The aim of the article is to present the partial results of a doctoral research on Information Science. The general objective was to discuss the practices of cultural mediation in the Public Archive of the State of Espírito Santo and identify to what extent these practices are the result of a partnership between the Archive and the Department of Culture. Based on a literature review, we discuss the conceptual differences between diffusion and cultural mediation in archives and map the practices of cultural mediation in the Public Archive in order to discuss the impact of the partnership with the Department of Culture on these practices. The methodological procedures included the research on bibliographic sources and historical documents. It may be concluded that there is a conceptual distinction between diffusion and cultural mediation and that this difference is essential to support the practices described and mapped. It may also be concluded that although the Public Archive of the State of Espírito Santo plays a role among cultural institutions, the Department of Culture hardly ever includes the Public Archive in its planning and few activities have been developed in partnership with the institution. So, the practices of cultural mediation of the Public Archive in the studied period have been executed marginally of the state cultural policy.
Public archives; Culture; Cultural mediation; Cultural services
