State Archives in Belgium

The State Archives (French: Archives de l'État or AE, Dutch: Rijksarchief) is the institution which preserves the national archives of Belgium. It is a research institute of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (Belspo) under the Belgian Federal Government.

The State Archives is composed of the National Archives in Brussels and 18 repositories throughout Belgium. Each repository has its own reading room, where the public can consult paper or digital archives in compliance with the rules and laws regarding the privacy of certain data.

As a knowledge centre for historical information and archival sciences, the State Archives preserved nearly 275 kilometres (171 mi) of archives and 25 kilometres (16 mi) of books in 2013. Karel Velle is the incumbent director-general.

The National Archives and State Archives in the Provinces is divided into 3 departments:

One of the key missions of the State Archives is the material preservation of the archives it holds. The pieces of archive are stored for long-term conservation in specially equipped stacks that comply with the highest standards for temperature, air humidity, fire and flooding safety. The documents are stored in folders and acid-free archive boxes foreseen with all necessary identification elements. Archives producers can purchase these acid-free archive boxes from the State Archives at a reasonable price. Archives deteriorated by the ravages of time are restored and rebound. Documents frequently consulted by the public (parish registers, civil status registers, maps, plans and drawings, old charters on parchment) are microfilmed and increasingly often digitized in order to avoid damages to the originals. The State Archives coordinates the archival policy at national level and fosters efficient international cooperation.

The State Archives supervises the archives of the Belgian public authorities: courts, tribunals, administrations and public institutions. No document produced or received by the public authorities may be destroyed without prior authorization from the National Archivist or his delegates. This supervision of the public archives is assigned to the section “Archive supervision, reporting and co-ordination of archive collection and selection” of the State Archives, supervising the central services of the federal administration, and to the archivists of the State Archives repositories in the Provinces, supervising the external services of the federal administrations, the courts and tribunals of the judiciary and the regional and local administrations. The State Archives thus watches over the due conservation of archive documents produced and managed by Belgian public authorities. For this purpose, it issues directives and recommendations, carries out inspections, organizes training for public officers and provides advice about the construction and furniture of repositories and about the organization of the archives management within a public administration. The directives, brochures and recommendations can be downloaded from the website of the State Archives.

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