Administrative materials
Administrative materials related to the cultural environment
The cultural environment-related administrative materials of the State Archaeological Commission and the Finnish Heritage Agency refer to, for example, incoming requests for statements, statements, other correspondence, memos, and minutes.
There is an abundance of administrative material related to the built environment and archaeology. For example, the archives contain documents concerning protected buildings and other culturally and historically valuable buildings, documents related to ancient monuments such as protection notices, statements on zoning, and research permits for archaeological sites and artifacts. Older administrative materials include correspondence concerning the maintenance and repair of castles from the turn of the 20th century. Administrative materials are also included, for example, in the materials of the Historical Department, which can be found in the Finnish Heritage Agency's Archive Service, in the State Archaeological Commission's section. For instance, the series "Hfa Asiakirjat kunnittain" contains numerous documents related to manors and churches: these documents have been digitised and can be viewed in the archive service's researchers’ room view.
The archiving order of administrative documents varies in the archives. Some materials are arranged by municipality, and some annually. More recent documents are usually arranged by task group and year.
The State Archaeological Commission's materials are arranged according to the traditional ABC scheme based on the formal quality of the documents. In this scheme, for example, journals, incoming documents, outgoing documents (duplicates), and minutes form their own annual series. The same hierarchy was largely followed in the archiving of the Finnish Heritage Agency's analog documents, even though from 1990 onwards, the Finnish Heritage Agency has used a task-based records management plan and subject groups. However, from 1990 onwards, documents have generally been preserved so that, for example, incoming requests for statements and the related statements are placed consecutively and physically in the same storage unit, such as a case. Prior to this, requests for statements and statements were usually separate in their own series according to the ABC scheme.
The Finnish Heritage Agency has used an electronic administrative diary since 1995. For the period before that, the analog diaries serve as indexes, and most of them have been digitised. The diary data can be found in the Finnish Heritage Agency's Archive Service in the State Archaeological Commission's and Finnish Heritage Agency's series A DIAARIT. Currently, the VirastoVahva case management system serves as the official registry for the Finnish Heritage Agency's administrative affairs and electronic archive.
Archive indexes: