In Irkutsk, large scale digitization of archival documents continues, over 30 percent of the collection has already been digitized, and the Electronic Archive of Valuable and Especially Valuable Documents program has been running since 2013. The article explains what equipment was bought for the work, how the electronic archive helps preserve documents and provide quick access to them, and how many requests have already been processed thanks to digitization.

As of today, out of 19,099 storage units in the archive (one storage unit averages 250 standard pages), the number of digitized archival documents is 7,570 storage units, which is more than 30% of the total volume. The program to create an electronic fund, “Electronic Archive of Valuable and Especially Valuable Documents,” has been carried out by the archival department of the organizational and control administration of the apparatus of the Irkutsk city administration since 2013.
It should be recalled that earlier, at the end of 2012, the acquisition of the necessary equipment for digitizing documents began. In September 2012, the state archive received for use a large-format scanner worth more than 4 million rubles, as well as computers, a server designed to store 11 terabytes of information, and devices for document restoration. In 2013, equipment for microfilming (transferring digitized documents onto transparent film) and an A2-format scanner were purchased.
The work on converting documents into electronic form will make it possible to create electronic resources that provide prompt access to documents using Internet technologies, and will also ensure the preservation of documents. Today, thanks to the digitization of data, since 2013, 962 social-legal and thematic requests have been registered on the basis of archival information and documents stored in the department. In addition to digitizing archival documents of the local self-government bodies of the city of Irkutsk, the department’s priority areas of activity are fulfilling requests from citizens, state authorities and local self-government bodies, enterprises and organizations within the time limits established by law, and ensuring the accounting and preservation of documents contained in the archive.
For reference:
The municipal archive, as a type of structural subdivision of a local self-government body — the archival department of the organizational and control administration of the apparatus of the Irkutsk city administration — was established by order of the Mayor of Irkutsk dated 13.08.2003 No. 031-10-1163/3. The department is engaged in the storage and acquisition of archival fonds — documents of the Irkutsk City Election Commission, city local self-government bodies, documents of municipal enterprises, and the Irkutsk City Council of Veterans.
The State Archive of the Irkutsk Region stores more than one million documents. The oldest of them date back to 1650, when the Irkutsk ostrog had not yet been founded. The archive also has the most complete collection of documents of the office of the Irkutsk governor-general, and the fonds of the Amur governor-general.
24 organizations are sources of acquisition for the archival department of the organizational and control administration of the apparatus of the Irkutsk city administration.
The archive contains 28 fonds, including 14,727 storage units (78.3%) of permanent administrative records for the period 1978–2014 and 4,372 storage units (21.7%) of personnel records for the period 1930–2013. The total area of the archive is 304 sq. m, while the archive storage area occupies 154 sq. m.
According to materials from the press service of the Irkutsk administration.