Besides being a link with heritage and the past, archival records are also embedded to a great extent in our daily lives. The Archives also provide for the storage of the archival records produced by legal entities under public law operating at the state administration level or self-governing local community level, which represents an important part of the national memory and provides legal certainty to the State, to local communities and their institutions and to individuals. This is why modern views on archives mainly draw attention to citizens’ rights, democracy, trust and accessibility.

Digitisation

Archival records are exposed to deterioration due to too frequent use or simply the ravages of time. One way to preserve them in their physical form for the coming generations is digitisation. In this way the unique originals are preserved as users access digital copies, which in the virtual world are accessible to the widest possible range of people.

In the field of electronic archival records (eAG), i.e. digital born records, the Slovenian archives have been achieving major developments, not only in terms of legislation, but also in terms of practical solutions. Within the framework of the e-ARH.si project, the Slovenian electronic archive is being created in order to collect and preserve eAG and to provide its accessibility. Software tools have been developed for the ingest, submission to the archives, as well as the use of eAG by the records creators, archivists and end-users.

In the further development of the e-ARH.si system, the archives focus on the long-term preservation of various eAG types, such as databases, audio-visual contents, email, websites, social networks, spatial data and 3D models that are a challenge to the modern information society. In developing the e-ARH.si, the Slovenian public archives follow the European and national interoperability framework. The e-ARH.si system and the operational processes it supports make the exchange of data and knowledge possible at the European and national levels.