Bridging the Gap: Archives
for HE/FE Students
Public Record of Northern
Ireland, 24 June 2013
Increasing user participation and reaching out to new audiences rank
high in the archives agenda for the 21st century. However, how are archivists
ensuring that university and further education students, one of their
traditional user-groups, are also part of this inclusive approach?
While training and induction sessions to the archives are often
available to schoolchildren and adult learners, we expect students to navigate
complex sets of catalogues and finding aids and to decipher difficult
handwriting without having been trained to do so.
This year’s ALES conference will focus on the steps archivists are
taking to bridge the gap and in so doing attract students into the archives to
train and equip them with the necessary skills to approach archival research
confidently.
A call for papers is put for 30 minute presentations focusing on
practical experiences/case studies.
The purpose of the conference is:
•
To identify good practice
across the whole sector and not exclusively amongst HE/FE archivists.
•
To exchange ideas and
approaches to training for university and further education students.
•
To raise awareness amongst
professional archivists about the need to take shared responsibility for
providing this user-group with transferable skills that go beyond academic
research.
•
To identify opportunities for
collaboration and partnerships.
If you are interested please email a short abstract to Maria Castrillo at m.castrillo@nls.uk.
The deadline for submissions is 20 April.
