Ukrainian Scientific Research Institute of Archival Affairs and Record Keeping
Ukrainian Scientific Research Institute of Archival Affairs and Record Keeping (Український науково-дослідний інститут архівної справи та документознавства or УНДІАСД; Ukrainskyi naukovo-doslidnyi instytut arkhivnoi spravy ta dokumentoznavstva or UNDIASD). The main scientific research institution of the State Archival Service of Ukraine. Its main goal is to study theoretical and normative-methodological issues pertained to archival affairs and documentation science (record keeping). At the time of its founding in 1994, UNDIASD was comprised of three departments: archival studies (with the sectors of history and theory of archival affairs, preservation of documents, formation of the National Archive Fund of Ukraine, scientific reference apparatus, and record keeping); documentation science; and information. In 2001 UNDIASD was transformed from a state enterprise into a state scientific research institute. It received its current structure in 2013 and now consists of four departments: archival studies; documentation science; technological support of archival affairs (with a section of technologies development for the archival documents preservation); and scientific and technical information (with a section of accounting and reporting). A graduate school was opened in 2003 and grants degrees in the areas of historiography, source studies, special historical disciplines, history of Ukraine, documentation science, and archival studies. Between 2003 and 2016, 58 dissertations for the degree of candidate of historical sciences were defended at UNDIASD.
Together with the State Archival Service of Ukraine, archival institutions, scientific research institutes, and other organizations UNDIASD has held more than 50 scholarly conferences, readings, seminars, and round tables, including multiple international scholarly conferences such as ‘Ukrainian Archival Studies: Current State and Prospects,’ ‘Archival and Library Affairs in Ukraine during the Liberation Struggle (1917–1921),’ ‘Archives as a Component of Information Resources,’ ‘Archives and Local History: Ways of Integration,’ and ‘Archival Studies as a Scholarly Discipline.’ The institute marked the 20th anniversary of its activity in May 2015 with the All-Ukrainian conference ‘Archives–Scholarship–Society: Ways of Interaction,’ which was attended by more than 60 scholars and archival employees from Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 and the onset of the Russo-Ukrainian war UNDIASD became actively involved in the work aimed at protecting and digitizing archival resources of Ukraine, as well as in preserving digital collections. For instance, at the scientific seminar ‘War: Practices of Documenting/Archiving Digital Space’ organized by UNDIASD together with the Center for Urban History in Lviv on 16 October 2023, experts from a variety of fields discussed practices of emergency and proactive archiving of social media, websites, and audiovisual documents. Similar issues were debated at the conference ‘Archive Science in Ukraine: Traditions, Sustainability, and Digitalization’ (1 November 2024).
The institute’s directors have been Volodymyr Liakhotsky (1994–2001), Iryna Matiash (2001–9), Iryna Maha (2009–10), Oleksandr Haranin (2010–23), and Vitalii Skalsky (2023–).
UNDIASD has published four periodicals and serials, including Arkhivoznavstvo. Arkheohrafiia. Dzhereloznavstvo (10 vols, 1999–2009), Pam’iatky: arkheohrafichnyi shchorichnyk (16 vols, 1998–2015), Studiї z arkhivnoї spravy ta dokumentoznavstva (27 vols, 1996–2019), and Biuleten' Haluzevoї sluzhby naukovo-tekhnichnoї informatsiї z arkhivnoї spravy ta dokumentoznavstva (37 vols, 2001–22).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ukraїns'kyi naukovo-doslidnyi instytut arkhivnoї spravy ta dokumentoznavstva. Do 10-richchia zasnuvannia (1994–2004): Bibliohr. pokazchyk (Kyiv 2004)
UNDIASD’s official website: https://undiasd.archives.gov.ua
Serhiy Bilenky
[This article was written in 2024.]