The Law on the National Archive Fund (June 22, 1999) regulates the formation, protection, use, and activity of the National Archive Fund archives in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Today, the archive system of the Republic of Azerbaijan includes six state archives of national importance, 15 branches of the State Archive, the State Archive of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, as well as 57 districts and city archives, which are directly subordinated to the National Archives Department.
State archives of national importance include:
- The State Archive (1 581 funds and 589 378 works are protected in the archive. The chronological period of the documents covers the years 1917-2011),
- The State Historical Archive (757 funds, 244 419 works are protected in the archive. The chronological period of the documents covers 1805-1922),
- The State Archive of Literature and Art (764 funds and 108 390 works are protected in the archive. The chronological period of the documents covers the XIX century – 2011),
- The Archive of State Scientific and Technical Documents (The archive preserves 170 funds and 188 361 works. The chronological period of the documents covers the years 1873-2011),
- The State Cinema-Photo Documents’ Archive (The archive preserves 20 632 film documents and 342 346 photo documents), and
- The State Sound Recordings’ Archive (The archive preserves 32 983 background documents and 1 677 video documents. The chronological period of the documents covers the years 1903-2011).
The State Programme On the Development of Archival Work in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2020-2025 approved with the Presidential Order (February 12, 2020), aimed to ensure reliable protection and widespread use of archival documents, to modernise archival service organisations, to implement modern information and communication technologies, etc.
The Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan On Libraries (December 29, 1998) formulates the principles of state policy on libraries, provides an everyday basis for the library system, regulates the founding and running of libraries, and covers funding, the public’s rights regarding the use of libraries, and the principles of international co-operation in this area. The mass library network of the Ministry for Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Azerbaijan consists of the National Library of Azerbaijan, republic, mass and children’s libraries, and centralised library systems. In addition, the State Oil Company (2), Confederation of Trade Unions (5), and other organisations (35) also own some of the libraries.
Under the Ministry for Culture, the Centralised Library System has 75 Central Libraries, 213 city library branches, 137 settlement library branches, and 2 087 rural library branches – 2 512 libraries a total. At present, 2 281 403 readers use the library fund of Centralised Library Systems (22 493 426 copies in total). The “State Programme on development of library and information sphere in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2008-2013”, dedicated to the modernisation of the library-information network, was executed in the previous decade. ALISA (Automated Library Information System of Azerbaijan), the first national system in this field to automate library and bibliographic processes, has been implemented in 45 Centralised Library Systems.
The Presidential Decree “On measures to improve the structure and management of the Ministry for Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan” (January 15, 2019) implies reconstruction of the library system in the country, taking into account the opportunities of information and communication technologies, as well as the existing demand and international experience.
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