Citizens to enjoy easier access to personal archives

Citizens will be able to check more personal records at the city or district archives through a more convenient integrated network.

Eighteen categories of livelihood archives will be available for checking this year at the Shanghai archives, the archives of 16 districts and nearby community service centers, the Shanghai Municipal Archives announced at the city's annual archives meeting on Thursday.

Citizens are already able to check 15 personal archives of their own using identity cards, including marriage registration, single-child certificate, educational background and military service.

Some 87,000 residents got access to historical documents at local archives in 2018, a 42.8 percent increase year on year, Xu Weiwan, curator of the Shanghai archives said.

The service has been expanded to the Yangtze River Delta Region after the city archives signed an agreement with its counterparts in neighboring Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces. Residents can now access documents from over 300 archives across the Yangtze River Delta through an integrated network.

More convenient services will be offered this year through further cooperation with archives in the Yangtze River Delta Region, Xu said.

Meanwhile, construction on the new site for the Shanghai archives is scheduled to be completed this year. The first phase of the new city archives in Huamu area of Pudong will mainly include a 17-story archive storage facility and a five-story service building.

The new archives will feature better storage conditions, services, and more hi-tech involvement to become a new cultural landmark of the city, Xu said. The city archives is currently based at 9 East Zhongshan No.2 Road on the Bund.

Huangpu, Jing'an, Changning, Hongkou, Songjiang, Baoshan and Jiading have started building or planning new sites for their archives.