Report of the 18th ICA Congress in Seoul

※Basic Information

Date	September 5 - 10, 2016Report of the 18th ICA Congress in Seoul
Hosts	International Council on Archives (ICA) and National Archives of Korea (NAK)
Theme	Archives, Harmony and Friendship: Ensuring Cultural Sensitivity, Justice and Cooperation in a Globalised World
Venue	COEX（Seoul, South Korea）

（1）Participants and the Structure of Programs

Countries/Territories	114
Participants	2,049 individuals, including 67 Japanese

・The ICA congress is composed of two parts: 1) The professional program on archival affairs; and 2) Governance meetings on managing ICA’s and its regional branches’ activities.

1)Professional Program
・The professional program is composed of presentations and workshops. At the Congress in Seoul, from morning to night on each day between September 6 and 9, various sessions were parallelly held.
・For details on the schedule and themes of the program, please see the information below;
　　>>ICA Congress 2016 Programme

2)Governance Meetings
・In parallel, governance meetings related to the management of ICA and its regional branches were held respectively.
・Takeo Katoh, President of the National Archives of Japan (NAJ), took a leadership role as Chair of ICA’s East Asian regional branch (EASTICA) in its Executive Board meeting and Open Forum.

Date	Time	Meeting Titles
Sep. 5	09:00-11:30	Regional Branches’ Chairs Meeting
	14:00-15:20	Executive Board meeting of EASTICA
	16:00-17:15	EASTICA Open Forum
Sep. 6	09:00-12:30	Executive Board meeting of ICA
Sep. 7	11:45-13:15	Forum of National Archivists (FAN)
Sep. 7	17:00-19:00	General Assembly of ICA

（2）Presentations and a Workshop Organized by NAJ

NAJ held the following six presentations and a workshop from September 6 to 9.
>>Introducing Japanese Archives - Presentation Handouts [PDF]

Date	Time	Session Titles
Sep. 6	09:00-12:30	Workshop: Restoration of Disaster-affected Documents in Japan 【Lecture】 The Latest Restoration Techniques in Japan Ms. Maki TAKASHINA Project Researcher, National Institute of Japanese Literature 【Demonstrations and Practice】 How to Restore Documents Damaged by Water Mr. Tomohiro AKUTSU, Ms. Saho ASABA and Ms. Shizuka NAGAI Conservation Section, Archival Affairs Division, National Archives of Japan
Sep. 6	16:45-18:15	Challenges of Two Digital Archive Systems at the National Archives of Japan Dr. Sumio HATANO Director-General, Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, National Archives of Japan
Sep. 7	09:45-11:15	World-wide Spread of Conservation Using Japanese Paper Mr. Katsuhiko MASUDA Vice-President, the Association for Study of Washi Culture
Sep. 7	15:00-16:30	The Japan-Australia Bilateral Cooperation in Archival Processing for the Wartime Seized Company Records Ms. Junko AKIYAMA Archivist, Sapporo City Archives
Sep. 8	11:45-13:15	Records Management in the Digital Age Mr. Hitoshi FUKUI Senior Vice-President, National Archives of Japan (Former Deputy Director-General for Public Records Management at the Minister’s Secretariat, Cabinet Office)
Sep. 9	09:45-11:15	Panel Presentation “Archives and Disasters: Japanese Strategies after Five Years from the Great East Japan Earthquake” Network of Archival Rescue Activities in Japan: Restoration and Preservation of Disaster-affected Documents Ms. Maki TAKASHINA, Project Researcher, National Institute of Japanese Literature, for Ms. Mutsumi AOKI, Associate Professor, National Institute of Japanese Literature Cultural Property Preservation after the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Nuclear Power Plant Accident - 5 Years since the Disaster Mr. Hidefumi SAMPEI Chief Curator, Tomioka Board of Education, Fukushima Prefecture Initiatives for Rescuing Damaged Official Documents -The Case of Rescue Team Dispatched by the National Archives of Japan Mr. Masaki KAKEHI Chief, Planning and Legal Affairs Section, General Affairs Division, National Archives of Japan
Sep. 9	11:45-13:15	Reconciling Japanese Archival Traditions with the New Demands of the Global Age: Focusing on Business Archives in Japan> Mr. Takeo KATOH President, National Archives of Japan

・Participants ranging from 40 to 110 joined the sessions. In all sessions, academic as well as practical discussions were actively made, which shows participants’ high interests in Japanese archival efforts.

Lecture by Ms. Maki TAKASHINA
Workshop on the restoration of documents
Presentation by Dr. Sumio HATANO
Presentation by President Takeo KATOH
Presentation by Senior Vice-President Hitoshi FUKUI
Presentation by Mr. Katsuhiko MASUDA
Presentation by Ms. Junko AKIYAMA
Panel presenters for the “Archives and Disasters”

（3）Governance Meetings of ICA

1)Regional Branches’ Chairs Meeting (09:00-11:30, Sep. 5)

President Katoh and Senior Vice-President Hitoshi Fukui participated in the meeting of the chairs of 13 ICA regional branches.
As the Chair of EASTICA, President Katoh introduced its latest activity and plans, including that: 1) the General Conference of EASTICA had been held in Fukuoka in October 2015; 2) the EASTICA Executive Board meeting and its Open Forum would be held during this ICA Congress; and 3) the Postgraduate Certificate in Archival Studies cohosted by the University of Hong Kong and EASTICA to enhance young archivists’ knowledge and skills would start in November 2016.
Other issues, such as funding for each branch from the Program Commission of ICA, the standardization of regional branches’ Constitutions, and the conformity of Constitutions of ICA and its branches, were also discussed.

2)Executive Board Meeting of ICA (09:00-12:30, Sep. 6)

Mainly discussed were the following topics: the finalreport on regional branches' activities; the constitutional consistency between ICA and its regional branches; host city selection for the Annual Conference in 2018 and 2019; and house-keeping information for the General Assembly on the next day.
Furthermore, implementation of FY2016 budget and the draft budget for FY2017 were also put on the table.
The new logos of ICA bodies were unveiled and the new ICA website was formally launched.

3) Forum of National Archivists (FAN) (11:45-13:15, Sep. 7)

Several presentations were carried out under the theme of “Human Rights, Intellectual Properties and Advocacy.”
Plans to revitalize the Forum, such as election of the new chairman, and creation of new expert groups, were also discussed.

4)General Assembly of ICA (17:00-19:00, Sep. 7)

President, Secretary General, Vice-President Programme, and the Chair of the Evaluation Commission each reported on their responsible activities. Furthermore, personnel change in the Secretariat, the financial report on the first half of FY2016, the audited final report for FY2015 and the draft budget for FY2017 were approved.
It was announced the Annual Conference in 2017 would be co-held by ICA and its Latin American regional branch.

The 19th ICA Congress was approved to be held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2020.
As the first attempt, Mr. Sang-Jin Lee, President of NAK, and Mr. David Fricker, President of ICA, jointly presented the Seoul Communique ［PDF:321kb］ which advocates an emphasis on positive utilization of digital technology.

General Assembly
Presentation of the Seoul Communique

(4)Governance Meeting and Program of EASTICA

1) Executive Board Meeting of EASTICA (14:00-15:20, Sep. 5)

As EASTICA Chair, President Katoh, together with Senior Vice-President Fukui, participated in the meeting of the Executive Board moderated by Mr. Simon Chu, Secretary General of EASTICA.
On the agenda were: the management of EASTICA’s website; facilitation plans for the PCAS program; and the approval of new members. In addition, the treasurer reported on the financial situation of EASTICA.
It was proposed that the 2017 General Conference be held in China, and the proposal was generously accepted by the State Archives Administration of China.

2)EASTICA Open Forum (16:00-17:15, Sep. 5)

As the first challenge in the history of EASTICA, this Forum was organized to brainstorm creative ideas for future activities and the management of EASTICA by widely opening the door to non-EASTICA ICA members.
Secretary General Chu first made an introductory presentation on EASTICA.
Discussion followed after the presentation. Comments and inputs from the floor included: holding joint conferences with other ICA regional branches; establishing working groups for young professionals’ capacity development; raising awareness for disaster preparedness; and utilizing social media services.

(5)Other Activities

1)Visit to the National Assembly Library of Korea (14:00-19:00, Sep. 9）

Through one of the 6 professional programs to visit Korean archival institutions, NAJ staff members visited the National Assembly Library of Korea. At the Library, they got a briefing on its business and took a look at the exhibition spaces and reading rooms.

2)Public Relations Activities concerning EASTICA (Sep. 6 - 9)

NAJ and the Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, or JACAR, engaged in publicity to put a spotlight on the archival activities of EASTICA and its member countries/territories.
As its latest publication, East Asian Archives (No.22), a compilation of country/territory reports presented at the Seminar in Fukuoka in 2015 was provided for distribution. It was also a good opportunity for both NAJ and JACAR to make their services known more widely.

※Details concerning the NAJ-supported presentations and a workshop in the ICA Congress are also introduced in our web magazine Archives (No. 62) published in November 2016. (*In Japanese only)

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