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Conference Agenda

Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).

Only Sessions at Date / Time

Session Overview

Session

ICA New Professionals Session

Time:

Tuesday, 28/Oct/2025:

9:00am - 10:20am

Session Chair: Nicola Laurent, The University of Melbourne
Session Chair: Laura Luca, University College London (UCL)

Location: Room 111

Room 111 Interpretation: English / Catalan / Spanish / French

Presentations

Mapping the landscape of archival practices: Creating a resource guide to traditional and new approaches

Chair(s): Laura Ioana Luca (ICA)

Archival practices are constantly evolving, and it can be difficult to keep abreast of developments globally. This presentation showcases the development of the ICA New Professionals 2025 cohort’s resource guide which maps new/alternative approaches to archival practices while contextualising and contrasting them with traditional practices. It also includes an overview of the guide's backend metadata structure, examples of the guide’s content and a mock-up of the final product.

Presentations of the Panel

Mapping the landscape of archival practices: Creating a resource guide to traditional and new approaches

Clara Gimenez Delgado¹, Huni Mancini², Arvid de Raaij³, Manuel Antonio Riofrio Javier⁴, Shuqin Sandy Wang⁵
¹Switzerland, ²New Zealand, ³The Netherlands, ⁴Peru, ⁵Singapore

For many professionals in the field, it is difficult to keep abreast with the evolving landscape of archival practices due to evolving technology, changing policy and emerging conceptual frameworks. While information is in abundance, the lack of consolidation and curation creates barriers in access as users may not know how or where to start their search. To address this, a subgroup of the ICA New Professionals (NPs) 2025 cohort set out to create a resource guide that would serve as the first port of call for those wishing to find new/alternative approaches to archival practices while having them contextualised and contrasted with traditional practices. This presentation showcases (i) the backend metadata structure that allows for the description of resources, (ii) examples of content that end-users may expect to find in this guide and (iii) a mock-up of the envisaged final product. With this initiative, the NPs aim to deliver not only a practical resource, but also an open invitation to collectively rethink the present and future of archival practices.

Challenging, but absolutely necessary": Archivists' Experiences in Rethinking Archival Practices

Chair(s): Nicola Laurent (ICA, Australia)

This session will provide a snapshot into the state of the archival field in 2025. We will share the results of our research into the theme “Rethinking Archival Practices” showing how those working in the field conceive of this, their priorities, and any barriers faced. Data for this research was collected via an online survey with participants from over 20 countries. Additionally, each of us conducted interviews with professionals in the field who inspire us and who are doing innovative work.

Presentations of the Panel

Challenging, but absolutely necessary": Archivists' Experiences in Rethinking Archival Practices

Faythe Lou¹, Adrià Font², Yasmin Tarek Ismail³, Sayan Sanyal⁴, Herbert Duran⁵
¹Canada, ²Spain, ³Egypt, ⁴India, ⁵United States of America

In this session, we will present the results of our qualitative and quantitative research into “Rethinking Archival Practices”.

In recent years, the archival field has become more cognizant that many of its practices based on traditional archival theories have unintentionally had negative impacts, including exclusion, exploitation, and unsustainable practices.

Recognizing this, many of those working within the profession have been taking steps to reconsider how traditional archival theory can be applied in creative ways to ensure the archival field is inclusive, ethical, and sustainable.

From June to July 2025, we hosted a survey through the ICA’s platforms to collect quantitative data related to “rethinking archival practices”. We aim to explore how the profession today conceives this concept. Which elements of the profession are most critical to change or preserve? What technological or methodological tools are being relied on? What barriers block archivist-led efforts for change? With respondents from over 20 countries, the results of this survey provide a snapshot into the field in 2025, not only from the perspective of individual archivists, but also as part of a broader bottom-up movement.

To complement this work, each of us conducted interviews with an archivist or archives that are doing work exemplifies “rethinking archival practices”. Our session showcases projects that particularly address the intersection between traditional archival standards and the need to challenge colonial, elitist, and Eurocentric frameworks. Some of the interviews explored how these efforts are being applied to Global South collections, especially when preserved outside their communities of origin, and the emotional labor invested in achieving this balance by archivists and community members.

We hope this work helps to bridge gaps between theory and practice and ultimately inspires archivists to find creative solutions to the issues facing their communities today. 