Pursuant to the Article 70 of the Law on Civil Service (Official Gazette of the Republic of Srpska, No. 11/94) I am passing the

I - General Provisions

Article 1

The Rulebook on Conditions and Ways for Use of the Archive Materials and Library fund in the Republic of Srpska Archives (herein referred to as: Rulebook, Archives) regulates the use of the archive materials and library fund in the Archives and in particular:

• procedure for submitting requests for use of the archive materials and library fund,
• conditions, ways and restrictions for use of the archive materials,
• procedure for issuing certificates, form and content of the certificates,
• Archives obligations
• staff responsibility.

Article 2

The archive materials and library fund are available to the public under the conditions and in the way stipulated by the Law and this Rulebook.

II - Use of the Archive Materials and Library Fund

Article 3

Archive materials and library fund may be used for scientific, cultural and other social purposes only if they have been processed and if the deadline, established through agreement by the Archives and the provider of the archive materials, has expired.
The mentioned deadline may not exceed thirty years from the day when the archive materials originated. The deadlines are calculated from the day when the particular case was closed.
The materials originating from the activities of the Ministries of Interior and Defense may be used after expiration of 50 years from their creation.

Article 4

Head of the Department for the Archive Materials Organizing and Processing issues the approval for use of the archive materials, upon a written request of the user.
Foreign nationals may use the archive materials in compliance with the international treaties concluded by our country and on the basis of the factual reciprocity, with the permission issued by the Archives Director upon a written request of the user.
The exemption in the sense of paragraph 2 of this Article represents an approval issued to a foreign national by the Republic of Srpska Ministry of Science and Culture.
Use of the data related to property and legal issues is approved to a foreign national by the regular administrative and judicial authorities.
Regarding the remaining conditions, foreign nationals enjoy the rights foreseen for the Republic of Srspka citizens, which are stipulated by the law and general acts of the Archives.
Provisions of the paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 of this Article shall apply to those Republic of Srspka citizens who perform the research on behalf of the foreign nationals, organizations and institutions.

Article 5

The request for use of the archive materials shall be dismissed, in whole or partially, in the following cases:

• should there be grounds to expect occurrence of a significant detriment to the interest of the defense of security, as well as public safety in the republic of Srpska, crime prevention and detection, protection of the decision making process in issuing opinion, advice or recommendations by the public authority, civil servant or any person who performs the activities on behalf or for a public authority, and should it not encompass factual, statistical, scientific or technical information;
• should it be found to include confidential commercial interest of the third party, in case of which the third party shall be informed on making these information available and requested to inform the Archives in writing, within 15 days, whether they consider such information to be confidential and to state the reasons for possible detriment that may arise from revealing such information;
• should it be undoubtedly established that the requested information include personal interest related to the third party's privacy (e.g. data from criminal records, data related to adoptions, divorces, etc);
• should the creator, donor, depositor or seller determine in writing the limitations in that regard;
• should the archive materials be used under special conditions;
• should the archive materials be non-organized or should the organization process be in progress;
• should the archive materials be publicized, microfilmed or scanned;
• should the archive materials be in such a bad condition that there is a risk for further damage while in use.

Article 6

Before the expiration of the deadlines stated in the paragraphs 2 and 3 of the Article 3 of this Rulebook, the bodies, institutions and organizations that have created the archive materials, not contained in the very
Archives, may issue the approvals for use of these materials upon the request of the scientific institutions and organizations.
The mentioned archive materials may be used by the Archives without any permission should they be used for issuing certificates to the citizens for the purpose of exercising their personal rights.

Article 7

The Head of the Department for the Archive Materials Organization and Processing or an information officer issues the information on archive materials, conditions and ways of their use, and the librarian issues information on the library fund.

Article 8

Archive materials and library fund are made available upon a written request which the user must submit at least one day prior to commencing the research.
The request contains: applicant's first name, family name and address, number of the identification document, citizenship, profession and place where the applicant work, name of the topic and the purpose of the research, data on whose behalf and in whose account he performs the research.
The abovementioned procedure shall apply to the persons engaged by the user to help him in the work in reading room.

Article 9

The user shall perform selection of the archive materials for the research on the basis of the register of funds and collections, as well as other information means foreseen by the Rulebook on Records kept by the Republic of Srpska Archives.

Article 10

Prior to commencing the research, the information officer/librarian shall make this Rulebook and the Instructions on Reading Room Operations available to the user.

Article 11

Archive materials are taken on the basis of a receipt notice that the user signs and submits in two copies to the information officer.
The receipt notice contains user's first and family name, archive materials record mark (name of the fund, year, box, file, ordinal number, etc), date of reception and date of return of the archive materials.
Information officer shall return to the user any wrongly, incomplete or illegibly filled receipt notice.

Article 12

The user signs the receipt notice on reception of the archive materials.
The user receives a receipt notice of orderly and timely return of the archive materials signed by the information officer/librarian.

Article 13

Archive materials and library fund are used exclusively in the Archives Reading Room.
Access to the depots is allowed to the Reading Room staff or their proxies and the Head of the Department for Archive Materials Organization and Processing. Other Archive staff may access the depot only in presence of the Reading Room staff.
Users and the other persons do not have access to the depots.

Article 14

During the day, the user may take the maximum of:

• 5 boxes of archive materials
• 5 books, i.e. volumes from the library
• 50 photographs or posters

Article 15

The user may keep the archive materials for one month. The deadline may be extended for another month by means of a new receipt notice.
One register or library unit may be transferred to the new receipt notice only once, and then must be returned to the depot. The user may take it again after expiration of three months deadline from the day of its return.

Article 16

Should the user fail to use the taken archive materials or library fund for seven days in line, they shall be returned to the depot.

Article 17

The researcher is obliged to return each taken document to its place and notify the information officer/librarian about termination of the research.
Information officer/librarian is obliged to review the archive materials after the performed research and perform the clearance.

Article 18

Archive materials and library fund may not be taken out of the official premises of the Archives.
Exempted from the provisions of the above paragraph, the Head of the Department for Archive Materials Organization and Processing may approve for the archive materials to be taken out of the official premises with presence of the employee in charge and for the period of time required for photocopying, microfilming, scanning, and certifying the copies of the archive materials.

Article 19

The taken archive materials may not be let out to the other user, while the information means and the library fund may be let out but only in the absence of the researcher who is using them.

Article 20

The right to use archive materials and the library fund shall be denied or restricted to those users not complying with the conditions for their use stipulated by the law and this Rulebook.
The Head of the Department for Archive Materials Organization and Processing passes the abovementioned decision.
The user may file an objection against the decision mentioned in the paragraph 2 of this Article directly to the Director of the Archives. The decision issued upon the objection shall be final.

Article 21

The user who has, in whole or partially, used the archive materials for his publication is obliged to make a note on that in the publication and, should he quote the archive materials, he is obliged to record the mark as well.
The researcher who publishes his works in whole or partially on the basis of the archive materials from the Archives is obliged to let to the Archives a copy of his publication (book, newspaper or magazine article, study, graduation thesis, etc.)
Use of the archive materials shall be banned to those users who act contrary to the provisions of the paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article.

Article 22

Once a year, the Archives publish a bulletin in which the names of the researchers and the archive materials they study are published.

Article 23

The Reading Room staff is obliged to keep systematic records of the archive materials and the library fund users.

III - Certificates Issuing

Article 24

The Archives are obliged to, upon the request of the relevant authorities, legal entities and individuals, issue certificates and other documents related to the facts contained in the archive materials.

Article 25

A certificate on confirmation of the facts contained in the archive materials is issued, as a rule, upon an applicant's written request.
The request must:

• be written in one of the official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina
• contain enough data related to the nature and/or contents of the requested facts
• contain name of the applicant and how to contact him.

Article 26

Should the Archives not be able to satisfy the request, due to the non-fulfillment of the formal conditions set forth in the paragraphs 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the previous Article, they shall notify the applicant in writing, at latest within eight days from the day of reception of the request, when such a notification can be made, that the request cannot be processed due to the above reason.
With this notification, the applicant shall be invited to remove the failures within 15 days, and it will also contain contact information.
In case of the requests that are not in compliance with the provision of the line 2 of the paragraph 2 of the Article 25 of this Rulebook, the notification shall also contain all specific questions to clarify the request as well as a copy of the guidebook mentioned in the Article 42 of this Rulebook.

Article 27

Should the Archives not have competence over the received request, it shall be referred to the other public authority and the applicant shall be accordingly notified in writing.

Article 28

All issued certificates are recorded in the administrative record.

Article 29

The certificate is issued on the same day when the applicant requested its issuance and, at latest, within 15 days.
The decision on dismissal of request shall be issued in all the cases when an applicant request a certificate on the facts not contained in the official records as well as when an applicant requests a certificate on certain facts should the state of facts established by the insight into the archive materials be different.
The certificates based on memoirs, hearings, witnesses' statements, press statements and publications may not be issued.
The Archives may not issue any interpretations of the documents or facts contained in the documents.

Article 30

The requests for issuing the certificates are received in the Archives Clerk's Office, where it is checked whether the Archives have competence to rule upon the request and whether the request contains all the facts relevant for its solving.
The authorized official may require from the applicant to amend the request.

Article 31

Handover of the requests for issuing the certificates is performed amongst the Archives staff by means of internal delivery book.

Article 32

The authorized official who establishes the data required for issuing the certificate is obliged to precisely establish them and record the sources of the data, writing it on the back of the request or a separate sheet enclosed with the request, as well as to write when the data was checked and put his signature on it.

Article 33

The official who establishes the data required for issuing the certificate shall require from the applicant to amend the request should he believe that the new data could contribute to establishing the state of facts.

Article 34

Contents of the certificate must be adequate to the facts contained in the documents on the basis of which the certificate is issued.
No corrections may be performed upon any errors or omissions made by the authority which recorded the facts into the document.

Article 35

The certificate is made in two copies, one of which is communicated to the applicant and the other one is kept in the Archives Clerk's Office.
Should the applicant request issuing several copies the authorized official shall refer him to the relevant administrative authority to make the required number of copies and certify them.

Article 36

The certificate shall have the following elements of form and contents:

• name of the issuer, administrative protocol number, date of issuing
• name of the applicant who requested issuing the certificate
• legal grounds for issuing the certificate
• title CERTIFICATE as a general legal title
• short, clear, complete and accurate description of the facts which are stated or confirmed in the certificate
• a note stating the official records on the basis of which it is issued (name of the records/register, number of page, year, etc)
• Archives Director's signature

Article 37

The applicant must be fully informed in regard with his request, and, should he request so, must be allowed to perform the insight into the documents from which the facts were taken.
The applicant has the right to request a photocopy or a transcript with the obligation of covering the related expenses. The applicant is notified about the expenses in advance.

Article 38

Should there be the case of an illegible text, damaged document or alike, the applicant shall be issued a photocopy of the document or an authorized representative of the authority/organization that requested the certificate to perform the expertise and establish the facts.

Article 39

Should the applicant request certification of the transcript or photocopy of the document, the Archive shall perform it and write the following text on the certificate: "This is to certify that the transcript/photocopy is a true copy of the original document which is kept in the Archives".

IV - Appeal procedure

Article 40

Should a request for access to the archive materials or a request for issuing the certificate on the facts contained in the archive materials be dismissed, the Archives shall issue a decision.
The applicant has the right to appeal against the abovementioned decision. The appeal should be submitted to the Archives Director within 15 days from the day of reception of the decision.
The decision passed upon the appeal is final.

V - Archives obligations

Article 41

The Archives shall undertake all regular measures to assist any physical person, corporate body or legal entity seeking realization of the rights in the sense of this Rulebook.

Article 42

The Archives shall pass the Users Guidebook which contains information necessary for approaching Archives and the information officer, important elements of the application procedure along with a sample of the request in writing, information on categories of exemptions, access to information procedure, expenses of copying, access to legal remedies and all relevant deadlines.
The Guidebook is free and is available upon request.

Article 43

The Archives communicates to the Ministry of Science and Culture a quarterly statistical report on number of received requests, type of requested information, established exemptions, decisions issued in the course of the procedures and the final decisions, as well as the other issues related to requests for access to the archive materials approval or requests for issuing the certificates.
The abovementioned report is available upon request.

VI - Staff responsibility

Article 44

An employee performs a serious violation of duties should he/she:

• hand out for use the archive materials without approval or contrary to the approval of the Head of the Department for the Archive Materials Organizing and Processing or the Director (Article 4)
• hand out for use the non-organized archive materials without a special permission of the Director (Article 5)
• perform unauthorized release of information on archive materials, conditions and ways for their use (Article 7)
• hand out for use the archive materials or library fund without properly filled and signed receipt notice (Article 11)
• make possible the use of the archive materials and library fund out of the reading room (Article 13, par 1)
• enable unauthorized persons to access the depots (Article 13, par 2)
• not perform the clearance of the archive materials upon completed research (Article 17)
• take out, or enable other person to do so, the archive materials and library fund out of the official premises without permission or contrary to the decision of the Head of the Department for the Archive Materials Organizing and Processing (Article 18)
• not keep orderly records on the archive materials and library fund users (Article 23)
• not record issued certificate in the administrative protocol (Article 28)
• incorrectly or wrongly establish the data required for issuing the certificate (Article 32).

VII - Transitional and Final Provisions

Article 45

The Archives Director shall pass the Instructions on the Archives Reading Room Operations and the Guidebook within thirty days from the day of entering into force of this Rulebook.

Article 46

Alterations and amendments of this Rulebook shall be performed in the way and according to the procedure stipulated for its passing.

Article 47

The Archives Director shall give the interpretation of this Rulebook provisions.

Article 48

This Rulebook shall enter into force on the eighth day after its passing.

Article 49

With entering into force of this Rulebook, the Rulebook on the Conditions and Ways for Use of the Archive
Materials and Library Fund in the Republic of Srpska Archives, No. 010-200/99 of 29 March 1999, shall cease its application.