Digitalisation of Archival Institutions: Challenges and Prospects for Maintaining National Memory in the Technological Transformations Epoch

The aim of the article is to study changes in organising and functioning of archival institutions under the influence of digital technologies, including the problems of storage, access and authenticity of digital archival documents in the digital time. Research methods. To achieve the set goal, the methods of analysis and synthesis (identifying the specifics of the influence of digital technologies on the activity of archival establishments), content analysis (studying sources of information on the topic of this article for the purpose of further interpretating the results), structural and functional (describing and explaining the transformation of key functions of archival institutions under the digitalisation influence) and generalisation (fixing the general features of modernised processes in the activity of archival establishments) are used. Scientific novelty. The statement about the preservation according to transformation, updating, key functions of archival institutions in the epoch of digital technologies is grounded. Main conclusions. In the time of digital technologies, archives, as memory institutions that keep memory will not lose their functions, which still need to be transformed in view of the objective necessity to adapt to changes in the technological and social spheres and public administration. In particular, it is about the need in digitising the process of search and access to archival documents, ensuring the integrity and authenticity of digital archival documents by combining artificial intelligence technology and blockchain, etc. The desire of state archival establishments to maintain the status of memory institutions, together with the confirmation of practical benefit from its activity, requires the effective usage of all the possibilities of innovative digital technologies, since archival institutions that is not able to adapt to the requirements of the digital epoch, sooner or later will lose their conquered status and can be in “the archives of archival establishments” of the past.