Hunan Provincial Archives Guide

Author: Hunan Provincial Archives
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1996-12-01
Features: To implement the "Archives Law of the People's Republic of China," strengthen the basic and operational construction of our archives, promote the opening and utilization of archives, provide the public with more systematic archival information resources, and better serve modernization, we have compiled and published the "Hunan Provincial Archives Guide" (hereinafter referred to as "The Guide"). The Guide is a reference book that comprehensively introduces and reports on the basic conditions of the archives, the content of archival holdings, and guides users in accessing and utilizing archives and materials. In compiling The Guide, we strive to maintain a serious and conscientious attitude, objective and fair perspectives, accurate and comprehensive content, concise and fluent language, prominent local characteristics, and a blend of academic, scientific, and practical qualities. The Guide was compiled in accordance with the "Archives Guide Compilation Standards" approved and issued by the National Archives Administration, combined with the actual conditions of our archives. It mainly consists of sections such as the general overview of the archives, introductions to archival holdings, introductions to archival materials, and appendices. Among them, the introduction to archival holdings is divided into chapters such as Qing Dynasty archives, archives from the Republican period, revolutionary historical archives, archives from the People's Republic of China, audiovisual archives, and other archives. The Guide mainly introduces 187 fonds received into the archives before 1989. The introduction to each fonds mainly includes the name of the fonds, the fonds number, the institutional history, administrative affiliation, internal organizational structure of the records-creating body, the time span of the archives, retrieval tools, and an introduction to the content of the archives. When compiling the introduction to each fonds, we followed the "Archives Guide Compilation Standards" while adding an "Important Archive Highlights" section to some fonds to better highlight the characteristics of our archives' holdings. The time span of the institutional history introduction is based on the time span of the archives held by the institution, but to clarify the description, the institutional history of some units has been appropriately extended or shortened in time. The name of the fonds is generally based on the latest name of the unit's archives received into the archives, but some units have chosen the most representative name as the fonds name based on the situation. Due to issues in the organization and arrangement of archives, the time span of some fonds does not match the time span of their institutional history, meaning that they hold archives from units other than the fonds. In such cases, we did not adjust the original archival volumes, and the time span of the archives is based on the time span of the current archives in the fonds. Additionally, the fonds numbers of our archives have not yet been fully standardized, with some gaps left; second, the file numbers of the revolutionary historical archives have not been published this time. The fonds numbers 129 to 136 used in The Guide are temporarily assigned during the planned reorganization of these archives. Due to the scarcity, fragmentation, and incompleteness of archives in some fonds, to supplement the content, some materials were treated as archives during the organization and arrangement, serving as necessary supplements to the archives. These materials are introduced alongside the archives in this book.