Archives in Latvia

Legislation framework: Law “On Archives” (adopted on March 26, 1991, amendments on November 4, 1993, November 11, 2000, and March 29, 2005.); Electronic Records Law (2002) Freedom of Information Law (1998) and the Personal Data Protection Law (2000)

Legislation framework: Cabinet Regulation No 141(adopted April 2, 2002) Regulations for the Archiving of Data and Electronic Records Recorded in the Information Systems Cabinet Regulation No 117 (adopted March2 2004, amendments March 15,2005) Regulations regarding the Apraisal of Electronic Documents, Procedures for the Storage thereof and Transfer to the State archives Cabinet Regulation No 192 (adopted March14, 2006) Procedures by Which State Archival Fund Documents are Temporarily Brought out of the Republic of Latvia

Structure of the State Archives Directorate General of Latvia State Archives Latvia State Historical Archives Latvia State Archives of Audiovisual Documents State Archives of Latvia State Archives of Personnel Files Central Microphotocopying and Document Restoration Laboratory 11 Regional State Archives

Statistic figures Holdings (linear km) 144,3 147,3149 Institutions under supervision Control of supervised institution archives Requests for official purposes and others (written and on-line) (thousands) 38,0 39,7 Visitors Exhibition

Directorate General of Latvia State Archives The Directorate General is supervised by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia. It coordinates the work of 15 state archives, a laboratory and the special library.

Archival Inspection The Archival Inspection is an independent structure, which deals with supervision and control of work in public archives of Latvia and is an ombudsman of archival system.

The Special Library of the State Archives Its funds contain rich choice of reference literature on history, archives science and social sciences, a great variety of encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc. It contains also rare issues dating from 16th -19th century on the European and Baltic history, heraldry, genealogy which have been inherited from the library of Vidzeme Chivalry. The Library possesses also rich collection of printed matters issued in Latvia in 20 th-30th years of 20 century. Electronic catalogue of the Library is available in the homepage of the State Archival System of Latvia ( and in the portal

State Historical Archives of Latvia Founded in 1919 Holdings - 47 shelve km Documents from 13th century up to 1945 Relevant to Baltic, North and Eastern Europe history, written in 17 languages (mainly German, Russian and Latvian).

State Historical Archives of Latvia Oldest document from 1220 Note of Livonian Bishop Albert concerning the establishment of St. Georges hospital in Riga

State Archives of Latvia Founded in 1961 Holdings – 26, 7 shelve km Documents mainly from 1945 till nowadays Records of the central governmental institutions, as well as the archives of state and local institutions of Riga and Jurmala cities, Latvian Communist party and personal papers

State Audiovisual Archives Founded in 1963 Holdings - approximately 28 thousand films, 1 million photo-negatives and 106 thousand phono-documents reflecting various aspects and events in social, economical and cultural life of Latvia from the second half of the 19th century till nowadays Preserve Electronic records

State Archives of Personnel Records Founded in 1992 Holdings - 23 shelve km Documents mainly from 1945 till nowadays There are personnel records of the privatized and abolished local and governmental authorities Riga and Jūrmala, there is a number of archives of bankrupt firms too.

Regional Archives Founded in 1963–1964, joining the small regional and cities' archives Documents mainly from 1945 till nowadays Files of the local state administration, local enterprises, offices, organizations, etc. created in the period of the soviet occupational regime (1944–1991) and nowadays.

Central Microfilming and Document Restoration Laboratory Founded in 1989 Its task is to investigate the condition of the documents being preserved in Latvia state archives, to carry out necessary restoration and microfilming, to bind the documents, to follow and make the analysis of the climatic and microbiological conditions in the depositories.

Present Projects and Future Perspectives New Archives Law (in progress) Regulations concerning the Records Management and Archiving Developing of the UnifiedArchival Information System Formation of the National Archives of Latvia