FAN Virtual Colloquiums on Archival Matters 2024 / December

We are delighted to extend our warmest invitation to the Forum of National Archivists (FAN) Quarterly Virtual Colloquium on Archival Matters for the year 2024. This series of virtual gatherings aims to foster insightful discussions and collaborative efforts in addressing the contemporary challenges faced by national archives globally. 

The fourth session will take place on Tuesday, 10 December 2024 with a focus on the theme “Promoting a sustainable future: the role of archives and cultural heritage institutions”. The session will feature presentations from leading experts in the field, including José Luiz Pederzoli (ICCROM), Lotte Wijsman (National Archives of the Netherlands), Eira Tansey (Memory Rising) and Ana Flavia Magalhaes (National Archives Brazil). Each speaker will share insights on how archives and cultural heritage institutions can contribute to a sustainable future by addressing key challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and poverty.   

This last session of the year will be moderated by Juergen Vervoorst, Head of Collection Care at The National Archives (UK). 

More information about each of the guest speakers and their presentations can be found below.   

The debate is free and open to all. Registration is required to receive full details of your participation in this session.       

Background 

In September 2015 the UN member states adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, which is a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives and prospects of everyone, everywhere. Despite these measures we are now experiencing the effects of unsustainable human activities on the planet such as the increasing effects of climate change, wars, poverty, endangering biodiversity. 

Amid challenging times, we must navigate through the complexities of the modern world. Although our mission as archivists and information managers is to ensure the protection and preservation of our archival heritage, we are coincidentally in a position to empower and advocate for a more sustainable society. Through our own actions, collections and education programs, archival institutions can promote sustainability in various contexts. For example: 

• In our daily operations (adaptation and mitigation), and awareness about energy reduction; and through acknowledging that digital preservation activities can cause high carbon footprint. The relentless advance of technology presents both opportunities and dangers.   

• Through the design of repositories and physical storage. 

• By advocating the SDGs through our education programs. 

• By improving availability of relevant records and collections about climate change and sustainability. 

• Through establishing collaborative networks with the cultural heritage sector and scientists. 

Speakers   

• José Luiz Pederzoli 

• • José Luiz Pederzoli Jr. has a background in polymer chemistry with focus onpaper-basedheritage conservation. He worked as a conservation scientist at the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage (1997-2003) and ICCROM (2005-2008). He has carried out extensive international work on risk management for cultural heritage since 2005, including new methodologies and tools, capacity development, research, and awareness. Back at ICCROM since 2018, José Luiz currently manages the Strategic Planning Unit and a portfolio of projects onheritage collections, risk management, and sustainable development. He is the coordinator of ICCROM’s Our Collections Matter initiative. 

• • Bridging the gap: connecting Sustainable Development with collections-based work
  • Abstract: Our world faces numerous serious challenges, including climate change, loss of biodiversity, inequality, and intolerance. Without decisive action, both people and nature cannot thrive. What role do archives and other collections-based institutions play in this critical transformation towards a sustainable future? Beyond decarbonising their operations, how can these organizations unlock the full potential of their collections to enhance social cohesion, climate action, livelihoods, well-being, and other aspects of sustainable development? These questions inspired the launch of ICCROM’s Our Collections Matter (OCM) initiative in 2020. Its goal is to accelerate, increase and amplify activities that support the 5Ps of sustainable development (People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, Partnership) within the context of collections-based work. This presentation will introduce the OCM initiative, highlighting its relevant resources and concrete examples of their use by archives and other collections-based organizations to advance the UN 2030 Agenda. We hope it will inspire others to join this global movement to promote a sustainable future for all through collections-based work.         

• Lotte Wijsman  

• • Lotte Wijsman is a Preservation Researcher at the National Archives of the Netherlands. Her work spans projects on significant properties, environmental sustainability, Flash content in web archives, and social media archiving. Currently, she also co-organizes the Bits and Bots study group, which empowers archivists with coding skills; this study group received the 2024 Digital Preservation Award for Teaching and Communications from the Digital Preservation Coalition. She holds an MA in Archival and Information Studies from the University of Amsterdam. 

• • Balancing the growth of our digital repository and sustainability at the National Archives of the Netherlands
  • Abstract: The National Archives of the Netherlands faces a pressing challenge: over 90% of our CO2 emissions stem from ICT operations, primarily linked to the management and expansion of our digital repository. This issue is compounded by the anticipated surge in digital content, both from the digitization of physical materials and the influx of born-digital collections. As the National Archives, we must find innovative ways to fulfil our mission while also addressing the environmental impact of our ICT activities. This presentation shows the impact the National Archives currently has and the goals it needs to meet the coming years. It also explores the strategies the National Archives can employ to balance the growth of our digital repository with sustainability goals. We will examine opportunities to reduce CO2 emissions without compromising the quality and integrity of our archival processes. 

• Eira Tansey 

• • Eira Tansey is an archivist, researcher, and consultant based in her hometown of Cincinnati/the Ohio River watershed. She is the founder of Memory Rising, which provides research, consulting, and archival services with expertise in climate change, environmental and labor movements, and Ohio Valley regional history. Memory Rising’s clients have included the Council of State Archivists, METRO, the Digital Preservation Outreach & Education Network, the Digital Preservation Coalition, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. She previously worked as an archivist in academic libraries for fifteen years, at the University of Cincinnati and Tulane University. Eira’s research on archives and climate change has been profiled by Yale Climate Connections, VICE, and Pacific Standard, and has been honored by the Society of American Archivists. Her most recent publication is A Green New Deal for Archives, which received the 2024 Waldo Gifford Leland Award for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the fields of archival history, theory, and practice. Tansey is an elected Council member of the Society of American Archivists, the governing body for North America’s largest professional association of archivists. 

• • Climate change impacts to American archives and archivists
  • Abstract: Archives in the United States face two intertwined existential problems: preparing for climate change and fully staffing archives. This presentation from American archivist and climate change researcher Eira Tansey will look at the challenges and risks to archives, and how data and workforce issues are essential to understanding how to tackle climate change adaptation for archives. 

• Ana Flavia Magalhaes 

• • Ana Flávia Magalhães is Director-General of the National Archives of Brazil, a secretariat of the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services, since 2023; and President of the National Council of Archives (CONARQ), in her country. Coordinator of the Working Group on Community Archives at the Latin American Association of Archives (GTAC/ALA), she is also a historian, with an interdisciplinary background in Communication and Literature, and a professor in the Department of History and the Postgraduate Program in Human Rights at the University of Brasília (UnB). 

• • Archives for a dignified future: challenges faced by individuals and institutions in overcoming inequalities in Brazil
  • Abstract: Archives play a social role that goes beyond organizing and promoting access to information contained in records about the experiences of different human groups and other forms of life in multiple territories. The way we structure and update memory matrices in our societies is directly linked to the patterns that guide choices of individual and collective priorities. This, in turn, is expressed in public policies created to deal with the production, use, and distribution of resources and rights. Therefore, archives are strategic institutions in the reproduction or overcoming of inequalities. From this perspective, in this paper, I will address a set of Brazilian experiences that allow us to problematize the challenges not only for the technological transformation of archives, but also for the self-involvement of professionals and users in promoting a set of Sustainable Development Goals, in times of worsening climate and social crises. 

We cordially invite you to participate actively in these enriching discussions, contributing your invaluable insights and expertise to collectively address the pressing issues facing our archival community.