Welcome to the 10th issue of the ICA New Professionals Network newsletter: getting to know the 2017-2018 members of the New Professionals Programme and preparing for the ALA-ICA Conference in Mexico City!
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Hello from your new newsletter editors! We are delighted to be taking over responsibility from members of the 2016-2017 New Professionals Programme and would like to thank each and every one of you for your hard work and dedication over the course of the year. Thank you especially to Nicola Wood and Gabriela Andaur for their work on the newsletter in 2016-2017.
Read on to learn more about the new group and our plans for 2017-2018, and feel free to contact us any time with your questions, ideas or suggestions for the newsletter.
- Elise Bradshaw (English editor)
- Stephanie Calderon (Spanish editor)
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Introducing the 2017 New Professionals
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Eugenia Alves, Argentina
I´m Professor of Middle and Higher Education in History graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Buenos Aires, and I´m Superior Technician in Records and Documents Management graduated from the Higher Institute of Teacher and Technical Training N ° 8 of the City of La Plata.
Since September 2012, I´ve been a professional technical advisor in the Archival method for the Defense Archives System, under the National Directorate of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law of the Ministry of Defense.
I went to the School of Archives for Latin America (edition 2016), chosen by the IBEREX Program of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports of Spain.
I also have organised and participated as a speaker in national and international congresses, conferences and meetings.
At the moment I´m doing the specialisation in "Archives and Human Rights", distance learning course dictated by the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and I´m in the first year of my Law degree at the University of Buenos Aires.
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Elise Bradshaw, Australia
I am a recently qualified archivist working at Public Record Office Victoria (PROV), the archives of the Victorian state government. I graduated in 2016 with a Master of Information Management from RMIT University and I have a keen interest in information provision, digital archives management and archival theory. I began my work at the state archives in a reference advisory role, and then I moved into the role of Records & Archives Analyst. This sees me working with government agencies to transfer both physical and digital records into the archives, as well as writing and editing Retention & Disposal Authorities which guide government records disposal programs.
I am particularly interested in digital archives, and my recent work has centred around the investigation and implementation of custom encapsulation tools for the conversion of digital records and metadata into stable preservation formats. I believe that digital archivists require not only a solid understanding of archival principles, but also advanced technical skills to support the management and preservation of born digital records well into the future.
I would also like to thank the ICA's New Professionals Programme for including me in this incredible opportunity. I look forward to continuing the great work done by members of the Programme in previous years and can't wait to meet you all in Mexico City!
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Stephanie Calderon, Costa Rica
My name is Stephanie Calderon. I´m from Costa Rica, a beautiful country in Central America that is recognize around the world for his amazing beaches and his nature.
I´m licenciate on Archivistic from University of Costa Rica. In 2016 I presented my final graduation project called “Design of an automated system for user management of central archives”. I also have a Licensed Degree in Business Administration with an emphasis on Information Systems Management.
I have been working as Coordinator of Institutional Archive Department on National Service of Animal Health (SENASA in Spanish). I am in charge of the document management process.
In 2016 submitted my application for a bursary of the New Professionals Program to attend ICA’s Annual Conference but I didn’t have the opportunity to assist. Also I collaborated with an article for the NP Newspaper. This year, I submitted again and fortunately my application was successful. For me this is an amazing opportunity for professional growth because I will share great experiences and interesting knowledge with others professionals.
I feel really excited and enthusiastic about the Conference because is the first time that the conference will be in Latin America, There will be the ALA conference too. Therefore, being in Mexico will represent a great experience because of the importance of both events together.
During this Congress, I expect to connect with our colleagues and explore collaboration opportunities in order to create awareness about archival issues, promote best practices and advance research in our local communities and beyond.
I am grateful to the ICA for the opportunity attends this year’s Congress in Mexico as I see it as an invaluable opportunity to engage with other archivists in a uniquely international setting. I really look forward to sharing my experiences and learning from the other New Professionals from around the world.
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Javier Garibay, United States
I am currently on a two-year appointment as a Librarian-in-Residence at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California, where I seek to get greater experience as an academic librarian. During my term, I will be rotating through several departments of the William H. Hannon Library, seeking to gain skills and complete projects that relate to my specific interests. I graduated from my Masters in Library and Information Science from UCLA in 2015.
In my first professional experience after library school, I served as the associate librarian for hispanic services for the Inglewood Public Library in Inglewood, California. During my time in my undergraduate career, I gained experience processing archives as a student assistant both at UC Santa Cruz and UC Santa Barbara. I have worked with music archives, digitizing fan media of the band, The Grateful Dead, at UC Santa Cruz, and vinyl records and cylinders from the early 1900s at UCSB. My particular interest is in working with indigenous communities and in the creation of community archives. Outside of my paid work, I volunteer with a community organization to help the creation of a community-based archive for a diasporic population of Mixtecos residing in Oxnard, Ca.
I look forward to attending the ICA Congress to meet others in the field who have done work with community or locally-based archives or marginalized communities. I hope to network with professionals and gain mentorship who tackle head-on archival issues and advocate for preservation of communities typically excluded from larger mainstream repositories.
Please feel free to connect with me through Twitter at: @javweird
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Robin Koning, Canada
I completed my Master of Archival Studies at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver this April. During my studies I worked in the archives of the UBC Museum of Anthropology, the Belkin Gallery and at the UBC Digitization Lab. I'm currently working with United Nations-Habitat on a digitization project of archival audio-visual material and also working with an NGO based in southern Africa on a digital archive project.
Prior to my Master program, I worked for several years in communication and production roles in the documentary film and TV industry in Canada and England. My passion lies in community archives, particularly those with a social justice focus.
I’m very grateful for this opportunity to learn from other members of the profession and to raise awareness of our work around the world and the work carried out by the ICA.
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Joy Rowe, Canada
Hi, I'm Joy Rowe and I got into records and archives because of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa.
For me, education was the way to explore the wider world outside the one I was born in (US) and I went to school in Senegal, Belgium, Canada, and South Africa. I happened to be in SA in the early 2000s when the TRC was ending. Everyone I met and every friend I made had either been tortured or lived in exile or had close kin who had experienced either exile, detention or torture. Sometimes I met torturers. That's what happens when a nation gets honest about what it's been doing and the barriers start to fall - people are no longer kept apart from each other and everyone knows who has been doing what. It's wicked ugly but at least the ugliness is not hidden anymore. It can be shared, honestly. Painfully.
I love shared ugliness. It's how I got into archives and it's why I am in archives today. "Shared ugliness" has another name, in my opinion. You can also just call it "history". No matter what you name it, it's how lots of us got into archives. I watched the oral testimonies of victims and perpetrators of apartheid as they pulled from within themselves the truths of the old nation to create a shared ugliness. From this terrible ugliness, I became a devotee of the power of recorded truths. It doesn't happen fast and it's messy as anything, but records are strong weapons in a struggle for human rights.
For me, it's the "shared" part that keeps me doing this work. I returned to my country of origin and learned community archiving, serving my own queer community at the Lavender Archives (https://www.facebook.com/LavenderLibrary) in northern California on weekends as a volunteer archivist. Later, I moved to Canada and layered a professional credential from University of British Columbia onto my lived experience and witnessing work. Today, my work is focused on pointing out to records creators the power they have in creating good digital records that can last and be used for unknowable purposes, including the incredible and worthwhile purpose of protecting or defending human rights.
"Many hands make light work."
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Call for January Newsletter contributions
Theme: Communities of Practice
The theme of the next newsletter is "Communities of Practice for New Professionals". Communities of practice are groups of people with shared professional interests who come together to discuss, teach and learn from each other. Communities of practice can be created especially for this purpose (such as professional organisations), or can develop naturally when people with shared interests meet through work or school. Communities of practice can meet in person or remotely by telephone, email, social media -- the possibilities are endless! We welcome contributions from new professionals on any topic related to this theme, so if you have any stories or advice to share with other new professionals, please get in touch!
We would love to hear about your experience creating or joining a community of practice. How did the community of practice get started, and what is its focus? How has it helped you? Or if you are not a member of a community of practice, what would you like to see in one? Would you like to create one but don't know where to start?
Spotlight on: Caribbean Region
The 2016 ICA New Professionals Survey identified a number of under represented ICA Regions for new professionals, with each region having fewer than 1% of survey respondents. In addition to articles on the newsletter theme, we would like to invite new professionals from an under represented region or regions to submit a short article on any topic of their choosing. In January, the spotlight will be on the Caribbean Region.
Are you a student or new professional in the Caribbean Region? What is it like to study or work in your country? What are the challenges you face, and opportunities you see? We would love to hear from you!
We welcome entries written in any language. If you are interested please send us a message including a brief outline of your proposed article by Sunday 17 December to newprofessionalsprogramme@gmail.com or contact us on Facebook or Twitter and we will be in touch with more details.
The new professionals community wants to hear from you!
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Preparing for Mexico:
The ALA-ICA Annual Conference will be held on 27-29 November 2017 in Mexico City, under the title ‘Archives, Citizenship and Interculturalism.’ The 2017-2018 members of the New Professionals Programme will be presenting at the conference on the subject of "Experiences and Perspectives of New Professionals: Archives and Human Rights; Management of Electronic Records / Digital Curation; and Community Archives" and will discuss their paths to the archival industry, their interests, and their inspirations.
If you'll be attending the conference, please come along and meet us, or get involved on Twitter using the hashtag #ALAICAMexico2017
Dates for your diary 2017-2020:
- ALA-ICA Annual Conference 27-29 November 2017 in Mexico City, Mexico
- ICA Annual Conference 26-30 November 2018 in Yaoundé, hosted by the National Archives of Cameroon.
- ARA-ICA Annual Conference 21-23 October 2019 in Edinburgh, Scotland.
- ICA Quadrennial Congress 2020 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
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Thanks for reading, and keep an eye out for our next issue in January 2018!
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