Representatives of a rare but important profession are celebrating their professional holiday. Today in Belarus is the day of the archivist.

Every day, they process thousands of requests from the scientific, industrial, cultural, and other spheres. They also help those who are interested in the history of their family. Today, the archival sector is solving not only traditional tasks. There is an optimization of document circulation and digitization underway. This year, they plan to digitize 3 million pages.

At the same time, the restoration of materials is ongoing. More than 600,000 sheets are restored annually. The preparation of publications and documentary films is also actively developing. Meanwhile, archive workers are increasingly applying artificial intelligence technologies.

Oleg Voynov, director of the department for archives and record-keeping of the Ministry of Justice of Belarus, said: "We are involving it in the work directly in the archival sector. This is both within the framework of documentary chronicles and directly in the framework of searching and selecting documents. But as for the fact that artificial intelligence can be used to translate and read these documents, in the future - yes, but at the moment, the possibilities are limited."

Elena Stukanova, director of the National Archive of Belarus, said: "We are compiling archives, accounting for them, so that we can make sense of this array of documents, we ensure their preservation, so that future generations can also hold documents not only of our time but also of our predecessors in their hands. And, of course, use them. This is the main goal of archives: not just to store documents, but to bring them to the public."

This is achieved through exhibitions, popular science publications, and documentary films. Particular attention is paid to young people. In the first half of the year alone, they held more than 1,200 meetings with the participation of over 13,000 schoolchildren and students.