CFP: 2010 ICA/SUV Conference Archival Traditions and Practice
URL: http://www.library.illinois.edu/ica-suv/NewsEvents.php
The 2010 ICA/SUV Conference Archival Traditions and Practice. Are Archivists Historians?" will be hosted by Institute for the History of Charles University and Archive of Charles University and the Masaryk Institute and Archive of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.
Archivists have a close connection with history, but there are very different concepts about
the nature of this relationship.The term ‘to archive‘ encompasses a number of functions and
activities carried out by an archivist in the course of their professional duties, including
acquisition, appraisal, selection, arrangement, cataloguing and preservation, to enable future
generations of historians and other researchers to work with them. Those functions require
archivists to interpret the records and collections in their care, as does aspects of access to the
collections, incuding the production of exhibitions, presentations and publications. How do
archivists ensure objectivitiy and impartiality and is this possible? Do archivists create history
in the course of their professional duties through decision-making during acquisition,
selection and interpretation? How also do archivists know what might be of interest for
historians in the future? Should they consult their users about that? Or should they, as a part
of their professional duties, follow actual research and methodological discussions in history
to react to changing preferences and aspects of historical research?
