SoA Conference cont.

Looks like I'm alone in criticising the SoA conference this year. Anna Towlson from the LSE attended the first day. Her report is here. Chris Prom and Caroline Brown from the University of Dundee both thought the conference had a lot to impart. Their notes are here.

Chris Prom is visiting Briton from the University of Illinois. His personal blog has posts on sessions, and a lovely photo of Bath Abbey. His post on the Archives, Records and Artefacts blog indicates that much of the discussion around e-records (and the continuing preservation of these records??) took place in the RM themed talks. I admit I didn't go to any of these as they looked to be mostly theory and strategy rather than action (my reasoning being that I can get theory and strategy from the web). Maybe I was wrong about their content.

Caroline Brown was one of the speakers at the conference. She gave one of the round-ups at the end. I found her talk engaging and agreed with most of it, but was alarmed and dispirited by her use of a quote from Hugh Taylor identifying electronic media and records as a paradigm shift. What was dispiriting about this is that Hugh Taylor wrote it in 1987. Why, 22 years later, are we still seeing electronic records as something we need to get our heads around?

And where has the conference blog gone? The link on the SoA website disappeared immediately after the conference.

Conference report

What can I say about the SoA conference? It was a disappointment really. Too much emphasis on access and not enough attention paid to preservation. Too many indications that we're still not coping with, let alone embracing, many of the challenges and opportunities offered by digital records. The most striking thread running through the week was that archivists are cautious and fearful; that we lack confidence when dealing wiht new technology and researcher behaviour. I find this depressing.

But, there were some good bits:

• the opening speeches were all excellent and thought provoking;
• the Planets project, based at the British Library, looks like it's doing positive and useful stuff;
• Tim Padfield;
• the Southampton University's Non-Contact Surface Scanning Systems for the Retrieval and Protection of Archives Sound Recordings - brilliant; and
• the Victorian lantern show.

The conference gave me stuff to think about which I hope to make the subject of future posts.

SoA Conference 2009

Here is it, the eve of another SoA Conference. I’m off to Bristol tomorrow so as not to waste the long weekend worrying about what to pack. I’ve briefly looked over the programme and there appears to be a lot of “what we should be thinking about”. Thankfully there also appears to be some “we did this and here’s what happened”.

I’m hoping for real life examples and experiences. I feel I’m done thinking about digital preservation. I’ve been doing it for years. Years! Unfortunately, I’m not in a position to act and so must live vicariously through others.

The thing I’m looking forward to the most is staying in a swanky hotel.

Pictures for LibraryThing Pillars group read

Some pictures from Coventry.

The old Cathedral of St Michael's, bombed during the war:

Holy Trinity Church:

Bristol via Rome

Only a week until the SOA Conference, which I'll be attending this year. The topic - digital preservation and access - is relevant to all, and especially to me at the moment as I've turned into one of those new-fangled digital archivists.