MINSK, 4 October (BelTA) - Belarusian archivists plan to use Finland's experience in digitizing historical documents and managing electronic documents, First Deputy Director of the Archives and Records Management Department of the Belarusian Justice Ministry Olga Biryukova told the media on 4 October, BelTA has learned.
Today, Belarusian archivists have a task of digitizing documents. Instead of the original documents, researchers will be provided with electronic copies. Thus, paper copies of historical materials will live longer, and users' interests will not be affected, Olga Biryukova noted.
Finnish specialists will share their best practices with Belarusian counterparts in developing a center to store electronic documents, organizing the process of switching to electronic copies. The archivists of the two countries enjoy long-standing cooperation. Next year Minsk will host a seminar during which Finnish specialists will tell about the management of electronic documents.
According to Olga Biryukova, the state archival institutions (there are 31 of them in the country) keep documents dating back to and since the 14th century. She added that they keep about 13 million paper documents. The number of visitors to the archives increases every year. The number of users has almost doubled over the past 10 years.
