Writing reports that evaluate how other parts of the Swedish archive sector works is not common for us. But the cultural administration at Region Halland (a region in south-western Sweden) hired us, based on our extensive experience in running a private archive, to analyze and develop proposals for the development of the county's private archival activities.*
During a few intensive summer weeks in 2025, 14 interviews were held with the board, staff, and the region to better understand Arkiv Halland's organization, financing, facilities, and working methods. In addition, an environmental analysis was conducted where we interviewed regional archival institutions around the country, such as the Folkrörelsearkivet in Västerbotten and Arkiv Gävleborg.
The completed report - with operational analysis, environmental analysis, and conclusions - was submitted to Region Halland on September 30, 2025, and is now used in the region as a governance document for future development, and can be read here (in Swedish only, though).
– The investigation was written by Jenny Stendahl and me, based on all the interviews and document analyses that were conducted. Primarily, it was Arkiv Halland's activities that we reviewed, but as a case, we compared with several other private archives, including ourselves, says Per-Ola Karlsson, archivist and consulting manager at the Centre for Business History.
Project Team:
- Interviewer, researcher, and lead writer: P-O Karlsson
- Analyst, writer: Jenny Stendahl
For the benchmark section, our thanks for their generous openness to ArkivCentrum Örebro län, Folkrörelsearkivet i Västerbotten, Arkiv Gävleborg, Arkiv Sörmland, and Företagens historia i Uppsala län.
* Private archives is the collective name for all business, association archives, and other archives created outside the public sector. (An overview of the archival sector also opens the report.)
