National archives, national memory? How national archives describe themselves and their mission

There is a widespread notion that archives, especially national archival institutions, represent the nation’s memory. Historically, archives have played an important role for history writing, thereby contributing to the construction of national master narratives and the strengthening of national identities. What the association between archives and memory actually means is however debated in archival literature. Taking the discussion on the relation between archives and memory as a starting point, this study examines how national archives in today’s world present themselves to the public. The source material consists of mission statements collected from 138 webpages and 18 Facebook accounts all over the world. The first research question concerns the connection between mission statements and a national master narrative, the second asks where references to national memory and national identity are most pronounced, and the third asks whether self-images of national archives can be connected to historical experiences. The analysis shows that mission statements contain many allusions to history and heritage, while references to memory and identity are less widespread than expected. Some variations between continents, and between different groups of countries are identified, although relatively small. A possible explanation is that national archives are engaged in quite a lot of international cooperation, for instance in the International Council on Archives and UNESCO. Thus, they are likely to be as much influenced by each other as by the political environment in their own countries.


Introduction
We are the custodian of the nation's memory; acquiring, preserving and making accessible Government records that document our nation's proud history (National Archives of Saint Kitts and Nevis 2022).
This quote succinctly summarizes a common frame of thought concerning the role of archives in society. UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme makes a similar connection between archives and memory, although on a global scale: 1.1.1 The Memory of the World is the documented, collective memory of the peoples of the world-their documentary heritage-which in turn represents a large proportion of the world's cultural heritage. It charts the evolution of thought, discovery and achievement of human society. It is the legacy of the past to the world community of the present and the future (Memory of the World 2002, bold in original).
The association between archives and memory is also very clearly expressed by the International Council on Archives: Archives constitute the memory of nations and societies, shape their identity, and are a cornerstone of the information society. By providing evidence of human actions and transactions, archives support administration and underlie the rights of individuals, organisations and states. By guaranteeing citizens' rights of access to official information and to knowledge of their history, archives are fundamental to identity, democracy, accountability and good governance (International Council on Archives 2022, bold in original).
The notion that archives, especially national archival institutions, represent the nation's memory has its roots in nineteenth-century Europe. Historical research has shown the role that archives and other "memory institutions" such as national museums and libraries played for nation-building projects during the formative period of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In both established and newly founded nation states, the purpose of history writing was to construct a national master narrative in order to legitimize the state and strengthen the national identity. This narrative connected the nation's present to its mythical origin and defined its most important events, historical persons, and enemies and was intended to build on primary sources, preferably stored in an impressive building in the capital (Berger 2013;Thijs 2008;Brown and Davis-Brown 1998). Ideas about the connection between history writing and national identity formation then spread across the globe, not least among colonized peoples in their struggles against European colonial powers (Berger 2015). John R. Gillis has put it eloquently: "New nations as well as old states require ancient pasts" (Gillis 1994, p 9).
Nation-building processes and national master narratives remain, for better or worse, most relevant in the contemporary world, although with variations. For instance, national archival institutions in former colonies have other conditions than those in Europe. The archives were created by the colonizers, served their purposes, and legitimized their power. But after independence, there was a possibility to reverse these roles. As Michael Karabinos points out, post-colonial nations have an "ability […] to use a colonially created structure such as the archive for a new use in creating an independent identity" (Karabinos 2018, p 181). It would therefore not be surprising if archives in former colonies and former colonial powers, or countries regarded as belonging to the global north and the global south, describe themselves and their mission in different ways.
This paper explores variations in how national archival institutions in different parts of the world today describe their mission, their relation to the concept of memory, and how different historical experiences are reflected in this self-image. The study is not about whether archives really are the memory of the nation or not, but how they present themselves to the public. It is of course also obvious that selfimage and reality are not necessarily the same. Although national archives like to claim that they exist for the benefit of citizens, in practice citizens have in many cases limited access to records.
The following research questions are addressed in this paper: • To what extent do national archival institutions' descriptions of themselves and their mission indicate that they see themselves as contributing to a national master narrative? • How are references to a national memory and a national identity formulated and in which parts of the world are they most pronounced? • In what ways are self-images of national archives connected to different historical experiences?
The source material for the study consisted of publicly available mission statements. A total of 202 archival institutions were included in the study, among which 146 had a working webpage. Several archives use Facebook instead of a webpage to present themselves to the public. Some institutions only mention what kinds of records they preserve and how they make them available, but a majority make a statement of their raison d'être, usually under the headline "About Us" or "Mission and Vision." Such mission statements were collected from 138 webpages and 18 Facebook accounts. The statements were analysed with special attention to wordings directly or indirectly alluding to the concept of memory or a national master narrative.

Literature review
This section will first address writings on the concept of memory and how groups and societies make memories. Second, it deals specifically with connections between memory and archives in the archival literature. Third, attention is drawn to studies on connections between archives and national memory and identity in colonial and post-colonial contexts. Finally, attention is directed towards recent research based on national archives' vision statements.

3
The concept of memory is complicated and has different meanings at the individual and the group level. Historian Eviatar Zerubavel points out something obvious, that collective memory presupposes a collective, a group of some kind, that has something in common. These can be families, ethnic or religious groups, or nations, what Zerubavel calls mnemonic communities. Another obvious but important factor is that what we remember, as individuals and as group members, is to a large degree governed by social norms that say what is worth remembering and what can or should be forgotten. Mnemonic communities such as nations focus their memories on certain periods of their history that are considered particularly memorable. The memory of these eventful periods is supported by commemorative rituals such as the celebration of anniversaries, but these calendar-linked connections are entirely social constructions (Zerubavel 2003).
In order for individual memories to be transformed into collective memories, they must somehow be collected, organized, and announced. A collective has no builtin ability to remember. It must be individuals within the group who in some way actively share memories and create something in common. It takes conscious effort to choose what to remember, to build museums, to preserve cultural heritage, to teach history-or to preserve archives. Collective memory is thus externally based and can be transmitted over generations. Margaret Hedstrom makes the following definition: Collective memory is commonly defined as a group's representations of its past in terms of shared origins, values, and experiences. Collective memory is distinct from individual memory because of the emphasis on common representations of past events or experiences, some of which occurred long before the lifetime of any living person (Hedstrom 2010, pp 165-166).
The "common representations" of the past that Hedstrom mentions can consist of stories, symbols, books, songs, statues, traditions, etc. (Olick 2010). Stories can of course be more or less true, and traditions can be made up (Hobsbawm and Ranger 1992). What is important in this context is their function to contribute to a sense of community and shared identity and to connect the present with the past. Hedstrom points out that "[r]epresentations of the past can also be mobilized as a source of resistance to established networks of power and authority and as a means of building cohesion in emerging communities" (Hedstrom 2010, p 167). This remark is relevant for groups within a nation as well as on a national level, perhaps especially for relatively young nation states.
There are several different terms for memories shared by groups and societies. Many researchers today use the concept of cultural memory, while others talk about collective or social memory. These terms are often treated as synonyms, even though there are distinctions (Erll 2010). For instance, Aleida Assman claims that social memory is more basic and "grounded in lived experiences that vanish with their carriers" (Assman 2008, p 55). Whatever term one prefers, it is important, as Jan Assman stresses, to keep in mind that groups, institutions, societies, and nations do not "have" a memory, but they "make" one "by means of things meant as reminders such as monuments, museums, libraries, archives, and other mnemonic institutions" (Assman 2010, p 111).
When it comes to archives, Aleida Assman points out that "[t]he archive is not just a place in which documents from the past are preserved; it is also a place where the past is constructed and produced" (Assman 2011, p 13). This insight has been a theme in much archival literature during recent decades. In their influential 2002 article on archives and power, Joan M. Schwartz and Terry Cook conclude: Memory, like history, is rooted in archives. Without archives, memory falters, knowledge of accomplishments fades, pride in a shared past dissipates. Archives counter these losses. Archives contain the evidence of what went before.
[…] Archives validate our experiences, our perceptions, our narratives, our stories. Archives are our memories (Schwartz and Cook 2002, p 18).
This rather simplified picture is, however, contested. Michael Piggott gives many examples of how the analogy between archives and memory is used and over-used in archival discourse, especially by public archival institutions. The reverse, i.e. an analogy between loss of records and amnesia, is also very widespread and equally misleading. What individuals and groups remember is affected by many factors. Archives and records sometimes play an important part; sometimes they are totally irrelevant (Piggott 2005). Eric Ketelaar stresses that identities, collective as well as individual, are constructs, based on memories. But memories are also constructs, shaped and maintained within social frameworks, and so are archives. Archives become part of the living memory only when they are used for a purpose (Ketelaar 2014).
So, if archives are not memories, what are they? According to Hedstrom, archives are "sources for the potential discovery or recovery of memories that have been lost" (Hedstrom 2010, p 176). Based on a review of neuropsychological aspects of individual memory, Laura Millar concludes that records and archives are "triggers or touchstones that lead to the recollection of past events" (Millar 2006, p 114). Randall C. Jimerson stresses that archival documents, because of their fixed and evidential nature, can serve as a corrective both to individual and collective memory (Jimerson 2015). Barbara L. Craig makes a connection between Pierre Nora's idea of memory as a physical context and archives as "a physical space for memory and a site in which it is recalled" (Craig 2002, p 287).
The complicated nature of the relationship between archives and memory and the lack of consensus among writers about the concepts is clearly illuminated in an overview by Jacobsen, Punzalan, and Hedstrom. They distinguish four major themes, or intertwined "threads", in the archival literature, all of which are relevant for a study of national archives and memory. The first theme emphasizes records as a material cultural heritage and the role of archives as heritage institutions with a salient symbolic role in the discourse on a collective identity. The second theme, on the other hand, is critical towards all attempts to make a direct connection between archives and memory. These writers also question traditional perceptions about the neutrality and reliability of archives as evidence. The third thread discusses the role of archives and archivists in efforts to reveal violations of human rights and to seek justice for marginalized communities, e.g. in connection with truth and reconciliation commissions. Finally, the fourth thread discusses the nature of archival records and whether there is such a thing as a specific archival memory. It is worth emphasizing that 1 3 several writers, including some of those cited above, can be attributed to more than one of the identified themes (Jacobsen et al. 2013).
The most recent overview of the topic, by Mason A. Jones, is a critical essay on the various ways the concept of memory is applied in archival literature and practice. The author deplores the unclear terminology and calls for a unified and more precise definition (Jones 2022). The present study does not claim to develop the concept of memory and will not itself use it as a tool. Because it investigates if and how archival institutions in today's world use memory for their own purposes, the ambiguity of the concept does not pose a problem; rather, it is what is being examined.
There are several studies of the role of archives for memory and national identity formation in various contexts. For archives in former colonies, there is the problem of inherited colonial archives. Ellen Ndeshi Namhila's study of person-related records at the National Archives of Namibia shows that the recordkeeping system of the German colonial administration did not include the "natives" and that records from the following South African administration were poorly organized. As a consequence, the lack of records related to personal circumstances such as adoption, estates, and employment creates problems for many Namibians today. Namhila finds similar conditions in other African countries and concludes that "these archives are 'national' in name only" (Namhila 2016, p 114).
There are also examples of records from a colonial regime being used by the colonizers themselves, who needed a common history with heroes and important events to remember. Lawrence Dritsas and Joan Haig demonstrate how the European settler regime in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) used their archival institution to strengthen a form of "colonial nationalism." Especially the collecting and publication of a series of manuscripts by the early European explorers and settlers in the region was a "creative, constructive process of identity-building" (Dritsas and Haig 2014, p 38.) Verne Harris describes how South African public archives during the apartheid era controlled remembering and forgetting, thereby legitimizing the system. In the 1990s demands were raised that the National Archives should by law be given an active role in promoting a new nation-building narrative. This did not happen, which in the view of Harris was a good thing (Harris 2002). However, Anthea Josias provides several examples from post-apartheid South Africa of initiatives by museums and archives to collect and exhibit memories of personal and collective experiences that were suppressed during apartheid. In addition to archival records, oral histories and other non-written accounts have also been recovered, with the explicit purpose to contribute to national reconciliation (Josias 2011). Sindiso Bhebhe and Mpho Ngoepe strongly criticize the national archives of South Africa and Zimbabwe for promoting national master narratives that support the ruling elite. The archives have oral history programs intended to collect the stories of marginalized people, but these programs are, according to the authors, heavily politicized and exclude minority groups and other voices outside the ruling parties (Bhebhe and Ngoepe 2021).
Alistair G. Tough discusses the development of public archives in east and central Africa since independence, with a focus on recordkeeping and the role of archives for accountability. All newly independent states organized some kind of national archives. These however soon found themselves in difficulties due to inadequate financing and problems to recruit and keep skilled staff. Political conflicts, with leaders not allowing criticism, made matters worse. As a consequence, many archives focused on the records of the colonial past and the liberation struggle, and "history stopped at the date of independence" (Tough 2009, p 190).
In a different colonial context, the Philippines, it was the American administration  that brought together and organized the scattered records of the previous Spanish regime. The collection of Spanish records is written in a language incomprehensible to the majority of the population. Nevertheless, according to Ricardo L. Punzalan, after independence they became the core of the National Archives and were recognized as an essential part of the nation's common past. Somewhat ironically, the American colonial regime in this way contributed to a Philippine national consciousness and made it possible to create a national master narrative (Punzalan 2006).
As shown, there is a fair amount of research on the relation between the concept of memory and national archives in today's world, but comparative studies are lacking. However, Sara Martínez-Cardama and Ana R. Pacios have conducted an interesting study on how national archives present their priorities based on an analysis of strategic plans and vision statements. Their source material is relatively small (18 strategic plans and 41 vision statements) but some results are clear. Strategic plans to a high degree prioritize access and use, preservation, and digitization. These terms are also frequent in vision statements, but memory and heritage are also widely used keywords in these kinds of documents (Martínez-Cardama and Pacios 2022).

Method and material
Methodologically, the present document study is partly inspired by the article by Martínez-Cardama and Pacios (2022). The main source material is webpages of national archives, where there usually is some form of mission statement located under the heading "About us" or "Mission and Vision".
A study of national archives presupposes a definition. The webpage COUN-TRIES-of the-WORLD.COM lists all independent countries, ordered by continents. The list includes the 193 member states of the United Nations, the two UN observers Palestine and Vatican City, as well as Taiwan and Kosovo, for a total of 197 (COUN-TRIES-of the-WORLD.COM 2022). There are however also a number of other more or less self-governing territories with institutions called national archives. Hence, the study at the outset also included Curaçao, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Greenland, Niue, Scotland, and Zanzibar, all in all giving 204 entities. All these institutions are listed in appendix.
Web-links to most national archives in the world are found in the International directory of national archives, which contains basic information about 198 archival institutions (Franks and Bernier 2018). However, not all archives have a webpage and, as noted also by Martínez-Cardama and Pacios (2022), some links included in the directory are dead. A few of these webpages were instead located with the help of Wikipedia's List of national archives (Wikipedia 2022a) or with a simple Google search. Some national archives without a webpage of their own have posted some kind of mission statement on Facebook, and these were included. A few archives without a webpage contributed mission statements to the editors of International directory of national archives via personal communication. However, because the aim of this paper was to study how the institutions present themselves to the general public, these statements were not included.
All in all, texts from 137 webpages and 18 Facebook accounts were collected during March 2022. A majority of the institutions provide this information in English or French. In other cases, Google Translate was used for a rough translation. This tool is certainly not perfect, but it proved to be good enough for the purpose of this study. It is worth emphasizing that webpages continuously change. Accordingly, the source material is a snapshot and some statements may have been altered on the webpage after they were collected.
The collected texts were analysed with qualitative content analysis. With this method, the research questions provide a stable reference point for an otherwise flexible categorization and interpretation of text content (Grønmo 2019;Zhang and Wildemuth 2009). Hence, the texts were reviewed with attention to all text elements that directly or indirectly alluded to the concept of memory or a national master narrative of some kind. Such text elements could consist of one or a few words or a whole sentence. These keywords and phrases were coded as categories and grouped into broader themes. The intention was to refine the themes as much as possible, but sometimes a sentence could be attributed to more than one theme.

Findings
A very common theme under the heading "About Us" is the history of the archival institution. This account sometimes ends with the situation today and thus becomes mixed with the mission statement. Frequent categories in this theme are the archives' foundation, archival legislation, and the archives' place in the government organization. Because this theme only briefly relates to the concept of memory, it will not be further analysed.
Another recurring theme could be labelled archival management. This concerns what types of records the archives keeps and how they are managed. Common categories here are preservation and conservation, acquisition and appraisal, retrieval, digitization, research, and education. This theme touches a little closer upon the concept of memory because the texts often mention preservation of records of permanent value, which implies their use for history writing and teaching. However, this connection was considered too vague and general for the theme to be further explored.
A third theme, not further investigated, comes close to archival management but connects it to citizens, society, and the nation. Significant categories are citizens' rights and the importance of documentation for today's society with typical keywords such as public, citizens, democracy, accountability, and development. Another common category within this theme points out in a general way that records are of national importance, national significance, or national interest.
In the following, the four themes most relevant for the study's research questions are presented. Countries are grouped by continents in accordance with the webpage COUNTRIES-of the-WORLD.COM.

Africa
There are 55 national archives in Africa, but 24 archives were excluded due to a lack of statement or a lack of a working webpage or a Facebook account. For the analysis 25 mission statements were collected from webpages and six were collected from Facebook.
The first theme connects records with history and future. One category consists of phrases containing keywords such as historical records, historical archives, historical manuscripts, or historical information, as found in statements from 12 African archives. Typical wordings go like this: "Our mission is to safeguard, preserve and share the historical records of Rwanda", or "Seychelles National Archives is the official guardian of historical and government documents. We collect, store and conserve our history." A category pronounced in four countries makes a clear connection to the future. For example, the National Archives of Mauritius preserves records "for the benefit of the future generations." São Tomé and Príncipe talks about a "documentary collection recognized as a valuable historical heritage for this and for generations to come." In summary, the explicit or implicit reasoning in this theme is that people in the future shall be able to use archival records to write the nation's history.
A second theme can be labelled heritage, a term that occurs with many variations in 14 African mission statements. The most frequent categories are archival heritage and national heritage, either individually or combined as national archival heritage. Another common category is documentary or documented heritage, while historical heritage occurs in one statement. A typical wording is that a mission of the national archives is to "safeguard the national archival heritage" (Mali and Tunisia) or to "increase public awareness on the importance of documentary heritage" (Eswatini). Particular emphasis is placed on the heritage theme by the National Archives of Malawi, whose mission is to collect "information which reflects the country's historical, political, judiciary, religious, economic, social and cultural heritage." The third theme, found in statements by seven archives, involves the concept of memory. The word "memory" is used in several different combinations: collective memory (Cameroon), memory of the nation (Gabon, Kenya), collective memory of the nation (Mauritius), memory of the state (Senegal), and national memory (Mozambique). South Africa uses both the terms national memory and social memory. They also make a connection between national and individual memory.
The last identified theme is about identity, which contains two categories, namely the importance of archives for individual identity and the contribution of archives to a national identity. Three African archives explicitly express a desire to promote a national identity: Eswatini, São Tomé and Príncipe, and South Africa. The latter also clearly alludes to individual identity: "Archival records therefore help us to understand who we are, either as individuals or as organizations, and where we come from." As Table 1 shows, the most widespread themes among African archives are history/future and heritage, while memory and identity are less common. South Africa uses all four themes, while Eswatini, Mauritius, and São Tomé and Príncipe use three. In some cases, two themes are combined in the same passage of text, as in this statement from Mauritius: As a direct witness of human activity, archives are crucial in the history of the Republic of Mauritius as they play a key role in the study of our past. It is therefore essential to safeguard this documentary heritage for the benefit of the future generations.
The National Archives and Records Service of South Africa combines history, memory, and identity in an unusually expressive way: By providing us with information about our past, we are better able to understand the present. This information is as important to a nation as individual memory is to each person. Indeed, archives provide a basis for the proper understanding of the past that is important in South Africa to inform the development of a new democratic society. A public archives such as the National Archives and Records Service is therefore a special resource for dealing with the social memory of our nation and with protecting people's rights in our country. It is a major resource for fostering a national identity. It is also a treasure house of national memory resources that is accessible to all. It is possible to assume that these wordings are a result of the lively discussion in the archival sector about the possibilities for archives to contribute to reconciliation in a nation torn by internal conflicts. However, many other countries on the continent have experienced conflicts but that has not left traces in the archival discourse.
Any other patterns are difficult to discern. The distribution of categories and themes are fairly even between former British and French colonies. Ethiopia is the only African country that never was colonized (except Liberia, which is not included in the study due to a lack of a webpage), but their statement is not particularly pronounced regarding any of the aspects investigated.

Europe
The source material for Europe was more complete than the one for Africa. Statements were collected from 48 webpages and five Facebook accounts. The only European national archives not available at all in March 2022 was the Federal Archival Agency of Russia (Table 2).
The most common themes among European national archives are the same as in Africa, and in the same order. A total of 30 of the 53 statements contain wordings in some way related to history. Among these, eight also include future generations. A statement that neatly summarizes the history/future theme comes from the National Records of Scotland: "Our purpose is to collect, preserve and produce information about Scotland's people and history and make it available to inform current and future generations." A case of special interest is the Swedish National Archive, which articulates the history/future theme rather vaguely in words but very emphatically in its logotype. This contains the head of Janus with two faces, one looking backwards at the past and one looking forward into the future.
The heritage theme occurs in 25 statements with many variations. A dominating category here is cultural heritage, which is mentioned by 12 European countries but not used at all in Africa. Historical heritage is also frequent, and in some cases (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Croatia) the two are combined. Another common category in Europe, as well as in Africa, is documentary or written heritage. National heritage is however less pronounced (four countries), although strongly emphasized by Latvia and Hungary. In contrast, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine say that they preserve "world cultural heritage", and the Austrian State Archives claims that they "keep, index and conserve a highly valuable cultural heritage which is of importance to all of Europe." The memory theme occurs in statements from 11 archives. The most common category here stresses the collective aspect of memory. Typical wordings are "eternal access to our national memory" (the Netherlands) or "The mission of the National Archives is to preserve the collective memory of the Maltese nation" (Malta). In the case of Belgium, the slogan "Our Collective Memory!" is found in the header of the webpage. Four archives mention individual memory more or less clearly, and among those Greece and Portugal combine collective and individual memory in the same sentence.

3
The identity theme occurs in four statements. Hungary is very clear about both the collective and individual aspects: "We aim to enable our collection to […] shape the identity of the nation, local and regional communities and, last but not least, the identity of each individual." Otherwise, wordings about identity are vaguely expressed in Europe.
Only two countries, Croatia and Hungary, use all four themes. Estonia, Greece, Luxembourg, Montenegro, and the Netherlands use three. There is a fairly even distribution of the different themes among members and non-members of the European Union. The emphasis on heritage is particularly pronounced among post-communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe. It can be noticed that the two enemies Armenia and Azerbaijan both stress their historical heritage (a heritage that includes territories that both countries claim as theirs). Other patterns based on historical experiences are hard to distinguish, though. For instance, former colonial powers do not express themselves noticeably differently than other countries. To sum up, the most significant observation about European national archives is their tendency to emphasize their importance for history and cultural heritage.

North America (including Central America and the Caribbean)
Among the 24 national archival institutions in the North American region, some kind of mission statements was found on 19 webpages and one Facebook account ( Table 3). The distribution of themes is similar to Africa and Europe. History/future is the largest theme, found in 15 statements, with explicit connections to future generations in four cases. The most frequent category is the history of the country, the nation or the people as a collective, while individual or family history occurs in three statements.
The heritage theme is clearly dominated by documentary heritage (9 of 13 statements). Cultural and historical heritage also occur, but less frequently. The memory theme consists entirely of collective categories such as the nation's, the country's, or the government's memory, while the individual aspect is absent. The identity theme is found in statements from two countries, but only Costa Rica uses the term "national identity". Library and Archives Canada presents themselves as "a key resource for all Canadians who wish to gain a better understanding of who they are, individually and collectively."

3
The Canadian archives is the only one that uses all four themes, while Curaçao, Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua use three. The dominating languages in the region are Spanish and English. Spanish-speaking countries dominate in the memory theme, but otherwise the different themes are rather evenly distributed between the two groups.

South America
In the South American region, mission statements were collected from nine webpages and two Facebook accounts. Only Venezuela had no presence on the internet (Table 4).
On this continent, references to history are less widespread. Instead, the dominating themes are heritage and memory. Five of the six archives mentioning heritage talk about documentary heritage. The categories are exclusively collective, including the documentary heritage of the state, the country, or the nation. Categories related to memory and history are also collective in a similar way. Only the National Archive and Library of Bolivia makes a brief reference to individuals in a statement that they wish to "promote and strengthen personal and national identity." Bolivia, together with Chile, is also the most active country in expressing the different themes with many variations.

Asia
Mission statements were collected from 28 Asian webpages and two Facebook accounts. However, only 19 of these contained text elements in some way alluding to memory or a national master narrative, and 14 of the 44 Asian countries had no available statements at all (Table 5).
The dominating themes in Asia are heritage and history/future. Heritage is expressed as documentary, cultural, or historical, and as belonging to the nation or the country. An exception is the Qatar National Archive, which presents itself as a guardian of not only the nation's, but also the region's heritage. The history/ future theme is also closely connected to the history of the nation, not to individuals. The future is present in nine statements, but in two cases (Bhutan and India) it is expressed as posterity and in another (Myanmar) as perpetuity. The National Archives of Japan expresses the history/future theme in an exceptionally eloquent way: The work of the National Archives has a vital significance for the future. The present is built on the past. The present gives rise to the future. The records of our past and present must be preserved and handed down to the next generation of people, who will explore their own future with our history in mind.
When the concept of memory is mentioned, it is in most cases connected to the nation, although Indonesia uses the term "collective memory" and Singapore talks about the "corporate memory of the Government and the social memory of our people." Identity is also always national, not individual. The National Archives of India does not use the term identity, but the wording "To help in spreading a feeling of national pride in our documentary cultural heritage" comes very close.
Only Singapore and Sri Lanka use all four themes. They also manage to combine several of them in a single sentence: "The effective management and preservation of documentary heritage to protect national identity, accountability and memory "(Sri Lanka); "This memory allows current and future generations of Singaporeans to understand our different cultures, explore our common heritage and appreciate who we are and how we became a nation" (Singapore).
Some patterns that may, or may not, be of significance are discernible. With the exception of Kazakhstan, republics of the former Soviet Union do not occur in the table, either due to a lack of a webpage or because their statements do not contain text elements relevant in this context. The National Archives Administration of Taiwan speaks about itself as "a manager of national archival heritage" preserving "the historical tracks of the nation's development", while their counterpart in the People's Republic of China does not use any such words. Several major Asian countries with a colonial history, such as India, Pakistan, and Myanmar, talk about the significance of archives for history and heritage. Indonesia, on the other hand, prefers to stress "collective memory and national identity." South Korea concentrates on archival administration and service to the public, while their counterparts to the north lack a webpage. In the western parts of Asia, archives in several of the smaller Arab nations present themselves as important for national history and memory, and even for identity. Israel on the other hand is clearly a country with a history of nationbuilding, but that is not evident in the State Archives' presentation of itself.

Australia and Oceania
The Australian and Pacific region consists of 15 nations, and mission statements were collected from nine webpages and two Facebook accounts ( Table 6). The sample is too small to form a basis for conclusions, but it can be noted that history/future dominates and identity is absent. Within the history/future theme, four of five statements emphasize the future, for example, The Niue National Archives, whose mission is to "maintain, collect, conserve and preserve archival records as historical assets for the use of future generations".
New Zealand talks about heritage only in a general way, while Micronesia preserves cultural heritage and Tuvalu keeps the "documentary cultural heritage of the people". Australia is very explicit about the memory aspect: "The National Archives of Australia holds the memory of our nation and keeps vital Australian Government records safe." Kiribati on the other hand alludes to memory in a more implicit way by "[providing] educational, economical and entertaining books or documents as well as a collective knowledge of the nation."

Conclusion
The aim of this study was to explore how national archives in today's world present themselves to the public and how these self-images relate to the concept of memory. Based on previous research, three research questions were presented. The first concerned the connection between mission statements and a national master narrative, the second asked where references to national memory and national identity are most pronounced, and the third dealt with connections to historical experiences.
There are several examples of statements that express a desire to contribute to a national master narrative, but the wordings are usually not as explicit as might be expected. References to memory and identity also turned out to be less widespread than expected, and no part of the world was clearly distinguished from the others. There were many more references to history and heritage, and these were also evenly distributed between continents. In short, the national archives' contributions to a national master narrative are largely built on allusions to history and heritage and to a lesser degree on the concept of memory. Based on previous research, some differences between former colonies and former colonial powers were expected, but no obvious patterns of that kind were found. A possible explanation for the relatively small variations between continents and groups of countries is that national archival institutions are engaged in quite a lot of international cooperation, for instance in the International Council on Archives and UNESCO. Thus, they are likely to be as much influenced by each other as by the political environment in their own countries. Some variations were identified, though. European archives attach great importance to cultural and historical heritage, while the term documentary heritage dominates in the Americas. It can be noted that documentary heritage is the term preferred by UNESCO in the Memory of the World Programme, and all Latin American countries that use this expression have made submissions to the Memory of the World Register.
When it comes to distinctions related to different historical experiences, it was noted that countries involved in border conflicts, like Armenia/Azerbaijan and India/ Pakistan, are prone to combining history and heritage (although they are by no means the only ones to do so). A desire to come to terms with domestic conflict can explain why some national archives, such as in South Africa, attach great importance to the archives' ability to support nation-building. In this case it is possible to see a connection to the work of the well-known South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. However, there have been many more truth commissions all over the world during recent decades. Wikipedia's List of truth and reconciliation commissions contains more than fifty countries (Wikipedia 2022b). There is no doubt that archives have an important role to play for the work of these commissions (Huskamp Peterson 2005;Rubli and Jones 2013). It is also worth mentioning that in Latin America several archival collections documenting violations of human rights have been added to the Memory of the World Register (González Quintana 2009). Further conclusions as to relations between truth commissions and national archives would require a closer investigation. This paper has only given a glimpse of an ongoing discourse about the relation between archives and memory. The study covered the whole world, but only at one point in time. One conclusion is that, in this context, the concept of memory cannot be separated from that of heritage. More research, especially with a longer historical perspective, could provide a deeper understanding of how archives perceive their role in society. Such studies could focus not only on the use of concepts like memory, heritage, and identity, but also on how archives present their role for advancing recordkeeping and archival management, or their importance for democracy, accountability, and development. These themes were identified in the mission statements but not further explored in this paper. There are also other possible sources. Martínez-Cardama and Pacios (2022) used strategic plans to analyse priorities, and annual reports might be useful to further explore actual outcomes of the archives' activities.