Rachael, Assistant Archivist, took a trip to sunny Dublin at the end of May to speak at the conference of the International Council on Archives, Section for University and Research Institution Archives (ICA- SUV).
Conference hall. Photo R. Jones.
It was very exciting to travel to an in-person conference again, especially after the restrictions of the previous few years.
The theme of the international conference was 'Turning the Wheel: Access to Archives- Tradition and Variation'. Speakers and delegates from countries including the US, South Africa, Estonia, Finland, UK and Ireland discussed the opportunities and challenges of the digital revolution on the dissemination of archival collections.
The conference opened with a keynote from Anne Gilliland, Professor of Information Studies University of California Los Angeles. She explored the special nature of university and higher education archives and collections where we can support research, tap into grant funding, and form partnerships with university colleagues. She reminded us, though, not to overlook less 'traditional' stakeholders for example friends and family of the student body and local communities affected by the research activities of the institution. Anne shared her experience of community engagement being a wonderfully reciprocal experience where we can learn as much from 'them' as they do from 'us'.
The delegate papers opened with a session on 'Digitisation and improving access'. The presentations focused on some fascinating folklore collections including Irish Mummers, Finnic runosong (oral folk poetry), and Estonian stories of nature and the forest. Digitisation paves the way for these old traditions to take on new significance in our times, but challenges include financial grants, under-resourced services, and digital storage space. Another fascinating paper on day 1 told of the University College Cork and their collaborative projects with STEM partners to bring oral history and folklore collections to a wider audience. One of their projects included an interactive oral history exhibition showcasing memories of infectious diseases such as polio and TB being rife in the community. These reminiscences take on another significance in the light of COVID and also a current, dangerous, trend towards vaccination hesitancy.
Delegates were treated to a reception that evening in the Royal Society of Antiquaries headquarters: an elegant original Georgian town house (see photograph on the right).
Day two began with my presentation exploring the ethics of disseminating entire oral history interviews online. Even if we have consent forms that indicate the narrators' agreement for their stories to be shared on the web, there may be information contained within the narratives about other individuals who did not agree that their stories be shared at all, let alone to a global audience. Checking and redacting every single interview that we receive would be an enormous task, however, for which we just don't have the resources. I presented some potential solutions to this challenge and concluded that a wider risk assessment of collections, as a whole, was needed to assess which ones require further sensitivity checks, and which ones can be made available without full assessment.
Photo courtesy of Cliona O'Carroll.
The other papers in this session described collections that are very sensitive in subject matter and speakers shared the ways in which they balance access to these important records with the privacy and safety of the people represented.
The rest of the day included discussions about how to facilitate creative use of archives, and case studies and tips for working with community partners. I was particularly fascinated by a presentation about the creation of an archive of oral histories and photographs by the people of Árainn, in the Aran Islands, themselves. The islanders took charge of collecting these stories, with Dublin City University facilitating the technical processes of preservation and access.
The last day of the conference shared the experiences of embedding archives in teaching activities. Students love interacting with original historical material and can also give a lot back to institutions in their fresh responses to archival material. Designing courses and internships takes time and patience but can be very rewarding.
It was a fantastic experience meeting with international colleagues in the sector and sharing thoughts on a suite of ethical and technical considerations that have taken on even more significance in the digital world. I'm looking forward to contacting new archivist friends to follow up on discussions begun in Dublin.
