Today, 9 October, was the unofficial start of the ICA Congress Abu Dhabi 2023! While the official professional programme starts tomorrow, Day 0 as we call it, featured engaging workshops and ICA meetings. Keep reading to learn more about what took place today!
Workshop 1 – The Power of Archives: Enriching knowledge societies through educational programme design
This two-part workshop presented by Andrew Payne was designed to share the power of archives with participants. Engagement and use of archival collections by all members of society is key to their continued survival and value. Therefore, this workshop invited attendees to explore the myriad ways in which archives support and enrich our daily lives, whether that be in the professional, public, or domestic domain.
Workshop 5 – Hybrid archives. Describing Records in Contexts
This was a practical workshop for teaching attendees how to utilise the ICA Records in Contexts framework for defining digital, analogue, and hybrid records. By favouring collaborative exercises, this workshop also sought to incite participants to conduct the practise of describing records in a group context, engaging with colleagues throughout the stages required to apply the RiC model to modern records.
Workshop 6 – Expert Group on Legal Matters: give us your input on our next priorities and projects
The Expert Group on Legal Matters held this session to consult the ICA community on which priorities the Group should emphasise for its 2023-25 workplan. Therefore, this workshop offered participants a unique opportunity to become acquainted with the work of EGLM and explore the key themes impacting the contemporary relationship between archives and law.
For the EGLM, interacting with the ICA community in this format presented an ideal chance to engage members with the issues organising their work and to invite participants to share their unique perspectives and insights. Such interchange forms the very core of what events such as the Congress and our workshops are all about.
Workshop 7 – Gestión y difusión de archivos de entidades deportivas
This workshop offered by the Section on Sports Archives, sought to educate participants on the contributions it has developed over the last two decades to support the work of archives and records management professionals involved in the preservation and use of sports archives.
In addition to demonstrating the specific need for sophisticated practises pertaining to sports archives, the work of this section also demonstrates the diversity and omnipresence of archival materials and their uses to every aspect of human life. Going beyond limited notions of what archives are and what they talk about is central to the profession’s ongoing efforts to increase public awareness and engagement with archives and records management.
Enric Cobo Barri, Executive Member of the Section on Sports Archives, and Department of Culture, Catalonia (Photo by quim borras on Twitter)
Workshop 8 – Future of the Africa Programme – Input Workshop
This workshop, on the Future of the Africa Programme, sought to achieve three things. First, to ask African archivists for their ideas and input regarding the future of the programme. Second, to encourage greater ownership of the programme by African archivists. Third, to build collaborative networks between African archivists of different nations as well as combine the different visions for the programme held by francophone and anglophone participants.
“The idea of the conference is to gather input and feedback from African archivists so that we have an Africa Programme that reflects the ideas of African archivists and records managers.” Tshepho Mosweu, Senior Lecturer at the University of Botswana.
Based on the conversations held by the two linguistic groups, the workshop identified the contemporary needs of the African archival community, and the activities that could be undertaken to address those needs. From this, the workshop brainstormed practical ideas for the structure of the next phase of the ICA Africa Programme. These ideas will be crucial in shaping the future of the Africa Programme.
“I expect the workshop to give us a lot of practical ideas that we will carry on forward with the Africa Programme, especially as we look at the sustainability of the Programme.” Cleophas Mutundu Ambira, Kenya Association of Records Managers and Archivists
Public Meeting: Climate Change Working Group Kickoff Meeting
This public meeting was an important moment for the ICA – it was the kickoff meeting of the Climate Change Working Group. In recognition of the growing importance of this issue to both the world at large and the archival profession, the Climate Change Working Group will seek to develop policies and projects that can help our sector to meaningfully engage with the crises provoked by Climate Change as well as understand how we can best contribute to the global effort to mitigate and reverse the impacts of Climate Change.
This first meeting invited ICA members to contribute their suggestions and viewpoints for what issues this Working Group should prioritise and the projects it should undertake in pursuit of its goals
“Archivists should preserve a healthier and more sustainable world in the medium and long term. However, this subject has an in-depth development within the English-speaking world: Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Unfortunately, it is a still pending issue in Latin America despite the enormous evidence that climate change’s catastrophic effects will be more severe in the upcoming century in this geographical region.” Claudio Ogass Bilbao, PhD student in Archives and Records Management at the University of Liverpool
That’s a wrap! If you’re in Abu Dhabi, be sure to join us tomorrow at 10am (Abu Dhabi time) for the opening ceremony and our first keynote speaker, François Hollande, Former President of the French Republic. If you can’t join us in person, follow us on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn for updates on everything that is happening at the ICA Congress Abu Dhabi 2023!