Arxiu Municipal de Barcelona
The Arxiu Municipal de Barcelona (Barcelona Municipal Archives) is the Barcelona City Council organisation tasked with preserving and actively sharing Barcelona’s documentary heritage.
It’s run by a team of professionals who are experts in managing, preserving and sharing the contents of the archive with the goal of organising, describing, maintaining and facilitating access to these documents, which range from the most ancient parchments to new, digitally-produced documents.
The Arxiu is in charge of establishing Barcelona City Council’s document management guidelines, promoting the right to access the documents (as a guarantee of legal security for city residents) and facilitating transparency, accountability and the active promotion of the documents. It currently manages over fifty kilometres of paper documents, over three million photographs and thousands of visual, multimedia, electronic and audio files.
The Arxiu is made up of several specialised facilities located at different points throughout the city: the Historical Archives of Barcelona, the Contemporary Municipal Archives of Barcelona, the Photographic Archive of Barcelona, the municipal district archives and the central archives for sectors, companies, institutes and autonomous bodies.
The Arxiu Municipal de Barcelona is an essential public service that guarantees access to, and use of documents, so as to ensure people's rights, and contributes to memory, understanding of the city and the development of society in a digital environment. Its strategic lines of action are as follows:
- To strengthen links with city residents and knowledge of Barcelona’s memory through its documentary heritage.
- To ensure the documents and information resources are protected and accessible to everyone.
- To facilitate Barcelona City Council’s digital transition for an efficient management of documents.
- To develop an organisational and professional model that meets the city’s needs.
- To coordinate preservation policies and specific activities in relation to the acquisition, restoration, preservation and digitalisation of documentary heritage.
- To guarantee the transparency, access, safety and protection of documents.
- To offer services for facilitating consultation of the documents.
- To further the implementation of the AIDA system in city government institutions.
- To implement the document manager and electronic archive.
- To carry out outreach initiatives aimed at promoting the Arxiu’s collections.
- To offer services to the educational and academic community to promote understanding of the city’s heritage and memory.