Abstract:

In the context of the information society, the profession of archivist requires knowledge of new technologies and working in the new information environment, which is constantly changing. The profession requires new qualities and abilities, and therefore training should change in order to ensure the successful realization of the students. In our daily activity a huge information flows, the archivist is the one who should make the archival information accessible to users. This information should be available and user-friendly in an environment of large dissemination of fake content information. It is quite difficult to judge to what extent the information on the Internet is reliable and whether consumers are aware of the possibility of being misled by false content.

Among the main goals of the paper is to present good practices on the creation of Internet portals leading to easier access to archival information. An example of best practice could be the Archival Collections Portal (Columbia University Libraries) and Archives Portal Europe. The second aim is to show the extent to which the new archival methods are available to Bulgarian students through the courses “Information and communication technologies in archives” and “Digital archives”, which are part of the program “Archival and Documentary Studies” at the University of Library Studies and Information Technologies, Bulgaria, Sofia. The final goal of the training is students to be able to acquire a high level qualification for the professions of archivist and records manager and to prepare them for working with contemporary records and archives of state, municipal and private institutions, as well as to ensure their competencies to deal with old documents stored in historical archives in Bulgaria and abroad.

The paper will also introduce how the students will be involved in building an “Information Portal for Archival-Documentary Heritage of the Bulgarian Revival”, thus combining the theory with their practical training. In this way, students will take part in some interdisciplinary fundamental research that will lead to the creation of a portal, which will collect, structure and systemize our knowledge on archival records from the period of the Bulgarian Revival (18th and 19th centuries).

In conclusion, the benefits of such a combination of theory and practice will be presented – students are simultaneously acquainted with new technologies – computers, hardware and software, “smart programs”, some useful theoretical knowledge about the Internet. At the same time, they are trained to be classical archivists – to keep information intact in time, to promote it and make it fully accessible to people. A really crucial role for any modern archivist and archive – to provide easy access to true and reliable information through new technologies.

Acknowledgement:
This paper is one of the outcomes of the scientific research project entitled “Information Portal for Archival-Documentary Heritage of the Bulgarian Revival” (Contract КП-06-Н 25/2,13.12.2018, NSF).

Keywords:

Education, Studying, Archives, Archival Portals, Digitization.