UNESCO commemorates on Monday, June 9th, its celebration worldwide, which will extend until Sunday. Therefore, the Junta de Castilla y León has designed a varied program of specific activities throughout the month to promote and bring these cultural centers closer to all citizens, highlighting the documentary heritage of the Community.
June 7, 2025
Castilla y León |
Department of Culture, Tourism, and Sports
The International Archives Day is celebrated, as every year, on June 9th, a date that coincides with the establishment of the International Council on Archives (ICA/CIA) in 1948, under the auspices of UNESCO. Around this date, the ICA convenes the International Archives Week (IAW/SIA2025), which will take place from June 9th to 15th this year. The chosen motto is ‘#AccessibleArchives: Archives for All’, aiming to highlight the work of archives in making information more accessible to a general and global audience.
This motto shows the determination of archives to break physical barriers in accessibility and promote their evolution in the digital age, allowing greater access to archival content by adopting new digital technologies that enable broader dissemination of their collections, facilitating access to knowledge, culture, and history for all equally.
Archives in the 21st century share a common goal: ensuring that all citizens can access the information they safeguard through digital platforms and enhanced user interfaces, enabling innovative preservation of documentary heritage and allowing its consultation regardless of geographical location or physical limitations.
The ‘#AccessibleArchives’ motto focuses on four fundamental aspects:
- Overcoming barriers to archive access: addressing obstacles such as limited resources, lack of knowledge, and technical challenges that hinder full participation in archival work.
- Utilizing technology to enhance access: exploring how digital innovations, including Artificial Intelligence, are transforming the way archives are navigated and made accessible to a wider audience.
- Archives in society: changes in perceptions: reshaping the narrative to recognize archives as key players in shaping cultural identity, governance, and accountability.
- Inclusion and representation in archival practices: ensuring that the voices of historically underrepresented communities are included in archival collections, promoting diversity and inclusion.
In this regard, the Archives System of the Junta de Castilla y León has been working on implementing SIEGA, a technological tool used by the various archives of the system for the comprehensive computerized management of the documentary heritage preserved in them, facilitating its treatment throughout the life cycle of documents by enabling electronic communication and information transfer between them.
Thus, through the Online Catalog of SIEGA, citizens also have access to a large part of the custodied documentary collections, described and sometimes digitized in the provincial historical archives, General Archive of Castilla y León, and Castilla y León Film Library, allowing for searching and navigation through the extensive documentary heritage preserved in the archive centers:
Scheduled Activities
The Department of Culture, Tourism, and Sports celebrates the International Archives Week in the historical archives under the Junta de Castilla y León through an extensive schedule of cultural events.
With these activities, which will take place throughout the month, the archives aim to highlight the documentary heritage of Castilla y León, contributing to strengthening the cultural fabric of the cities in the Community and seeking an opportunity to reach new audiences and society in general.
In this way, visitors to the archives during these days will have the opportunity to learn more about the facilities and operations of these centers and the important services of culture, information, and rights assurance that they provide to the institutions whose documentation they safeguard and to the general public.