ARA Conference

Final day of #ARA2025 has started with a truly inspiring keynote "Archives for All!" from purpleSTARS, all about multi sensory approaches to heritage collections. Something we should really incorporate a lot more of where possible and seek opportunities!

B8 Panel Session at #ARA2025 is focusing on ‘Life After Hanwell’, hosted by Elizabeth Stettler, Pedro Maximo Rocha, Rhiannon Griffiths and Richard Aitken

Going live soon!

Join us for Forming International Connections at #ARA2025 Session D9 at 2:05 PM BST. Let’s talk about building a stronger global archives community. 🌍

#InternationalArchives #ARAConference

Why records surveys matter - Fiona Bourne from RCN sums it up record surveys = knowledge-organisational mapping, departmental analysis, records discovery, management, retention #ARA2025

@araconference.bsky.social beginning of day 3!

A small piece of paper on a dark tablecloth

Starting with a great sensory exercise from PurpleStarz to get us going this morning. Our description of this paper: glossy, clicky, paper #ARA2025

The final day of #ARA2025 is underway, with Dr Kate Allen, Ajay Choksi, Samantha Walker and Victoria Stevens leading an interactive keynote: ‘Archives for All! A Multisensory Approach to Archive Collections’

Enjoying a dip in the conservation stream! These are favourite, can't do without and wish list kit #ARA2025 sewing machine, box maker, buffalo Koran spatula, magnets, cats whiskers, porcupine quills, hobo Bluetooth data loggers, large sheets of perspex (and Instagram - sorry Bluesky!)

This is really practical and promising. (But if anyone's ever tried to manage files on a 1990s Plasmon Data Store, do let Jan know, that one is... going to take some time.) #ARA2025

Oldham was an early user of the kit, setting up DAR and finally able to access born-digital material on hard drives blocked under IT policies #ARA2025

Kits sat with each partner for a month for familiarisation and confidence building: not trying to fix everything at once, but to create support and experience #ARA2025

Created (with TNA resilience funding) shared travelling digital preservation kits: accessing redundant media, open source software, and partnership support with some central resources. #ARA2025

Two papers this afternoon reinforce messages from earlier that there needs to be active intention to create genuine inclusively of archives & for the users of archives - looking at intergenerational practices as well as radical softness & "slow archives" speakers: Chloe Lee & Nella McNicol #ARA2025

A slide stating: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Silence serves no one.

The inspiration from day one of #ARA2025 is this slide and the idea that an empty shelf in an archive is a silent history. We were urged to be change-makers, to go out and find the missing records to give those silent histories a voice.

A sunny sky with a few clouds photographed through a window.

A sunny start to a second day at #ARA2025 and looking forward to to sessions all around outreach, engagement, and appraisal. Have tried to attend talks on AI as well to perhaps broaden my cynical mind a bit! 🌄

It’s Day 2 at #ARA2025! Great to have a conservation themed Keynote this morning from Professor Christina Young

I've made it to #ARA2025 and said hello to a few people, which is a good start. Sitting in on sessions in the big room (for Reasons) which means a lot of AI today.

One of the things that comes up at conferences is international perspectives you might not otherwise pick up. Hearing about the Czech National Archives' role across Czechia in digital preservation, drawing in records management transfers nationwide (born-digital only so far). #ARA2025

Archives and Records Association display and panel.

Day 2 of the ARA conference and our archivist Rosie has been busy attending talks on workplace transferable skills, trauma-informed approaches to support staff and AI solutions for indexing. She has another busy day today, we can't wait to hear more about it! #ARA2025

RM across public bodies is (still) based on MoReq which is recognised to be very rigid but otoh makes for highly structured SIPs in transfers from very diverse organisations. #ARA2025

Opportunities to develop further are coming with a full system redesign, looking at needs, desires, opportunities, more flexibility #ARA2025

And now RM and use of AI (potentially) in public hospitals in Tswane, if staff will implement. The context, in which RM is not taken seriously but is a key driver of why patients may experience long delays in treatment, is depressingly familiar #ARA2025

Another great keynote at #ARA2025 from Christina Young - creating accessibility- struck by effectiveness of literally opening up spaces- eg doing conservation in the public gallery etc

Just been in a great session with a strong theme of collaboration and co creation featuring speakers from Gloucestershire Archives, V&A and Institute of International Visual Art #ARA2025

Day 2 of #ARA2025 has kicked off with another great session of talks in the Track B:
✒️ Dr Paul Garside on ‘Treatment Decisions for Iron Gall Ink’
🔌 HVAC group update with Amy Sampson and Sirpa Kutilainen
🖥️ Julie Bon on conservation metadata
🔗 mechanical strength of Asian adhesives by Jiwon Jeong

Liz Stettler holding some mouldy and really smelly paste during Jiwon Jeong's talk on the mechanical strength of four traditional Asian adhesives. #ARA2025

Fed and caffeinated, ready for the afternoon sessions. Heard some very interesting perspectives on barriers to accessibility when providing an archive service and the importance of 'radical imagination' in engagement work! #ARA2025

Wednesday afternoon at #ARA2025: Track B ‘Lighting the fire: securing conservation education for the future’ with panellists Victoria Stevens, Alexandra McGuire, Jasmine Hirst and Katie Proctor🔥

Now in a digital preservation session at #ARA2025 starting with Royal College of Nursing talking about kit vs culture in implementing active preservation. How to support digital transformation in an organisation that traditionally did records mgt by "give it to the archive to work out"?

(Or a total auto delete of everything older than 4 years as IT proposed when moving off shared drives 😱 #ARA2025)