Mission and Organization of the e-ARH.si Project

The mission of SPAS and the e-ARH.si System is the appraisal, acquisition, processing, preservation and enabling of access to the national archival heritage of the Republic of Slovenia in electronic form. By fulfilling the vision, it is expected that all interested users can access the best e-solutions for storing and using eAR. By establishing the e-ARH.si, SJAS wishes to become a leader in the field of e-archiving in the Republic of Slovenia, South Eastern Europe, and the European Union.

The confident, reliable and cost-effective development e-ARH.si is based on having expert knowledge, experience and established best practices in the field of long-term preservation of eAR. The starting point for the further development of e-ARH.si until the year 2020 is the acknowledgement of existing shortcomings relating to insufficient funding.

With the inclusion of the Project e-ARH.si in the Operational Program for the implementation of European Cohesion Policy 2014–2020, financial support was not automatically provided. Therefore, the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia has put considerable effort into the preparation of an application for funding, which was finally received at the beginning of August 2016 in the amount of EUR 4 million (80% EU, 20% of Slovenia). This funding will enable the fulfilment of strategic objectives of e-ARH.si as stated in the Strategy and Implementation Plan for the Development of the Slovenian Public Electronic Archives e-ARH.si for the time frame 2016–2020.

The purpose of the project is to improve existing services and develop additional services in the field of e-archiving related to the acquisition, preservation and retrieval of eAR for all interested users, regardless of their abilities, and to establish a secure, long-term, centralized, standardized and reliable e-ARH.si System under the direct management  of SJAS.

The Development of e-ARH.si is Organized with the Following Human Infrastructure:

Human infrastructure in the e-ARH.si Project is hierarchically organized as follows:

Head of the project: the Minister responsible for archives

Project Board:

• Head of the Project Board: Director of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia
• Project Board Members
• A representative of the regional Archives
• A representative of the Ministry of Culture

Project Group:

• Head of the Project Group: Head of E-archives and Computer Support Sector in the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia
• Project Group Members: representatives of regional Archives, the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia and creators

Users Group:

• Head of the User Group: representative of the nominated Ministry
• User Group Members: representatives of Ministries

Project Office: selected via public procurement.

For the purpose of the operational implementation of the project, the Project Group is divided into eight working subgroups, i.e. competence centres (hereinafter referred to as CC).  According to the e-ARH.si ESS 2016–2020 Operational Plan, CCs have specific, content-rounded tasks and expected results for
the duration of the project:

• General CC - Coordination of CCs
• CC 1 - Management of electronic archival records (eAR) at creators and submission
• CC 2 - Ensuring the long-term storage of eAR in the e-ARH.si System
• CC 3 - Standardization of archival professional work
• CC 4 - eAR access management
• CC 5 - Centre for digitization
• CC 6 - Digital Film Archives
• CC 7 - International cooperation, promotion and training

As the key management authority, the Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy issued a decision to support the e-ARH.si project for the period 2016–2020.  It thereby granted The Archives of the Republic of Slovenia funding from the Operational Program for the implementation of the European Cohesion Policy for the period 2014–2020.

The development of the e-ARH.si System for public archival records is a common goal of the public archival service and is in the public interest of the Republic of Slovenia. The public archival service is performed by the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia and the regional Archives according to the Articles 53 and 55 of the Protection of Documents and Archives and Archival Institutions Act (hereinafter referred to as PDAAIA). Their main goal is the protection of public archival records. Therefore, employees from the regional Archives, which have, on the basis of the sixth paragraph of Article 28 of the Public Procurement Act the status of external contractors, are also a part of the project and work within the CCs.

CCs’ tasks and expected results stem from strategic and operational goals for the further development of e-ARH.si and constitute an organizational, technical and professional (archival) whole.