Specifics of the Formation of the Archival Terminology System in Kazakhstan: Challenges and Prospects for Development

Abstract

This article examines the formation and development of the terminological system of records management and archival science in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the stages, mechanisms, and current state of the sectoral conceptual framework and to identify the principal directions for its further development. To achieve this aim, the legislative, regulatory, and methodological foundations of professional terminology were examined, the impact of digital transformation on its composition was identified, and Kazakhstani and international practices were compared. The source base comprises regulatory legal acts, national and international standards, terminological dictionaries, and scholarly publications. The findings demonstrate that the initial development of the conceptual framework occurred through the legislative establishment of basic concepts in the 1998 Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On the National Archival Fund and Archives” and their subsequent systematization in ST RK 1037–2001. Sectoral terminology later expanded primarily through individual regulatory legal acts and standards governing electronic records management, metadata management, electronic archiving, and the long-term preservation of records. The conceptual framework has also incorporated terms from information technology, data management, information security, and artificial intelligence. However, these new concepts have not been integrated into a unified sectoral system, resulting in the fragmentation of the contemporary terminology. The scientific novelty of the study lies in its comprehensive examination of the evolution of Kazakhstan’s national terminological system and its identification of a transition from the centralized regulatory establishment of terms to a distributed model of terminology formation. A comparative analysis of practices in the United States, Canada, the Republic of Korea, and the Russian Federation identified the principal approaches to organizing terminology work. The study substantiates the need to update the national terminological standard and develop a national electronic dictionary of records management and archival terminology.