CULTURAL HERITAGE MATERIALS            
UNIVERSITY, RESEARCH AND FOLKLORE ARCHIVES IN THE 21st CENTURY

  Invitation from SUV Chair William J. Maher

              ICA/SUV is pleased to offer a truly groundbreaking meeting at our Annual Conference (21-25 August 2017) in Riga, Latvia.  This will be SUV’s first to explore the similarities, differences, and opportunities for collaboration between general university/research archivists and folklore archivists. As you will see by the full conference schedule and programme, this promises to be a meeting that may cause all of us to question some of our professional fundamentals that we often follow too blindly, thus creating limitations on the substance and usefulness of the heritage resources we create and curate.

            The Call for Proposals sought to start a dialogue between folklore archivists and university/research archivists through papers on foundations of cultural heritage materials, practices for born-digital materials, development of new standards and methods for description and tools for accessing heritage collections, respectful stewardship, and ways to engage creator communities. Taken separately, each paper is interesting by itself, but cumulatively, their intersecting perspectives amount to a call for rethinking how we approach our preservation and cultural heritage mandate. To this extent, the Riga conference may offer the possibility of witnessing a paradigm shift in the profession.

            As you peruse the abstracts, you will find the promise of thoughtful discussion of relevant case-study experiences illustrating, and sometimes the questioning of professional theories and standards of practice. The papers also will provide updates on prospective new descriptive standards, and recently emerging practices and techniques, such as community archiving.  Most importantly, by looking through the lens of respectful cultural curation and efforts to integrate the communities creating records with professional ones, the conference aims to ensure that all attendees will come away questioning themselves on the meaning of such fundamentals as provenance, authority, context, heritage, ownership, and audience.

         Whether you are a folklore archivist or a general archivist, we guarantee that the programme will move you to stop and think about ways to make your own cultural heritage work more effective.  We also know that as good as these papers promise to be, the conference will only achieve its ultimate goal if you come and strengthen the sessions, whether by challenging the speakers or by adding your experiences.

                Come draw from and add to this exciting opportunity to advance our profession and your own work.  I look forward to seeing you and learning from you in Riga, a UNESCO World Heritage site.


News

28.08.2017.

Conference has ended!

17 presenters had successfully presented their papers to a truly international professional audience from USA, Latvia, Turkey, Indonesia, Germany, Finland, France, United Kingdom and Australia. Conference reports and photos will be gradually uploaded on a conference webpage. Stay connected!

11.08.2017.

Early bird registration has ended. You can still register online or onsite during the conference.

While early bird registration is over you can still register online and at the site of the conference. One day registrations are available. Please note that for RiC sessions in August 24th only 5 places are left. Click here to register.


10.08.2017.

RiC- a new standard on archival description

Application of  RiC (Records in Context) standard is a theme for the third day of the conference (August 24). 5 interesting papers will be moderated by distinguished professionals-  RiC  working group member Stefano Vitali (Italy) and Chris Hurley (Australia) .


19.06.2017.


Castle of Light welcomes folklore archivists

Since 2014, conference venue - the National Library of Latvia is located in a Castle of Light building on Mūkusalas Street 3. The library building was designed by the internationally acclaimed Latvian-born architect Gunnar Birkerts (USA). It houses not only the Library but also the Archives of Latvian Folklore. Both will be available for visiting during the conference.

13.04.2017. 

Conference full program published

The Scientific Committee for the 2017 ICA-SUV Conference has accepted 19 papers discussing the following themes:

(1) CULTURAL HERITAGE MATERIALS: FOUNDATIONS AND DEFINITIONS

(2) DESCRIPTION AND USE OF ARCHIVES - RECORDS IN CONTEXT (RIC) STANDARD

(3) RESPECTFUL STEWARDSHIP AND ENGAGEMENT WITH CREATOR COMMUNITIES

Click here for the full conference program 

Conference partners

Budget sub-programme 05.04.00 “Krišjānis Barons’ Cabinet of Folksongs”, Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Latvia

http://lulfmi.lv/