The Virtual Access to Historical Documents in Public Institutions in Brazil

The digital transformation in institutions that guard historical documentation allows remote access to information in different ways that before the Digital Era was restricted to presently visiting. The information preservation and the possibility of disseminating historical documents contents without geographical boundaries limitations are the main reason to operate the digitization in collections and different stages of this process can be seen around the world as well as the application of different technologies. This paper reports the current possibilities of virtual access available to users of historical documents consulting services provided by institutions registered in Brazilian National Archives Council and that are located in So Paulo. A structured non-participant observation was performed with a significant group of these institutions, based on the following requirements: a) institutions presence in the global computer network; b) digitization of collections and c) existence of tools to access the digitized collection. Through the obtained data analysis are generated graphics that shown the digitization degrees in collections and of the virtual access possibilities. It is conclude that more than 50% of the institutions are realizing the digital transformation in their processes and digitizing custodied documents.