Archive
The Archives of Constantinos Simitis contain documents of political interest, starting from the 1960s when C. Simitis first became politically active. They include handwritten texts and notes, public addresses, drafts and material for his books, correspondence, resistance documents and records of his political path, as well as files and reports compiled by his colleagues.
The Archives reflect the course of the former prime minister’s political thought, ideological references and his speculation on national, European and other international issues.
The archives are active, given the ongoing flow of documents, reports, photographs and other material. Material continues to be collected, organized, recorded, digitized if it is not already in digital form and made accessible to the public through the dynamic digital environment of the repository.
The Archives are a vital part of the Foundation, one of whose basic aims is the research and study of contemporary Greek political history and thought.
The Archives do not contain prime ministerial documents, which, as stipulated in Law No. 2846/ 2000, have been deposited in the General State Archives.
Through the donation process, the Digital Repository of the Constantinos Simitis Foundation was enriched with material from the years of political life and tenure of close associates of former Prime Minister Costas Simitis. The Foundation premises now house the archives of Nikos Themelis, Georgios Papadimitriou, Socrates Kosmidis, Dimitris Papoulias and Panagiotis K. Ioakeimidis.
THE ARCHIVES AND CONTEMPORARY ARCHIVAL TRENDS
The methodical collection of material covering some five decades provides context for the archival material by recreating events and opinions as they unfolded in the particular socio-economic conditions of the times. It also shows the importance of methods of utilising archival material as infrastructure and research tool.
DOCUMENTATION
The archives were documented according to international metadata production models that guarantee compatibility and simple, clear access to information. Verified, established names of people, organisations, geographical places and historical periods were incorporated into those models. The collections were verified at the document level, mainly in line with the DublinCore Model.
The subjects were registered using: The Eurovoc Thesaurus, a tool for organising European Union information resources and enabling immediate correspondence with all European languages. Other model glossaries for compiling various subjects and keywords
THE PUBLIC AND USE OF THE REPOSITORY
The Archives are intended for researchers, students of contemporary political history, politicians, sociologists, historians and students as well as online visitors who want to be informed and read about contemporary political thought.
By means of the Repository, the Archives also help support the international initiative for open access to information. The initiative promotes the right of citizens to open access to the resource of information. In this way the political archives of Constantinos Simitis is in accord with contemporary political perceptions of both the right to access to information and the use of the new technologies that make it possible.