2023 - November and December - page 8
Image details
| Issue number | 395 |
|---|---|
| ISSN | 2632-7171 |
| Publication date | 1st November 2023 |
| Transcription |
magazine From the ARA Board From the Board Julie Bon provides this month’s From the Board It has been a busy few months for ARA. Our conference in Belfast at the end of August was a huge success and I very much enjoyed listening to our keynote speakers and immersing myself in the Conservation strand. The Conference Committee should be congratulated for curating such a wonderful array of topics and speakers. In the Conservation strand we were lucky enough to hear talks about Shakespeare’s First Folio (‘To conserve or not to conserve…’!); a partnership project conserving Scotland’s fragile but important newspaper collections; the sticky challenges of conserving a tattoo archive and the conservation of an early nineteenth century recipe book belonging to the Ladies of Llangollen amongst others. As a Board member, my main area of focus over the last year has been within the Learning, Education and Development portfolio. This means that I have had the opportunity to work closely with Chris Sheridan, ARA’s Head of Professional Standards and Development. A significant piece of work that has been on-going is the review of ARA’s Competency Framework. The original framework was developed by ARA and launched in 2017. It was first conceived as a career development tool, as it laid out 39 key competencies for those working with archives, the framework has now become the foundation for the organisation’s professional registration programme. A review of the framework was required to ensure that it remained relevant, up-to-date and inclusive for all of our members. We commissioned an external consultant, Susan Bradshaw, to undertake this review. Susan and Chris arranged workshop sessions with focus groups representing the three sections of our membership: archivists, records managers and archive conservators. These sessions enabled the views of the membership to be incorporated in the review, and Chris and Susan presented on their progress at our conference in Belfast. What has emerged are three competency frameworks, with natural cross-over and alignments, to encompass all three professional disciplines represented by ARA. The review is due to be completed by the end of 2023 and there will be information provided to members as the new framework is launched in 2024. It is hoped that the new version of the framework will be used across the sector as a benchmarking tool and will enable people working in archives; records management and archive conservation to pursue further career development and identify required areas of training. It would also be good if employers and education providers could adopt the framework as a method for measuring achievement and success and to ensure training provided, at all levels, is customised and relevant for our sector. Another piece of work that we have been developing (with the help of Lorraine Finch ACR, a freelance Paper Conservator and Consultant, and in consultation with ARA’s Preservation & Conservation Group) is a Collections Care toolkit. This toolkit will provide information and guidance covering a number of areas of preventive conservation and preservation, such as emergency response and integrated pest management, and will be followed up by a programme of webinars on these topics. Further details on this will be communicated via the usual ARA communications channels in due course. There has certainly been a lot going on over the last few months and it has been a pleasure to be involved in all of this work to ensure that ARA is representing its members equitably and delivering learning opportunities to address real career development needs. We always welcome your feedback on our training programme so please do contact us at chris.sheridan@archives.org.uk. |