Organization of Personal Archive Information,António Barbedo Magalhães

This is a case study of the Barbedo de Magalhães personal archive, which essentially contains documentation on the struggle of the people of East Timor against the occupation and their process of self-determination, incorporated into the IASI institution (International Institute for Asian Studies and Interchange). The model proposed for organizing and making accessible the information in this archive is the result of a new post-custodial, informational and scientific paradigm that has been advocated by archivists who are dissatisfied with the previous "classical" approach to archives. According to this model, the archive is seen as a dynamic Information System which, in the light of a new theoretical-methodological framework, requires an organic and functional analysis and characterization of the producer of the information as well as its interactions with the surrounding environment. It is understood that only in this way, by reconstituting the original context in which the information was created/accumulated and preserving the memory of the entire process that gave rise to it, can it be possible to make effective and rigorous use of it, understanding the Information System in all its complexity.