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It is my great pleasure to welcome the 2nd scientific conference of the State Archives, which is being held on the occasion of the World Archives Week and the theme of the interconnection of public and private archives in Cyprus.
The International Council on Archives has dedicated this week to archives, extending, in fact, the World Archives Day, established in 1948, which was celebrated on 9 June, the day UNESCO established the Council.
The aim of the celebrations nationwide is to highlight the usefulness of archives for society and good governance and to raise public awareness of their importance and value.
In this context, our State Archives, starting last year, is trying to establish the organization of scientific conferences related to archives in Cyprus, in an effort to cultivate archival awareness both in the public sector and in society in general. Last year, the first scientific conference aimed to promote the archival institutions operating in Cyprus, to acquaint the public with the archival documents preserved in them and to record their perspectives in the new digital environment we live in. The challenges faced by archival institutions were presented and it was evident that through the cooperation of all stakeholders, as well as the expertise and know-how that the State Archives is willing to offer to all, they will be successfully addressed. And it is with great pleasure that I see that the proceedings of the first conference have already been published, in an e-book, which will be available to all the archival institutions that participated in it, to add it to their websites, if they wish.
This second scientific conference will focus on identifying commonalities between private and public archival institutions in Cyprus and an attempt will be made to record areas for cooperation and mutual assistance. In addition, through the presentation of small and unknown private archives, the difficulty of rescuing such archives, recording them and preserving them by private researchers will be highlighted. It is hoped that the experiences of one of them will serve as an important foundation for the others.
The State Archives, which took the initiative to organize this workshop and which is the largest and most important archival institution in Cyprus, supports in various ways the private archives operating on the island. In this context, the State Archives is oriented towards the creation of a body, under its responsibility, which will be officially responsible for the guidance, coordination and implementation of international archival standards in Cyprus as well. An action that the Ministry of Justice and Public Order fully supports and will provide all possible assistance for this purpose.
This year the State Archives completes 45 years of operation. During these years it has preserved over 18.5 kilometres of shelf-length records, both from the public and wider public sector and private, which it preserves, maintains and digitises in order to make them accessible to interested parties. It provides important services to both the Government and the general public, serving both electronic and physical requests, with reduced staff and resources, but with the love of its employees for their profession. Something I am sure you all recognize.
The Preservation and Photoreproduction Laboratories preserves, proactively and completely, hundreds of documents annually, most of them in poor condition. These documents include maps, pictures, photographs, letters, architectural drawings, etc., which are immediately digitized to avoid further deterioration.
The State Archives Reading Room serves more than 150 individual researchers a year and processes requests for inspection with an annual average of more than 4500 files. Serving researchers is a priority for our Department as well. Both in the preparation of the Reading Room in the Administration Building of the State Archives, and through Cabinet decisions we have promoted, such as the recent granting of the right to researchers to photograph the archives free of charge by themselves, using their own resources, we are trying to facilitate their work. This will of course be achieved with the construction of the new building of the Unified Archives, Administration and Laboratories Building of the State Archives, which is a priority of our Ministry.
In conclusion, I would like to congratulate all the staff of the State Archives, both for their work and for the excellent organization of this conference. I hope and pray that this will be established and become an institution that will unite all the archives of our country, with the ultimate goal of their development.
Wishing the conference every success, I declare the opening of its proceedings.
(ΕΠ/ΣΧ)
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