Abstract:

The training process of Archival and Documentary Studies in Bulgaria has its own traditions. It started as a professional university and extracurricular course and went through the construction of a whole specialty of Archival and Documentary Studies, firstly at the Sofia University ’’St. Kliment Ohridski’’ in the academic year 2002/2003, after that at the University of Library Studies and Information Technologies (ULSIT) in the academic year 2012/2013, and subsequently in other universities. Thus, by the year 2021, a total of four Bulgarian universities have been training students in the educational qualification bachelor degree programme in order to prepare them for specialists in the public and private archival sector.

The purpose of the report is to analyze the main parameters of the curricula of these universities emphasizing the logic of the distribution of disciplines. This will give us an opportunity to get an idea of some visible highlights in the programs - whether they are focused on historical, informational and / or other disciplines. This is just the beginning of a more detailed, comparative and analytical study and the results will be preliminary. This is a topic that is poorly discussed in the country, but in the process of implementing a study conducted by ULSIT on the project "Information portal for archival and documentary heritage of the Bulgarian Revival" (Contract KP-06-N 25 / 2,13.12.2018, National Science Fund) several key trends have been highlighted that need to be studied in depth. A survey is to be conducted at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski ”- Sofia, Bulgaria; Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv - Plovdiv, Bulgaria; and South-West University "Neofit Rilski" - Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, which will seek the main points of contact between the attitudes of students from different universities studying in similar specialties.

Although preliminary, the analyzes of the university programs will significantly enrich our ideas about the level of education in Archival and Documentary Studies in Bulgaria and will help us get an idea of what lies ahead, given the rapid changes in technology. Ultimately, even training in a highly conservative specialty such as Archival and Documentary Studies needs to change and adapt. Therefore, the report can benefit teachers and students and give them an idea and generate ideas in this direction.

Keywords:

Archival and Documentary Studies, Bulgarian universities, education.