Today, we’d like to share the story of a mobility experience in the Culture sector, made possible through the MOST+ programme. This was an internship for a Belarusian archivist at the Lithuanian State Historical Archives.
The archivist considers the mobility to have been a great success. He explains that he was able to closely explore archival resources rich in retrospective biographical and genealogical information, and significantly deepen his understanding of the content and informational value of relevant archival documents.
“The host organisation created the most favorable conditions for the internship. I was provided with answers to all the questions I had. I was completely new to some of the approaches taken by my European colleagues. You could even say that the internship exceeded my expectations, because the Lithuanian State Historical Archives gave me a completely different concept of a historical archive as an institution”, he admits.
He intends to share the experience gained during his mobility with fellow Belarusian archivists and to initiate a discussion on the concept of an inter-archival database. This database would compile mass sources of biographical and genealogical information from the holdings of the National Historical Archive of Belarus and the Lithuanian State Historical Archives, serving as an effective tool for identifying and utilising unique retrospective data.
The MOST+ project is a mobility programme promoting professional exchanges between Belarusians and their colleagues from EU countries. It is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Goethe-Institut.
© Photo courtesy of the mobility participant