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Report on the 41st International Conference of the Round Table on Archives
The 41st International Conference of the Round Table on Archives held in Malta
- The 41st International Conference of the Round Table on Archives (CITRA) was held in St. Julian, Malta from the 17th to 21st November 2009, where some 230 participants from 76 countries/areas came together.
- The theme of this year's CITRA conference was "Imagining the 21st Century Archivist: New Strategies for Education and Training" and the program consisted of four plenary sessions and 12 parallel sessions. In the plenary sessions, presentations were made on the following topics: "what do employers expect from archivists today?", "training and education: what have we got and what is needed", "developing new curricula and training programs to meet the challenges of the modern profession", and "archival education: our vision for the 21st century".
- At 12 parallel sessions, participants actively discussed a variety of issues including in-house training programs at national archival institutions, archival education and training for indigenous and marginalized communities, graduate archival education programs, mutual benefit-learning from other professions such as librarians, a new tool for training trainers, certification of archivists by the professional associations, development of distant-learning programs, continuing professional development, and mentoring.
- Before and after the CITRA sessions, ICA business meetings were held. As the Chair of the East Asian Regional Branch of the ICA (EASTICA), Mr. Masaya Takayama, President of the National Archives of Japan, attended the following meetings: Executive Board meeting, meeting of the Chairs of Branches, joint meeting of the Chairs of Branches and Sections, joint meeting of Program Commission and Branches, and EASTICA informal meeting. In these meetings, members discussed on administrative issues such as funding allocated to regional branches from the ICA, review of the Constitutions of the Branches, and revenue-raising of the ICA.
- At the meeting on Nov. 17th, the Executive Board unanimously approved to reactivate the Fund for International Archival Development (FIDA) in response to the recent recovery of the financial situation of the ICA. FIDA has been stopped its activities since 2005 because of the financial crisis of the ICA. Ms. Sarah Tyacke, former Chief Executive of The National Archives (United Kingdom), was appointed as the chair of the new FIDA Board and Mr. Mitsuoki Kikuchi, Executive Advisor to the National Archives of Japan, was appointed as one of the FIDA Trustees. FIDA aims to encourage and support archival activities in the developing world and the new Board of Trustees will establish the funding guideline and other rules for its activities.
- Executive Board members also discussed the revision of the Constitution of the regional branches, the future financial base of the ICA, and others. Progress of the AtoM project (open-source software of archival description developed by the ICA with support of the member countries) was reported and new website of the ICA was presented to the Board members.
- In the last part of the CITRA, the Annual General Meeting took place on Nov. 20th. Approved agenda include external audit report 2008, 2010 membership dues, 2010 budget plan, revised strategic direction and business plan. "CITRA 2009 Recommendations" for ICA committees, sections and branches was put forward at the meeting but not voted. The adoption of the Universal Declaration of Archives had been discussed since AGM 2007 under the initiative of the Section for Professional Associations. The draft document of the Declaration was submitted to the meeting and its main policy was approved, but it was decided that the document should be reconsidered and endorsed at the AGM in Oslo in 2010.
- For more information on the CITRA 2010 and the Annual General Meeting, please see our information journal, Archives No.38, to be published in January 2010.
The International Council on Archives (ICA) is an international non-government organization founded in 1948 with assistance extended by UNESCO. The National Archives of Japan became a member in a year after its establishment in 1972. ICA currently counts some 1,400 members including national and local archives and related organizations in 190 countries/regions. ICA holds the International Congress of 2,000 participants in every four years and Round Table Conference (CITRA) of 200 participants in other years. The 42nd CITRA will take place at Oslo, Norway in September 2010.
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President Takayama, ICA President Dr. Wilson, Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport of Malta, Hon. Cristina
Executive Board members
Parallel session
Dr. Wilson delivered a speech at the AGM
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