Department for Archives and Records Management held an enlarged board meeting to review work in 2011
On 18 January 2012, the Department for Archives and Records Management of the Justice Ministry of the Republic of Belarus held an enlarged board meeting to review the results of work at the archive and records management agencies and the state archive institutions in the Republic of Belarus in 2011 and to set the objectives for 2012.
Attending the board meeting were the Justice Minister of the Republic of Belarus O.L. Slizhevsky, heads and deputy heads of justice administration and archives and RM divisions at the regional executive committee and the Minsk City Executive Committee, directors of the state archival institutions, members of the Department for Archives and Records Management. In all, 78 people attended the meeting.
The Director of the Department for Archives and Records Management V.I. Adamushko delivered a report. Seven members took part in the debates. In 2011, the state archival institutions started the Archives of Belarus State Programme for 2011-2015, adopted by the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus of 15 September 2010 № 1322. The central archival institutions successfully fulfilled the activities within the State Programme for 2011 at the amount of 1, 470 billion rubles assigned from the republic’s budget.
Considerable attention was devoted to the legislative provision of the state archival agencies and institutions. The Law on Archives and Records Management in the Republic of Belus was adopted on November 25, 2011 and became effective on December 18, 2011. The House of Representatives of the Republic of Belarus passed in first reading the Law on Official Heraldic Symbols.
At present the state archives hold 50 145 fonds, 12 295 267 paper items; 37 733 film records; 258 134 photographic records; 15 602 sound records; 2193 video records; 13 electronic fonds, 502 electronic items; 569 museum items. In 124 local (municiple and district) archives there are 32 755 fonds, 802 500 items. In 2011 the state archives handled about 29 000 inquiries from individual and juridical persons; more than 13 000 people visited and consulted the archives in person. Special attention was focused on handling citizens’ inquiries based on a “single window” principle. In the last year the archivists organized 88 exhibitions, published 14 books of documents, monographs, handbooks, and scholarly editions relating to the history of Belarus. 120 official heraldic symbols were entered into the State Heraldry Registry of the Republic of Belarus.