Polish archives in Wikipedia – analysis of entry contents

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine the presence of Polish archives in Wikipedia and attempt to answer the question about the image of these institutions appearing in this space. Entries from state archives, separate archives, those with entrusted sources, university and church archives were analysed in terms of the number of characters in a given article, structure, complexity and content. Particular attention was paid to elements such as maps and illustrations. The authorship of individual entries was also examined. The presence of Polish archives in Wikipedia is insufficient. State archives are represented the most in this respect. All 33 facilities have their own entry on the portal. These articles are generally quite Archiwa polskie w Wikipedii - analiza zawartości haseł extensive. On the other hand, separate archives, apart from military archives, Border Guard Archive and Central Police Archive, are virtually absent from Wikipedia. The situation is even worse when it comes to archives with entrusted resources and university archives. Only three such archives are present in Wikipedia. As far as church archives are concerned, five entries for such institutions were recorded. Individual articles usually contain data on the history of individual institutions, their organisational structure, less often information on tasks and archival resources. The weakly emphasised mission of the archives is striking. Therefore, it should be concluded that these entries fulfil their function only to a certain extent as they generally do not provide information about the purpose of archives, their activities and resources.