According to the Law on archival material and archival activity, the Historical Archive of Belgrade is obliged to receive and preserve the material of all institutions on the territory of the capital. The archived material of institutions comes to the Archive whose job is to process it, organize it according to all the standards of the archival profession and make it available to the public.
However, the Historical Archive is unable to fulfill its task.
Dragan Gačić, the director of this institution, told "Večernje Novosti" that the Historical Archive of Belgrade no longer has space to store documents, so requests to receive materials are rejected daily.
This problem has been going on for years. They hope that the new building will at least partially solve the problem, with the fact that it is still in the design phase.
The new building, which will be built in the immediate vicinity of the existing one in New Belgrade, will have about 6.000 square meters and will temporarily alleviate the problem.
"Economic companies, enterprises and institutions come to us every day. By law, they are obliged to hand over the material to us, and it is our obligation to receive it. However, the problem is not only in the size, but also in the nature of the material. When the company goes out of business, all their documentation comes here. The archive, although it has the word historical in the name, is becoming more and more commercial", stated Dragan Gačić.
We no longer accept documentation
The Historical Archive of Belgrade announced a month ago that due to the large number of requests and insufficient technical and personnel capacity, it is currently unable to receive new documentation.
As stated at the time, legal entities from the territory of Belgrade should not deliver copies of the archive book either in person or by mail, until further notice. At the same time, work is underway to establish an electronic service that will enable the submission of documents in digital form.
Since 1945, the Historical Archive of Belgrade has been preserving archival materials as cultural heritage and is considered one of the most modern in the country. Its oldest documents date from the 16th century.
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