Archives for Learning and Education Section Annual Conference - Call for Papers

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.