Memory of the World

The Memory of the World Programme is an international UNESCO programme in the field of recording, protection, processing and making available the world's documentary heritage in the context of global information and documentary exchange. It was approved by the UNESCO General Conference in 1993. The main objectives of the programme are as follows:

• introduction of a new approach to the rescue, preservation, reconstruction, protection, processing and presentation of the world's documentary heritage;
• ensuring comprehensive support for activities and finding new resources for the implementation of the program at the institutional, national, regional and international levels;
• developing international cooperation and comprehensive mobilization of human, intellectual, scientific, technical, technological and financial resources in the above areas for their production, worldwide distribution and accessibility;
• applying modern digital technologies, creating special databases, networks and high-memory multimedia systems;
• initiating popularization and educational events, information campaigns and periodic information about current events in the mass media.

It is UNESCO Documentary Heritage Safeguarding Programme

Documentary heritage reflects the diversity of languages, peoples and cultures. It is the image and memory of the world. However, this memory is fragile, irreplaceable parts of it are being irretrievably lost every day. UNESCO has proposed the Memory of the World Programme as a tool against collective forgetting, based on the preservation of precious archival and library collections throughout the world and ensuring their unlimited dissemination.

Selection Criteria

In selecting documents for inclusion in the UNESCO Memory of the World World Register and in national registers of rare and endangered cultural and documentary heritage, practical, physical, security, or scientific, contextual, and other criteria can be applied in terms of accessibility, processing, and protection needs.