LO’s archive is the ABA’s largest archive and comprises a total of 1200 shelf meters. The archive covers the period from LO’s founding in 1898 to 2000.

By Hannah Lindén

The papers from over 100 years of trade union activities have been organized and registered in different ways over the years. LO has changed its filing system several times, but it has not been possible to adapt the archives to one system. In the early 2000s, ABA therefore decided to combine 100 years of material so that it was possible to find relevant sources regardless of where they belong in time and regardless of the archiving principles used.

The workers’ association building ca. 1930, which today houses LO

Overview of the archive

Due to the size of the archive, ABA has chosen to divide the material into 5 main groups:

The National Organization in Denmark I contains the older part of the material from the period 1898 to around 1953. The content of the old subject index cards has been transferred to SamBA, which means that the original subject headings have been retained, e.g. :

union situation, lockout,
may Day demonstrations,
unemployment,
border disputes,
nordic cooperation
organizations.

In Landsorganisationen i Danmark II you will find the more recent material. Here you will find material from:

congresses,
executive committee meetings,
management meetings,
office meetings,
circulars,
LO’s internal committees,
organizations where LO is represented,
material organized by subject

The register includes the following:

National Organization in Denmark Journaled cases 1954-1963,
The National Organization in Denmark Journaled cases 1944-1975 and
The National Organization in Denmark Journaled cases 1976-1986.

In these three groups, the material is divided by organization/institution.

Search options

The registration of LO’s archive includes approximately 4000 records, each of which refers to large amounts of archival material. Due to this large number of records, it is recommended that you use the keyword search option when searching the LO archive. By using keywords as a search entry, it is easier to find the most relevant material across the main entries in the five main groups.
For example, you can search on:

However, the assignment of keywords to the individual records has not yet been completed. Therefore, you must also use the options to search by title and free text search. This applies in particular to the journal cases where only the individual institutions/organizations can be searched for as a subject.

Although the project to re-register LO’s archive in ABA has come to an end, new records are added to the electronic registrar on a daily basis. New material is added to SamBA on a daily basis and it will be continuously improved with keywords that facilitate searching.

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