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Regarding the Archive and Documentation Area, we had the challenge of opening these units so that they could be used by the public.
They had essentially been destined to internal work in the Museum and as a result development was slow. It was necessary that the centralization of the information on the collections, for instance in the Documentation Service, be portrayed to the outer world, and the only option was to reflect it on the Museum's website. In other words, I think the major change was to go from ignoring the work that was being done on the website to becoming direct collaborators, understanding that the website was the natural channel through which all the work that was done should flow outwards. We had gathered a huge amount of documentation, but we were keeping it all locked in. Opening our documentation to the outer world was essential, first of all in order to have a basic quality control. It's no good having information tucked away in a drawer because nobody can see it, nobody can point out what is missing, but if we open it up to the outside, it will be subject to a daily quality control that may enhance it. I think this substantially improved the quality of the service we provide. We started to digitize and catalogue on a massive scale, a process that reaches our days and which was presented recently in the Digital Archive, with 12,000 scanned documents which I must insist show the amount of good work done at both the Archive and the Documentation Centre. I think this good work is much more visible today.
He has worked at the Museum as Head of the Library, Documentation and Archives Area, subsequently moving to the Department of Manuscripts and Incunabula at the National Library of Spain as director.
Interview recorded on December 13, 2017
