This year’s Society of Archivists Conference was in the planning stages for the last three years and promised to be a lively affair, and we were not disappointed. The planning committee consisted of a cross section of archivists with strong support from members of staff from the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) as well as involvement from the Society’s Irish region. The focus of the conference was ‘Differing Direction, Challenging Communities’ and this was covered comprehensively in the three strands catered for which were archives, records management and conservation. The bar was set high by the key note speaker, Eric Ketelaar, who has published extensively on archives and records in society and as records of public memory and spoke eloquently on these themes. From this point on it became clear that the time spent inviting and attracting such high caliber speakers had been well spent.

Throughout the week we heard about building projects and archive repositories. Chris Kitching took us through archive buildings throughout the UK and Colum O’Riordan discussed the project management of the building of the Architectural Archives in Dublin. There was a mock court, ably chaired by Robert Corbett, records manager from Belfast City Council at which the legal admissibility of electronic records was tested while at the same time Dr Michael Kennedy of the Royal Irish Academy informed us that the situation vis-à-vis the records of Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs from the period of World War 2 is not as bad as one might have thought.

As the conference progressed the theme of archives in the community was comprehensively explored and we heard about some fascinating outreach projects being undertaken by different archives services, from opening up archive collections to broader groups, to exciting rebellious teenagers on the theme of family history. The records management theme focused, as would be expected, on digital directions for the archives communities as well as the implementation of EDRMS systems. Conservation strands looked at specific projects from around the globe as well as the area of display and recent developments.

As always the social element was all important and this got off to a lively start with ‘Blackthorn’ playing as the first evening’s entertainment and the Irish region were not shy about showing their appreciation for the band. The gala dinner was attended by the Lord Mayor of Belfast, who also opened the information market place held the previous afternoon at Belfast’s Waterfront centre. The key note speaker was Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, who spoke about his own sense of history and the past and even went as far as to bring a letter with him from his own personal archive to demonstrate how the past and present interact.

So all in all, it was a successful week, well attended and enjoyed by all, with an eclectic group of speakers who all focused on the areas of differing directions and challenging communities and shared their experiences both positive and negative which was can all learn from, which really is the whole point of such a conference, to learn from the work of others. So, we can look forward to the 2008 conference to be held in York, England, and if it’s half as lively as Belfast it might be necessary for us all to start taking multi vitamins now to make sure of full health if attending.

Leah Benson
Chair, Society of Archivists, Ireland