if deemed of value, taken over for permanent storage.
The archived documents and objects can be researched digitally and the KIT Archives take the necessary steps to ensure their long-term preservation.
The KIT Archives also participate in the discussion of archival methods and standardization.
Legal framework
One of our main functions is to provide public access to our archival materials according to the current legal norms. The mandate to make archive materials generally accessible is, however, limited by the rights of third parties. The most common of third-party rights tend to be (a) the personal rights of the persons named in the archival units and (b) the copyright. Protection periods are a means of guaranteeing these rights. Each time the KIT Archives are accessed, we check whether there are any protection periods or other legal obstacles in terms of use. In this event, the legal obstacles are explained and the options for shortening protection periods are discussed together with the users.
Past-Present-Future
The KIT Archives establish the necessary relationship between the present and the past. With the KIT’s conviction to view its own history without reservation, to scientifically appraise it and to actively confront it (https://www.kit.edu/kit/20490.php), there is an obligation to promote and stimulate such approaches. The history of the KIT is also understood to be the product of a discursive and continuously ongoing supplementary process in which complementary perspectives are developed. An essential reason to confront the past is to meet the challenges of the present and thereby shape the future. This includes the obligation to learn from the past in order to avoid repeating mistakes and to recognize what is worth protecting.