A joint session of the boards of the Federal Archival Service of Russia and the Department of Archives and Records Management of Belarus, Vitebsk, 28 May 2009
On 28 May 2009, a joint board of the Federal Archival Service of Russia (Rosarkhiv) and the Department of Archives and Records Management of the Ministry of Justice of Belarus (Department) held a session in Vitebsk, Belarus, to discuss the issue of “Archival practices in the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation in the creation and development of finding aids to the documents of the National Archival Holdings of the Republic of Belarus and the Archival Holdings of the Russian Federation”.
The session also discussed the fulfillment of actions according to the Plan of joint actions of the Rosarkhiv and the Department for the years 2008–2010 and other issues of bilateral cooperation between the Belarusian and Russian archivists.
It has been noted that archival institutions in these countries view the creation and development of archival finding aids as an important part of providing access to and use of information resources of the national archival holdings in the interests of individual citizens, society and the State and that they have achieved certain positive results in this sphere.
In the Republic of Belarus there are now twenty two multi-archive guides and guides to individual state archives; another twenty guides covering various archives are being in preparation, a system of catalogues has expanded, holdings surveys and thematic surveys are being in extensive use. In the Russian Federation the number of published guides has increased significantly, with guides to holdings of selected federal archives being published in many volumes.
Both the countries now provide their citizens with access to information about the composition and contents of the declassified records. The finding aids to social and legal records are also being extensively developed.
In the Republic of Вelarus there are 64 automated information retrieval systems and 86 thematic databases. Archival documents are being digitized within the frames of “The Concept of the digitization of the documents relating to the State part of the National Archival Holdings” designed by the Belarusian Research Center for Electronic Records. The Finding Aids software module is currently being designed for the Unified Archive Information System intended for the creation of electronic finding aids.
Also, the Russian Federation has implemented a number of big projects for the creation of electronic finding aids, including those with the records images attached; the number of digitized inventories and catalogues is increasing.
The archival services in these countries continue work to make their reference aids available in the Internet. In Belarus several archival guides and directories have been made available for download in Zip Doc format on the official archival website of this country. Among the major online projects of the Russian archivists are “The Comintern Archive” for the documents of the Russian State Archives of Socio-Political History, the electronic catalogue of documentary films at the Russian State Archives of Documentary Films and Photographs, the Guides to Russian Archives Database etc.