Kick-off seminar of the project “Cross Border E-archive” in Riga, Latvia

On October 9 and 10 a two-day kick-off seminar of the project „Cross Border E-archive” took place in the EU House in Riga, Latvia. Event was hosted by the beneficiary of the project – state agency “Culture Information Systems” and was the first large scale meeting of all partners (Culture Information Systems (Latvia), “Ideju Forums” (Latvia), the National Archives of Latvia (Latvia), the National Archives of Estonia (Estonia) and Saint-Petersburg Information and Analytical Centre (Russia)) and archive experts involved in the implementation of the project.

The aim of the project is to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of Estonia, Latvia and Russia cross border area archives and to provide access to the heritage for the citizens of the area. Until 2014 universally accessible online platform (e-archive) will be developed with unlimited access to the archival information. Cross Border E-archive will bring together lost connections between historical facts on larger level and family history on individual level. The beneficiaries (3 million inhabitants and 800 professionals of the Estonia, Latvia and Russia border area) and target groups (30 archive institutions in the Estonia, Latvia and Russia, 3 million inhabitants of cross border area, 30 000 researchers and students in cross border area) will have free access to the developed digital platform in the native and English languages.

The kick-off seminar of the project “Cross Border E-archive” was opened by the Director of the state agency “Culture Information Systems” Armands Magone. Following his welcoming speech project’s partners introduced to the project and their organisations. A vibrant discussion in the afternoon offered participants and archival experts from Estonia, Latvia and Russia opportunity to share with each other their thoughts on the contents of the archival collections that should be included in the e-archive.

On the second day of the seminar participants visited the Latvian State Historical Archives and the Latvian State Archive of Audio Visual Documents Latvian archives.

Seminar like this was a great opportunity for all partners to come together and will help to advance the project and work on further improvements.

Memorable moments from the kick-off seminar of the project “Cross Border E-archive”: