da blog

So back from the ICA annual Congress held in Kuala Lumpur. So many things to tell you about.

The local press picked up on the event and it seemed to be stirring up a few stories… The Malaysian government had just renewed its search for evidence to stake its claim to Pedra Branca, just over a week after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) awarded the island to Singapore. Foreign Minister Rais Yatim said he has directed his officials to try again to trace a letter written by British governor William Butterworth to the Temenggong and Sultan of Johor, seeking permission to build Horsburgh Lighthouse on the island. This all neatly coinicided with the conference. Don’t know if it worked but all very interesting and shows how political archives/records can be.

Anyway back to the sessions, so many! I will just go through 2-3 of them as I don’t have so much space so no offence to thse I don’t cover. I was very impressed by the session by the Municipal archives of Rotterdam describing their E-depot program. It outlined how the Rotterdam Municipal Archives implemented this process, how it was financed, what lessons have been learned along the way, and what plans have been put in place for the next few years. It also studied the impact that such a program has on its stakeholders and the importance of a good change-management process. The workshop format was also very good!

I only got a brief bit of Interpares 3 but it was very interesting. I caught Liz McEvoy (talking about an Irish example with aplomb) and Luciana Duranti talking about the research conducted on e-government records systems that do not respect accountability requirements, and how they can be modified to do so. Read the rest of this entry »

Here I am sitting on the floor of the conference library and have a moment to tell you about the ICA congress which I am attending. It happens every 4 years and is the most important gathering of archivists from all over the world. On Monday I attended my last meeting of the working group of the Section for Professional Associations (SPA) meeting (I am secretary) which took place all day on Monday and on Tuesday after displays of dancing, music and some prayers at the opening ceremony the conference began.

I have attended a session on Data Stewardship (an Australian version of the DPTP) and a session on audio visual archives and digital preservation. I am just back from a session on community archiving in the muslim community in Australia. It was an initiative to engage with the community after the London and Bali bombings.

This morning I had an hour long meeting with ICA web designer which was interesting as I am trying to get him to help us improve things a bit.

As usual a lot of work happens here behind the scenes over coffee or maybe more. More later, have seen someone I know – Joan Boadas i Raset….goodbye from Kuala Lumpur. Here is a sign like that from my hotel. I have bought some Durian sweets for you to taste when i get back.

Patricia

As you know I spent a few days in Mexico in March working on an ICA committee. I thought I would write up some of my notes on he mexican archival system. It is quite complicated but very interesting.

As I am sure you are aware Mexico consists of a federation of states, with a total of 32 states. The Federal District of Mexico is young having been established in 1997, prior to that it had direct national rule. Within each federation there is local and municipal government and each of these levels have corresponding archives. Records are created at a Federal, Local and Municipal level. Overseeing all of these archives is the Archivo General de la Nacion (AGN) which holds 20 kilometres of records and is part of the Ministry of the interior and the Instituto Federal de la Nacion (IFAI). These two institutions rule on legal issues relating to archives but there is a conflict of interest between the 2 organisations. Each state at a local and regional level has an IFAI.

Mexico’s freedom of information law (Ley Federal de Transparencia y Acceso a la Información Pública Gubernamental- LFTAIPG) was signed by President Vicente Fox on June 10, 2002, and took effect one year later, guaranteeing the public’s right to request and receive information from the government. Read the rest of this entry »

I spoke at the International conference on archives organised by the Sociedad para el desarollo cientifico de la archivistica s.c. (SEDCA) and supported by the International Council on Archives (ICA). It took place in the Sheraton hotel in the historical centre of Mexico City. There were around 400 delegates at the conference from near and very far from all over Mexico. It was interesting to note the cross section of professionals who attend the conference a mixture of lawyers, IT specialists as well as archivists and information specialists.

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International congress of professional associations – archivists in association: challenges and opportunities. Madrid. October 17

Over 18 associations and 130 delegates participated in this one off event organised by the International Council on Archives (ICA) Section for Professional Associations (SPA) and the Ministry of Culture, Spain.

This event covered the role of archival associations in society, outreach and archival associations and the future of the professional association. Much of the event took place as round tables and it was great to see a lot of active participation from the floor.

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