Digitization and restoration of Yucatán’s historical archives

This year AGEY acquired two new scanners and a professional camera to speed up the work.

MÉRIDA, YUCATÁN.- In order to preserve various documents that make up the historical memory of the State, which due to the passage of time and weather conditions can no longer be consulted physically, staff and specialists from the General Archive of Yucatán (Agey) are working on the restoration and digitization of information, informed its director, Paloma de la Paz Angulo Suárez.

She said that to date more than 600,000 images have been digitized and the classification of documents continues. It is expected that 43 thousand more will be digitized during the last months of the year.

The Agey’s historical archive has a universe of 10 million sheets of documents divided into 32 databases.

The state agency has specialists and restorers to ease and take proper care and preserve the sheets of paper that due to old age may be brittle or damaged.

The estimated number of documents in delicate conditions is close to 30 percent and can no longer be physically consulted.

“This year we intend to finish classifying the year 1901 to 1904 so that these databases can be available in the consultation room; by the end of the year we have the second ordinary session of the State Archives Council, which was installed in June of this year and as State General Archive we continue to participate in the National Council in a very active way,”

They explained that the Agey is a concentration archive, with documents known as dead archives of the Governor’s Office, DIF, Codhey, Public Works, and different instances, which can only be consulted by personnel of the agencies that generated the information. There is also a historical archive, which is open to the public.

Since last September the Archive has been working normal hours from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm and the consultation room is open to the public from 9:00 am to 2:30 pm. Those interested can access the web page www.archivogeneral.yucatan.gob.mx where they can register to be able to go to the consultation room.

He reminded that the consultation room is mostly visited by researchers, historians, and students who are doing research on topics of their interest, although many citizens also come to consult their ancestors’ birth, death, or marriage certificates. Birth certificate documents are kept from 1861 to 1925.