Mission and operations of the National Archives Service

The mission of the National Archives Service is to ensure that records belonging to the national cultural heritage – particularly the records of the public administration, state administration and municipal administration – are preserved and remain available.

Ensuring the preservation of valuable records and documents produced by the public administration requires a variety of measures. The National Archives Service provides authorities with guidance in matters relating to records management and archives administration, shoulders the responsibility for general development of archives administration (including the aspects of research and training), and ordinates which records of the state and municipal administration should be permanently preserved.

Consequently, the National Archives Service has statutory authority to issue binding regulations to the authorities, e.g., on permanent preservation of documents, archival premises, papers and writing materials for preparing of documents as well as on the registration and cataloguing of records.

The National Archives Service receives and preserves records of state authorities with permanent preservation value, as well as obtains and receives private archives of importance for the society and in research.

The National Archives Service makes preserved records available through its reference service in the reading rooms of the National Archives and the Provincial Archives, and by providing online services facilitating use of the material.

The duties of the National Archives Service are stipulated in the Archives Act (831/1994) and specified in closer detail in the Decree on the National Archives Service (832/1994).