On October 24, 2022, a meeting of the Board of the Department for Archives and Records Management of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus was held

Published: October 25, 2022

On October 24, 2022, a meeting of the Board of the Department for Archives and Records Management of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus (hereinafter referred to as the Department) was held, at which the following issues were considered:

1. on the improvement of websites and official accounts in social networks of state archival institutions;
2. on the progress in fulfilling the instructions of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus, given as a result of a visit on August 5, 2022 to the institution «Belarusian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents» and discussion of issues related to the development of the archive sphere;
3. on the approval of the appointment to the position.

Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Belarus ONKot took part in the work of the board.

On the first question it was noted that the presence of state archival institutions (hereinafter referred to as SAU) in the Internet space is steadily expanding.

The development of the SAU Internet resources is carried out in the framework of three areas: their quantitative indicators, the nature of the content and functionality.

Currently, out of ten republican archival institutions, six have their own websites: the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus (NARB), the National Historical Archives of Belarus (NIAB), the National Historical Archives of Belarus in Grodno (NIAB in Grodno), the Belarusian State Archives – Museum of Literature and Art (BGAMLI), Belarusian State Archive of Scientific and Technical Documentation (BGANTD), Belarusian Research Institute of Documentation and Archiving (BelNIIDAD). At the regional level, the State Archives of the Grodno Region (SA of the Grodno Region), the State Archives of the Minsk Region (SA of the Minsk Region), the Zonal State Archives in Molodechno (ZGA in Molodechno) have websites.

The improvement of the SAU websites is carried out by creating new sections (headings), introducing user feedback technologies, as well as expanding and updating content.

One of the forms of expanding the presence of the State Agrarian University in the Internet space is the implementation of Internet projects. This direction is regulated, among other things, by paragraph 58 of the Set of Measures for the Implementation of Instructions of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus, given following the appointment of the Minister of Justice on October 18, 2021.

As part of the execution of the instructions of the Government of the NARB, together with the Publishing House “Belarus Segodnya”, work is being carried out to maintain the Internet portal «Partisans of Belarus» – a public database of participants in the partisan and underground movement. More than 187 thousand personal records have been entered into the database.

The database «Belarusian Villages Burnt During the Great Patriotic War» contains documented information about 9,097 villages destroyed by the Nazis.

The implementation of virtual exhibition projects has been widely developed. BGAKFFD is implementing a documentary video project «History Comes to Life in the Frame» on YouTube video hosting.

The largest number of visits to the SAU websites in the period 2019 – 2022 recorded in the NIAB – 604,182, while the archive shows an annual increase in the number of visits. The similar indicator in the NARB is 60,409. On average, about 17,000 visits are recorded on the NARB website per year.

GAU activity is growing in social networks Facebook, Instagram VKontakte, YouTube video hosting.

An acute issue in the development of SAU websites is the protection of information, due to the fact that sites are subject to parsing, hacking, DDOS attacks, and possible borrowing of copyright content. In order to prevent negative interference in the work of the SAU websites, it seems necessary to periodically train specialists in advanced training courses.

On the second question it was noted that in order to implement the instructions of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus, the Department for Archives and Records Management of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus (hereinafter referred to as the Department) developed an Action Plan for the implementation of the instructions of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus, given by based on the results of a visit on August 5, 2022 to the institution «Belarusian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents» and a discussion of the development of the archival sphere (minutes of August 5, 2022 No. 05/28pr), which was approved by the Minister of Justice on August 19, 2022 No. 61.

On the third issue appointment of the Head of the Department of Automated Archival Technologies of NIAB Pribusheni S.I.