The International Council on Archives would like to know what its members and site users want from ICA’s websites, how well they meet your needs and expectations, and how they might be improved. Please take a few moments to answer the questions in the ICA websites survey before 30 June 2004.

ICA Secretary General's Invitation for Feedback on ICA's Websites

To ICA Members and Website Users

Paris, 27 May 2004

Dear colleagues,

The “crucial importance of the ICA web site for the public image and the public relations of ICA and the need for it to be an effective and simple means of communication” were emphasised by the ICA Executive Committee at its meeting in Beijing in May 2002. Since then, major redevelopment of the ICA website has taken place. ICA now has three functioning, interrelated sites:

• ICA website (launched in current version, October 2002): www.ica.org
  
• CITRA website (launched October 2002): www.ica.org/citra
  
• Congress website (launched December 2003): www.wien2004.ica.org

The ICA and CITRA websites are maintained in English and French, with summary information in Arabic, Chinese, German, Russian and Spanish. The Congress website is maintained in English, French, German, Russian and Spanish.

The main ICA website and CITRA site are generously hosted by the Archives de France. All sites are managed in a database structure that enables quick and efficient addition of content by non-technicians. Additions of content and further technical development are administered by ICA Secretariat staff, drawing on technical assistance from external web developers.

The ICA site gives full access to ICA’s membership directory, directory of volunteer officers, news on current activities, calendar of meetings and conferences, and information on branches, sections and committees. Electronic publications and working documents are being added gradually, as resources allow. As at 1 April, all descriptive standards, all issues of Flash, six ICA Studies, and a number of branch and section studies were online, as well as meeting minutes, reports and work-plans of several committees.

Statistics show that the number of “visits” to ICA’s websites (excluding the Congress site) has increased substantially over the past twelve months, from 12184 visits in May 2003 to 28025 in March 2004. The most popular documents on the main ICA website are: ICA Study 12: Archival Software Survey (6384 downloads in March 2004); the International Standard for Archival Description ISAD(G) (5504 downloads); Flash 2, December 2003 (2269 downloads); the PARBICA Shipping Container Specification (1642 downloads); and the EURBICA Appraisal Survey (1491 downloads).

ICA would like to know what its members and site users want from ICA’s websites, how well they meet your needs and expectations, and how they might be improved. I would appreciate it greatly if you could please take the time to complete the short survey on ICA’s websites now available at www.ica.org before 30 June 2004.

The results of this survey will determine priorities for the future of ICA's Internet communications.

Yours truly,

Joan van Albada ICA Secretary General

• Complete the survey: ICA websites survey