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HU OSA 205
Fonds 205: Records of the Open Media Research Institute (OMRI)

Date(s) 1952-1997 (1990-1997)

Extent and medium

Estimated total:
330 linear meters (2747 archival boxes)
Currently processed:
2011 Archival boxes, 251 linear meters
68 Archival card boxes, 21 linear meters
6 VHS, 0.15 linear meters
Total: 273 linear meters

Name of creator(s) Open Media Research Institute

Administrative/Biographical history

Scope and content

The fonds contain different types of materials including textual, video materials and electronic records. The textual part consists mainly of clippings, abstracts of media reports, new agencies releases, scientific articles, and transcripts of monitoring of the national television and radio broadcasts, mostly from the countries of East, Central and Southeastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, although Western materials are also present.
The records are organized according to the structure of the Open Media Research Institute (OMRI) and include both administrative files and the clippings and monitoring files created by the OMRI departments. Since OMRI was a successor of the RFE/RL Research Institute (Munich, Germany) which was dissolved in 1994, the latter's small stock of records were transferred to Prague to support the operation of the new institution.
The Information Services Department took over these materials and on their basis an historical archives consisting of two main parts (Slavic, Baltic and Eurasian Archives and East European Archives) was founded. At the same time the OMRI Archives staff continued to file incoming materials and in some cases new systems of arrangement were introduced. Along with filing textual materials, the electronic databases and files were created.
The materials organized as Subject and Biographical Files cover a wide range of topics and provide information on a large variety of key figures in the social, cultural, and political spheres of the region. The files related to politics, economy, culture, foreign relations, social issues, armed forces, environmental problems, culture, education, religion, national minorities and ethnic problems, migration in the transition period (1989-1997) of the respective countries may be of particular interest.
Besides printed publications of the biweekly magazine Transition (later the monthly Transitions) the fonds contain an extensive collection of electronic publications (OMRI Daily Digest, OMRI Economic Digest, Analytical Briefs, OMRI Russian Regional Report, and others).
A small collection of video materials from Russian television newscasts and other political programs relating to the elections held in Russia in 1995 and 1996 supplements the Subject Files of the OMRI analysts Scott Parrish and Robert Orttung on the same topic. Other materials from the Research and Analysis Department represent the clipping collections of the analysts and electronic files of the papers prepared by staff members for publication in the magazine Transition or in other electronic publications.

Accruals Not expected

System of arrangement

Language/scripts of material

Mostly English and Russian, but also other languages of the Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union

Finding aids

Related materials

Note

Periodicals and related materials donated to the Open Society Archives are described on the Archives' Library site

Date(s) of descriptions

Described by Olga Zaslavskaya, 1 October 2003
Online version updated 18 December 2008
© 1995-2005 Open Society Archives at Central European University