The Role of the Director General of the State Archives in the Development of Electronic Records Management in Poland: An Analysis of Legal, Organisational, Educational and Infrastructural Measures up to 2019
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33700/2670-4579.36.2.75-91(2026)Keywords:
Director General of State Archives, electronic records management, EZD systems, electronic records, public administration, archival supervision, Electronic Documents Archive, digital archivesAbstract
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine action taken by the Director General of Polish State Archives to support the development of electronic records management systems (also referred to hereinafter as “EZD” – Elektroniczne Zarządzanie Dokumentacją) until the year 2019, with a particular focus on legal, organisational, educational and infrastructural facets.
Method/approach: The study adopts a qualitative descriptive-analytical approach based on a purposive analysis of legal acts, strategic documents, reports, professional literature and information resources made available by the State Archives. The source material was selected to capture the legal, organisational, educational and infrastructural dimensions of the activities of the Head of the State Archives. Legal acts were examined to identify changes in the normative framework for electronic records management; strategic documents and reports were analysed to reconstruct institutional priorities, implementation directions and reported activities; professional literature and archival information resources were used to contextualise these findings and assess their practical significance. The analysis focused on the period up to 2019 and reconstructed the sequence and interrelations of institutional activities.
Results: The analysis demonstrates that the Head of the State Archives played an important role in creating the conditions for the implementation and development of electronic records management systems in Poland across four interrelated dimensions: legal, organisational, educational and infrastructural. The main outcomes included participation in the preparation of regulations, support for organisational practice and supervision, development of professional competences and dissemination of good practices, monitoring of pilot EZD implementations, and preparation of the Electronic Documents Archive as a tool for the long-term preservation of born-digital archival records.
Conclusions/findings: Findings indicate that action taken by the Director General of Polish State Archives should be interpreted as a gradual process of developing foundations for a modern public records management model. While the authority did not manage EZD systems directly, it contributed to their development by designing regulations, supporting institutional practice, and preparing archival infrastructure for long-term electronic records preservation. The paper further identifies continuing challenges regarding metadata quality, system interoperability, and the transfer of electronic records for permanent preservation.
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