Acquisition of archival heritage

The continuous preservation of the documental heritage is one of the main roles of ADP. In our opinion, this activity should always be regarded proactively and not in a mere passive perspective.
Our interest is strongly focused on the acquisition of documental records of families, individuals, public and private entities, which by their cultural meaning and relevance for the preservation and understanding of the social memory have earned the right to be kept forever.

Arquivo Distrital do Porto vision in this area is not thus limited to the documents subject by law (Decrees-Law 149/83 and 47/2004) to periodical and obligatory transfers, but comprises also the incorporation of documental records that have been abandoned and are in serious risk of deterioration with the inherent loss of important information (Decree-law 16/93, of 23 January).

Aiming to support the acquisition processes of archival materials, we have developed within the scope of DigitArq project an application that enables the entities sending documentation to the Archive to issue lists of the documents and to produce automatically both the acknowledgement letter and delivery note. The information contained in these documents is subsequently validated and automatically inserted into the archival description database DigitArq and may be provided immediately to the user; this fact is especially important when reporting to information having still administrative value, as this is the case of the obligatory incorporation.



Obligatory incorporations

Arquivo Distrital do Porto is responsible for the obligatory incorporation processes concerning:
- records from the Central Administration De-concentred of Porto Region (Civil Register, Notaries Public, Courts...);
- records from public companies with head office located in our geographical area of intervention;
- records from public companies with head office located in our geographical area of intervention which are in the course of privatization or spin-off;
- records from services that ceased activity and documentation originating from functions that were extinguished in entities and services of the central administration de-concentred of our geographical area of intervention.


In these cases, the incorporation of documents must follow a series of pre-defined procedures by means of a flowchart of activities established by ADP in which the transfer process is always started by the institution which intends to incorporate (public register office, notary public or court...).
The institution interested must obligatory fill in an identification form and a brief description of the documentation to transfer, so that the incorporation process continues. This form may be filled in and sent to ADP through this site or through other communication means (mail, fax, telephone).



Non-obligatory acquisitions

The preservation of archival materials that have earned the right to be kept forever may imply its acquisition, namely by donation, deposit or other legal means, through a specific individual protocol. Any entity holding a documental repository of public or private institutions or of families and individuals may ask ADP to receive these materials.
Some deposits and donations already made to ADP do not necessarily originate from our intervention at consulting and technical support level, but they are the recognition of the effort and commitment of Arquivo Distrital do Porto, of the quality of our services and also of the civic responsibility of the donors.