The ICA Section on Business Archives (SBA) aims to support the preservation and use of the archives of business worldwide. SBA was created in 1990, from an earlier committee on business records as the Section on Business and Labour archives (SBL). It was renamed the Section on Business Archives (SBA) in 2015. Our section attracts a broad international membership with shared common professional interests and activities. The member archives of SBA mostly are departments of multinational corporations. Best practice exchange for managing global archives in a world organised by national legislation is therefore at the core of our interests.
We seek to:
- Facilitate professional and scholarly co-operation and communication between business archives and archivists;
- Promote interest in such archives on an international scale;
- Develop guidelines and overviews regarding business archives;
- Study the questions of access to and accessibility of such archives;
- Cooperate with public archives which keep business archives.
Current projects
Recently, SBA has continued to work closely with the German Association of Business Archives (VdW) and the Business Archives Council in the UK, as well as working on organising the print edition of Business Archives in International Comparison.
At approximately 180 members, this Section is one of the ICA’s largest, and moving forward SBA will be seeking to capitalise on its unique position as an international forum for research and collaboration related to business archives. Its non-national affiliation boosts its platform and appeal to members, and so this aspect of the Section will be at the centre of its future strategy.
