Conference Season

It’s that time of year when I start browsing conference programmes. Actually, I do this on and off during the year, promising myself that I’ll read every last paper from all the really interesting sessions, once the society in question has helpfully published them on their web pages. In reality this never happens. This year my attention’s been grabbed by the title of the joint Association of Canadian Archivists and Archives Association of Ontario Conference: “As Others See Us: Archivists and Society”. You need to be stout of heart to venture near other people’s perceptions. As an example: last month I attended a history weekend where I was introduced to two people who weren’t fazed at all to be meeting an alchemist but who expressed extreme surprise once I’d explained what I actually did.

Back to the conferences, I’m pleased to see that many of the up and coming conferences include a nice spread of topics from digital issues to archives and community groups, including topics such as the relationship between record keeping professionals and democracy, human rights and memory.