site.btaArchives State Agency Presents Results of Digital System Project

Archives digitization requires a fundamental change in the way Bulgarian archives function, Archives State Agency Director Mihail Gruev said here on Thursday. He was speaking during a presentation of the results of a project for digitization of the archival system.

“We, the Bulgarian archivists, consider this project to be key and strategic for the future of our profession because the world is becoming digital and archives are changing how they look,” Gruev said. He added that paper is gradually disappearing from public administration and private correspondence.

Gruev said that each of the archive systems of the European Union Member States has developed its own procedures for dealing with digital documents in the last decade, and Bulgaria is not an exception.  

“Archives preserve the memory of the nation, of the state, of all institutions,” said Archives State Agency Secretary General Natasha Dimcheva, who heads the archives digitization project. She cited a recent controversy over the ownership of the Russian Church in Sofia. She added that the opportunities for storing valuable digital documents will increase with time.

The archival digitization project is implemented under the Operational Programme Good Governance, which is co-financed by the European Union through the European Social Fund.