Reblogged from followanarchive and AskArchivists
 |
| Photo from the SABC Radio Archives |
International Archives Day
This year's activities on 9 June will concentrate on democracy in many ways.
The National Archives of the United Kingdom has come up with this topic, suggesting that we make June 9th. a "Twitter day where archives share stories and records within their collection showcasing democracy and rights in different ways".
It is a subject, that most archives can relate to and tell stories about. No matter if you are a large, national archive, a municipal institution or a community archive, we all have records and other material, that can be used to tell the story of democratic development, and people who have stood up for their rights.
Ideas about what to share, could be records that:
Your contribution
- have established fundamental rights in your country
- tell the story of individuals, who played a part in establishing democratic conditions
- relate to rights of specific groups ( indigenous, ethnic, LGBT, women, children...)
- show the history of the right to form trade unions and political or religious communities
- picture election and election days, both national and local
- sound archives with important speaches, interviews etc.
And finally your contribution could naturally also be constitutional documents of huge importance and great archival beauty. It is your choice, and we look forward to your contribution.
#IAD15 #democracy : register on blog Ask Archivists
If you wish to join, make a comment on the same blogpost on the weblog of Ask Archivists. And on June 9th. post your content to relevant platforms - blogs, flickr, instagram, your website, etc. - and tweet about it using the combination of two tags: #IAD15 #democracy.
Join International Archives Day on Twitter!
We hope a lot of archives will join, and help show the world, how archives play a vital part in documenting the history of democracy.
South Africa had a National Archives Week here last week, and The Archival Platform published ten reasons to celebrate archives. It slots in perfectly with International Archives Day.
TEN REASONS TO CELEBRATE ARCHIVES
* Our national archival heritage is held safe in many hands, providing us with the resources that we need when we reckon with the past, try to understand the present and plan for or imagine the future.
* The passionate and hard-working archivists who do their best to preserve and promote our archival heritage even though they often work under very difficult circumstances.
* Records managers who work to keep the records of government safe so that they can be used by the state and civil society and honour the constitutional commitment to transparent and accountable governance.
* Active citizens who use records to hold government to account – as citizens in a democratic state should.
* The officials who process Promotion of Access to Information (PAIA) requests promptly to honour the constitutional promise of freedom of access to information.
* Archive activists who collect and preserve the resources that complement the records of government and fill the gaps in the historical record.
* Individuals and families who hold the records of their personal pasts safe for future generations.
* Universities who make a significant but often unacknowledged contribution in building our national archival heritage.
* Museums and libraries, though often not thought of as archives, who hold collections that people can draw on to understand the past.
* The positive signs that tell us that government is beginning to take responsibility for ensuring that the national archival system is adequately resourced and capacitated to meet its important mandates!
Photo: From the Archives:
Record Cover of "Die Wêreld van Pierneef", a well-known painter of South Africa, with a tribute audio package compiled by J.F. Marais, for the radio service, Afrikaanse Diens. It was produced in 1963.
The painting reflects the South African landscape.
