International Council of Archives

Statement of policy

Since I joined the National Archives of the Netherlands I encounter a great enthusiasm in all my meetings with leaders and staff of archival organizations, both in the Netherlands and abroad. Day by day they convince me just how challenging and inspiring it is to be able to play a key role in the infocracy of the 21^st century. They teach me that archives nurture not only our feeling for culture and history, but also institutional memory and our conscience as society. I have come to admire the professional ethos of the archivist who actively seeks to promote feeling, memory and conscience our societies.

Besides admiration there is also a sense of wonder at the great potential of the archival sector, but also at the rather limited role it plays in societies. Archival institutions and archivists are key role players in the world of exchange of information and ideas. Information about government and society promotes involvement of their citizens. And involvement gives them a sense of connection. Issues of culture, history, politics and identity are very closely related. Archival institutions are centers for citizenship, democracy and for history. We have to create a profile cleverly fed by combining these aspects.

Two years ago I saw for ICA (and its future president) has as agenda:

1. Freedom of information legislation and archival laws have much more in common than most politicians think. We need to create more awareness about the great contribution of archival institutions to open government, active disclosure, civil rights and democracy. ICA can help their members by underlining and promoting this important role towards supranational bodies, NGO's and national governments.
2. ICA members are all together responsible for appraisal, selection and curation of the worlds archives, meaning: the memory of the world. We need a lot of exchanges of ideas and professional training to realize the innovations to deal with the (digital) archives of the infocracy of the 21^st century. ICA members need the support of ICA to confirm their independent position in society to ensure the civil rights to information.
3. We need common digital infrastructures and open digital content to share our archives and ensure their long-term preservation and sustainable accessibility. ICA could be a promoter of cooperation, sharing our sources and common infrastructures on a local, national, regional and supranational level.
4. To give maximum support to our members to play a significant role in their city, region or country, ICA needs to be an open and strong network all over the world. The network needs to rely on the support of all members, based on principles of equality and solidarity.  

After the first part of my first term as ICA President (it has been only 16 months !) I feel this agenda is still relevant. I feel a lot of support of our leadership and members to strengthen ICA, to make our network relevant for all members and to redesign our procedures. Some changes are already implemented, but there is still a lot of work. We can't deal with these challenges on our own. That is why a the ICA network is so important. That is also the reason why ICA had to build up and strengthen strategic partnerships within the archival community and between our profession and others.

I feel I just started as ICA president and I would be glad to give this some follow up.

So, it would be an honour to serve as ICA president for another term.

Martin Berendse

Martin Berendse

Biography

Martin J. Berendse, LLM MA was born in 1963.

He, his wife Petra Blok and their three children Dim (1994), Gijs (1995) en Bibi (2000) live in Amsterdam.

After reading Dutch Law at the University of Utrecht, he joined the office of the University Board between 1984 and 1986. He was consultant for the management- and PR-divisions of the advertising group FHV/BBDO (Amsterdam). In 1990 he moved into the performing arts sector, serving successively as director of a performing arts festival, the Netherlands Theatre Network and the repertory theatre company of Rotterdam.

Joining the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in the Hague in 1998, his posts there included: Head of the Office for Culture Policy, Director of the Arts Department and deputy Director-General for Culture and Media.

In 2007 he was appointed Director of The National Archives of The Netherlands (Nationaal Archief) and -after completing the training required by law- was also made National Archivist of the Netherlands on 1 May 2009. Since 2010 he is President of the International Council on Archives.

Martin was supported by

Daniel J Caron (Librarian and Archivist of Canada, Vice-President Forum of National Archivists)

Andreas Kellerhals (Federal Archivist of Switzerland, Vice-President Finance)

Karel Velle (National Archivist of Belgium)

Jens Boel (Vice-President, Sections and Chair of the Section on International Organizations).