The ICA 2020 four-yearly Congress will be held in Abu Dhabi (mid-November 2020). It usually happens in ICA bodies that there are changes of personnel and priorities following the Congress, so this may be an opportune time to begin to think about reviewing the Section’s projects. There follows a list of the principal projects in which the Section has been involved since 2010:
* World-wide directory of institutions holding literary and artistic archives
* Directory of literary archives outside the home country (diasporic literary archives)
* Directory of resources for literary copyright
* Protecting the archives of dissident authors
* Collecting personal papers : principles and best practice
* Literary and artistic papers : guidance for authors and artists
* “How to use” guidance for researchers using literary archives
* Caribbean literary archives
* Collecting literary archives in African countries
* Documentary heritage at risk
* Safe havens for archives at risk
* A study of all the issues around correspondence within literary collections
* Collecting policies : principles and best practice
* Electronic media : the collection of literary and artistic material in the form of emails, electronic files, social media platforms, disks and diskettes, etc.
* Producing a special “literary and artistic” edition of Comma
Some of these projects have been completed; some are ongoing; and some need more work. But the Section’s officers would welcome suggestions for future activities by the Section after 2020.