The Archivum's presentation at CIVICA Café

On November 17, 2025, Senior Archivist Mark László-Herbert gave a talk at the CIVICA Café titled (Counter)Archives: An introduction to the Blinken OSA Archivum. The presentation offered a glimpse into the complex identity and activities of the Archivum, including its archival programs, records management, the library, teaching, public programs and public engagement, the Archivum blog, and finally, Mark’s personal “touches” and stakes in his work with the Archivum.

The conversation that followed touched upon the important issues of authenticity and credibility, the need to reach out to the wider public increasingly tired of disinformation, “alternative facts,” and, ultimately, pressure to withdraw from public life. In the discussion, Mark emphasized the need to abandon our thus far habitual responses to threats to our democratic thinking and way of life. Instead, new, bold, non-intuitive, and smart moves must be made to think outside the box, preserve our autonomy, credibility, authenticity, and thus our integrity, both as citizens and as archivists.

CIVICA unites ten leading European higher education and research institutions in the social sciences, humanities, business management and public policy, including CEU. CIVICA Cafés are monthly one-hour Zoom events designed for library staff across the CIVICA alliance.