<p>The purpose of this study has been to examine the archival management at the 14 Student Nations in Uppsala. This may be relevant to study to extend the research in the field that Berndt Frediksson calls “empirical archival science”. Another reason is that the Student Nations hold a unique position as organisations and their archivists holds a unique position from a professional point of view as they mostly consist of students without professional archivist training. I have mainly focused on why the archival management at the Nations looked as they did. The main method that was used in the study was semi-structured interviews where I interviewed the archivists at all of the Nations.</p><p>The functions of the archives of the Nations were the same as for other societies, with the exception that these archives also were used by officials and other members as a support for finding ideas about how to run the Nation today in several ways. The archival regulations and practices that were generally followed by the Nations were the same as for societies in general, that is, among other things, the use of “Allmänna arkivschemat” (the Swedish standard archival finding aid subject heading system) and other Swedish archival standards. Many Nations also had articles specifying the tasks of their archivists. The methods used in the archival management varied to some degree between different Nations. Concerning how well the archives was being managed they were generally managed a little defectively, even if this varied between the Nations. This was because the archivists were not professionals, and this was probably inevitable because the Nations like many other societies probably cannot afford to consult skilled professionals for this. Despite this there were a few things that could be made better. The unique position held by the Nations as organisations could generate new perspectives on archival management, and not only concerning societies.</p><p>This is a one year master’s thesis in archival science.</p>

The purpose of this study has been to examine the archival management at the 14 Student Nations in Uppsala. This may be relevant to study to extend the research in the field that Berndt Frediksson calls “empirical archival science”. Another reason is that the Student Nations hold a unique position as organisations and their archivists holds a unique position from a professional point of view as they mostly consist of students without professional archivist training. I have mainly focused on why the archival management at the Nations looked as they did. The main method that was used in the study was semi-structured interviews where I interviewed the archivists at all of the Nations. The functions of the archives of the Nations were the same as for other societies, with the exception that these archives also were used by officials and other members as a support for finding ideas about how to run the Nation today in several ways. The archival regulations and practices that were generally followed by the Nations were the same as for societies in general, that is, among other things, the use of “Allmänna arkivschemat” (the Swedish standard archival finding aid subject heading system) and other Swedish archival standards. Many Nations also had articles specifying the tasks of their archivists. The methods used in the archival management varied to some degree between different Nations. Concerning how well the archives was being managed they were generally managed a little defectively, even if this varied between the Nations. This was because the archivists were not professionals, and this was probably inevitable because the Nations like many other societies probably cannot afford to consult skilled professionals for this. Despite this there were a few things that could be made better. The unique position held by the Nations as organisations could generate new perspectives on archival management, and not only concerning societies. This is a one year master’s thesis in archival science.