The UAE’s National Archives and a delegation from Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) discussed ways of cooperation in establishing central historical archives for Dubai city for holding and preserving historical documents.

The National Archives acquaints Dubai Culture and Arts Authority with its experience in the collection and preservation of the Nation’s memory

The UAE’s National Archives and a delegation from Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) discussed ways of cooperation in establishing central historical archives for Dubai city for holding and preserving historical documents. In addition, they discussed the possibility of drawing on the National Archives’ expertise and of concluding a memorandum of understanding to regulate the cooperation framework.

Such discussions took place during a visit by a delegation from Dubai Culture to the National Archives. In its capacity as the body in charge of all museums and for developing heritage sites, Dubai Culture intends to establish a central historical archive for Dubai city. It looks forward to capitalizing on the National Archives’ expertise in finding out which of Dubai’s government entities have documents of a high historical value. It also seeks to familiarize itself with the international standards followed by the NA in preserving and archiving documents, in paper and electronic forms, and with the NA’s experience in dealing with the government entities. Dubai Culture’s delegation and the NA discussed the methods of evaluating documents, as well as how to access and obtain them.

The NA drew the attention of the visiting delegation to the important provisions of the Federal Law No. (7), 2008 and its executive regulations concerning the National Archives. Moreover, the NA introduced the delegation to documents storage media notably microfilms, which can store documents for a longer period. The NA stressed the importance of document accessibility and confidentiality at the same time, depending on the document subject. The NA and Dubai Culture agreed on the importance of the sources of historical documents in Dubai, such as Dubai Municipality, the Land Department, the Roads and Transport Authority, Dubai Police, the Department of Tourism, Dubai Airport, together with the archives of old photographers, the archives of merchant families and of some old people who are interested in collecting documents.

During the meeting, the Dubai Culture’s delegation and the archivists at the NA’s premises exchanged ideas and views on important archival issues such as documents classification and preservation, and handling methods in addition to the stages during which documents are transferred from current to intermediate archives and then to historical archives.

The guest delegation toured Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Hall, which contains examples of written documents, photographs, maps and electronic albums of the UAE’s leaders and key figures.

The delegation also visited the Emirates Library and examined some of its main acquisitions, including paper and electronic references and sources, books, periodicals and specialized dissertations, and ways of utilizing its holdings.

In Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Virtual Theatre, the guests watched a 3-D documentary about the UAE past and present, and about the NA and its role in preserving the Nation’s memory encompassing the history and heritage of the UAE and Gulf region.

At the end of the visit, Mr. Saleh Al Hammadi, Director of Dubai Museum, and his companions lauded the NA’s cooperation and role in preserving the Nation’s memory by organizing the archives of government institutions and saving historical documents from damage, carelessness and leakage.