Archives départementales de l'Indre

Like all departmental archives, the Indre departmental archives originated during the revolution, when the papers of the suppressed institutions and the titles of the national domains were collected in the district capitals and then, from the year V, in the departmental capital. For a long time, the archives were kept in the treasury room of the Château-Raoul (in the old dungeon destroyed in 1824), and then moved to the attic of this building, where they were kept in the uncomfortable conditions of a fire or flood. In 1894, they were moved to the building of the former printer Migné, at 32 rue de la Vieille Prison, to which the departmental architect Henry Dauvergne had added a two-storey warehouse. Few changes were made until the directorate of Xavier du Boisrouvray (1953-1966), who emptied the depot and fitted it out with three levels and an attic with concrete floors supported by metal shelving with supporting posts. In 1970, when the new prefecture was built, two rooms in the basement (about fifty metres from the main warehouse) allowed for a significant increase in shelving. However, the small size of the premises used by the public (the former salon of the Hôtel Migné, now a reading room) and the inconvenience of the offices (converted flats or attic) led to the search for a new location. Since October 2003, the departmental archives have been transferred to the former girls' teacher training school. This building, built in 1888-1889 by Henry Dauvergne, was restored and enlarged in 2000-2002 by the firm SAREA (Mr. Alain Sarfati) and Architectes et Associés de Châteauroux (Mr. Jean-Paul Broquet). It has a 48-seat reading room (some of which can be used to consult digitised collections), exhibition, conference and school rooms, and approximately 20 linear kilometres of shelving. 

Digitisation or photocopying of original documents in A4 or A3 format: free of charge, up to a limit of 20 views per person and per quarter. Within the limits of the technical possibilities of the Departmental Archives. If a document cannot be photocopied or digitised, the applicant is invited to consult the document in the reading room and to make the reproduction by photography (without flash) or to use the services of a private service provider who will take the photographs at the Departmental Archives, at the applicant's expense, in accordance with the conditions set by the Departmental Archives. Downloading by the applicant from the Departmental Archives website or any other platform made available by the Indre Department. Free of charge. Request to make available in digital format"public informatio" available on the Departmental Archives website or already digitised. Prior drawing up of an estimate, on the basis of 27 € / hour of work required to make the"public informatio" available.  

Access to the reading room: readers are required to leave their personal belongings in the cloakroom allocated to them and are only authorised to bring into the reading room the equipment necessary for taking notes (paper, pencil, laptop computer without bag, camera without bag). The use of ballpoint pens or any instrument that could leave indelible marks on the archives is strictly forbidden. It is also forbidden to bring food or drink into the reading room (a relaxation area is available for readers), as well as animals (except for assistance dogs for people with disabilities). Mobile phones are allowed in silent mode, but calls must be taken outside the reading room. Allocation of places: the reading room chairperson may allocate a specific place to a reader, particularly in the case of consultation of valuable or fragile documents or documents consulted by way of exception. Restrictions on access: as a general rule, archival documents may be accessed freely. However, the consultation of certain public archive documents is subject to the communicability deadlines set by the Heritage Code. Conditions may also apply to the consultation of private archive collections. Documents may be excluded from communication when their physical condition or the state of their classification prevents them from being communicated. Preservation of documents: archival documents are fragile and must be handled with care. In particular, it is forbidden to lean on a document, to force the binding of a book or register, to annotate or underline a document, or to reproduce it by tracing. Readers are required to respect the order in which documents are presented within an article. Any anomaly must be reported to the archives' staff, who are the only ones authorised to intervene on the documents. Personal responsibility: the communication of documents is strictly personal. Under no circumstances may a reader transfer his/her card to a third party or entrust another reader with the documents requested for consultation.