Departmental Records Part 1

Date range: 1956-1979/1985

Extent and media: 643 linear shelf metres of paper records – typed or handwritten; gifts and mementos presented to Directors General Sterling Cole and Sigvard Eklund

Although official records were processed and maintained by the Central Registry (coding system based on the file plan), since the very beginning of the IAEA Secretariat, some official correspondence was not forwarded to Central Registry for registration and filing but routed directly from or to the office of primary responsibility, bypassing formal registration. Therefore, a parallel file keeping system came into existence, with files kept in offices across the Agency, either in staff offices or areas dedicated for file keeping (departmental or divisional records offices).

Records transferred from satellite file depots documenting the management and administration of the Secretariat, major functions and programmes, policies and essential transactions were designated for permanent retention, constituting the so-called ‘P’ (for ‘Permanent’) collection: these records now form the Sub-fonds of the Departmental Records, Part 1, previously known as the P collection.

Records of this Sub-fonds cover a wide range of subject matters for the period between 1957 and the early 1980s, including the IAEA Preparatory Commission, correspondence about the initial stages and programme development of the Agency, records of the Office of the Directors General, Sterling Cole (1957-1961) and Sigvard Eklund (1961-1981); relations with the Host Country Austria, with Member States and the United Nations (Headquarters Agreement, privileges and immunities) and records originating from all departments documenting programme activities (safeguards, technical assistance, nuclear science and research), external relations, conferences, seminars, the laboratories in Seibersdorf and Monaco (facility management and establishment of scientific work).