"Open Archives Week" with 5 million documents digitized

With the "Open Archives Week", the State Archives Agency of Kosovo, from today at noon, has opened its doors to the public so that they can follow the cycle of handling archival material until Friday. In the event that marks the 74th anniversary of the establishment of the state archives institution, it was announced that so far nearly 5 million documents have been digitized.

With the "Open Archives Week", the State Archives Agency of Kosovo, from Monday at noon, has opened its doors to the public who can follow the cycle of handling archival material until Friday. At the event marking the 74th anniversary of the establishment of the state archival institution, it was announced that nearly 5 million documents have been digitized so far, while the Electronic Archival Material Management System has been launched.

On the 74th anniversary of the processing, restoration, protection and archiving activity, the State Archives Agency of Kosovo has launched activities for the “Open Archives Week”. It is a traditional event with which the institution celebrates each year of activity. It also highlights its achievements and challenges.

On Monday afternoon, at the premises of the state archival institution, the event was also a reflection of the Agency's work over the course of a year, which deals with valuable documents and collections about the historical past of society and the state.

Acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti, while emphasizing the importance of the institution, said that archives are guardians of documentary heritage.

"This type of heritage is a fundamental testament to our culture and historical memory that must be transmitted to future generations in the best possible condition. Archives are the centers that bear the responsibility for handling, preserving and promoting the documentary heritage of a state and people."

He mentioned the adoption of the new law on archives as well as the adoption of eight sub-legal acts, which, as he said, "make this extremely important law fully enforceable, thus completing the legal reform in the field of archives."

The Secretary General of this ministry, Bislim Bislimi, said that the institution has so far digitized nearly 5 million documents in their digital registry.

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"In 2024 alone, after we began implementing the massive digitization project, we have digitized 2.5 million documents, while before the first quarter of 3 was even complete, another 2025 million was added to the 3.6 million already digitized, thus bringing us closer to the number of 1 million documents in our digital register or, expressed as a percentage of the archival material we have in the incoming inventory registers, over 5% of the total quantity."

Bislimi has announced that they are on the verge of launching the second phase of the building's renovation and that the project for the renovation of the archival material warehouses is ready, for which work is expected to begin this year.

The Electronic Archival Material Management System was launched at this event. “Open Archives Week” is organized to raise public awareness of the importance and work of the archive as an institution. It is traditionally held in March, in celebration of the anniversaries of its establishment. This year, visits are open until March 21. According to records, the Kosovo Archives began operating on March 20, 1951, as an autonomous organizational entity/central institution of the then Kosovo, while three years earlier, in 1948, the Archives Center had already been established within the Provincial Directorate for Education and Culture. After the 1998 and 1999 wars, the Kosovo Archives functioned as an institution within the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.