The International Council on Archives (ICA) invites all archivists, records managers, researchers, students, and professionals in related fields to help shape the conversation for International Archives Week 2025 (IAW2025), planned for 9 to 13 June. As we look ahead, we want to know which topics matter most to you. We’ve identified four key themes related to archives and their crucial role in society, and we’re eager to hear your input on which topic deserves the spotlight.
Your voice will help determine which topic we highlight and discuss on ICA’s social media channels in the months leading up to IAW2025. Below are the four potential topics:
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#RecordsOfRights: Documenting Justice and Human Rights
Archives play a pivotal role in upholding justice and human rights. This topic will explore how archival records document human rights violations, advocacy efforts, and the ongoing struggles for equality. We’ll dive into the critical role archives serve in legal processes, social justice movements, and ensuring accountability for future generations.
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#ArchivesAreAccessible: Archives for Everyone
As archives undergo a digital transformation, accessibility becomes key to ensuring that archival content reaches and benefits a broader audience. This topic will celebrate how archives are embracing new technologies to open up access, making it easier for people worldwide to explore history, culture, and knowledge, regardless of location or physical limitations.
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#ArchivesForResilience: Preserving Stories of Conflict and Displacement
Archives are essential in preserving the stories of conflict, disaster and displacement. This topic will focus on how archival institutions works, under different circumstances and challenges, overcome all obstacles to protect fragile and often overlooked records, ensuring that the voices and experiences of displaced individuals and communities are remembered and used for justice, healing and historical understanding.
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#ArchivesAndCommunities: Safeguarding Our Shared Histories
Community archives are essential for preserving local histories and voices enriching and ensuring that our documentary heritage is representative of the diversity within societies. This topic will highlight the importance of grassroots initiatives and their work in the face of various challenges to protect shared histories that might otherwise be lost. This topic will also present success stories and lessons learned of communities coming together to document and protect their collective memory.
These topics will be explored in detail at the International Archives Congress – ICA Barcelona 2025, held under the theme ‘Knowing Pasts, Creating Futures.’
For more information about the event, please visit the following link: https://icabarcelona2025.cat/
Take Our Survey by 25 November!
We invite you to read through these descriptions and cast your vote for the topic you believe should be featured in 2025. This is your chance to help shape IAW2025 discussions and ensure that the topics covered resonate with our global archival community.
Thank you for helping us shape IAW2025—together, we can continue to highlight the invaluable work of archives in preserving history and supporting our communities!
