Thanks to our partnership with Liverpool University Press, which has published our professional journal Comma since 2011, ICA has now been able to launch a new special publications series.  The volumes in this series are intended to capture the considered reflections of members of ICA bodies at their conferences and seminars devoted to major topics of contemporary relevance.

The call for volunteer translators for ICA documents launched earlier this year on the ICA website and via this newsletter has been extremely successful.

Eight representatives from ICA's regional branches met in the ICA Secretariat in Paris on 9 April, immediately prior to the meeting of the ICA Executive Board on the following two days.

For the first time the annual conference of the Section on University and Research Institution Archives of the International Council on Archives (ICA-SUV) will be held in France from 7 to 10 July 2014 with a visit of the National Archives organized on 7 July.

Padré Lydie Gnessougou Baroan-Dioumency (Head of Archives and Documentation, General Directorate of the Treasury and Public Accounts, Ivory Coast) has been honoured by the French Ministry of Culture. This award recognizes her powerful advocacy for archives in French-speaking West Africa over many years.  In ICA she has been a member of the Committee on Best Practices and Standards (2006-12), the Expert Group on Archival Description (since 2012) and the Programme Commission (since 2013).

In the last few months the vacancies for the three elected officer posts have been widely publicized throughout the ICA network.  On 10 April 2014, Atakilty Assefa Asgedom, Chair of ICA's Evaluation Commission and Elections Officer 2014, informed the Executive Board in Paris that there was only one eligible candidate for each of the three posts.   David Fricker

 The Steering Committee of the Section of Professional Associations (SPA) held its annual planning meeting in Boston, USA, from March 21st to 25th, 2014. The meeting was hosted by Gregor Trinkaus-Randall at the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. The Committee was also invited to present short national overviews at the New England Archivists Spring meeting in Portsmouth. At Simmons College, in Boston, SPA  was invited to meet the students of the GSLIS program (Graduate School of Library and Information Science). Exchange of views and issues were very fruitful.  

  The next meeting of SLA will be held ahead of the ICA annual meeting in Girona, on Sunday 12 October 2014, from 14:30 to 16:30. The meeting will comprise a presentation and a progress-report on four of the principal current projects of SLA, namely: