Nolda Romer-Kenepa opened the meeting. She expressed her satisfaction with CITRA 2009. She said in particular that the new format of parallel and plenary sessions had worked very well. She said that she realized that this had required much organization and preparation but that the output had been tremendous. She would therefore like to continue with this format for next year’s CITRA in Oslo. Furthermore she said that she would like CITRA to be more open to allow others- for example young professionals- to participate in the conference. Nolda also said that she was happy with the conclusions presented at the closing session yesterday afternoon of the CITRA professional programme. She expressed her hope that the follow up on the conclusions and recommendations will be practical and solutions driven.

In 2011 the CITRA will be hosted by Spain, and will take place in Toledo.

PCOM and CITRA members discussed the professional program for 2010. The theme of the next CITRA will explore digital records, access and trust.

Lew Bellardo and Nolda Romer-Kenepa felt that the involvement of the young professionals in CITRA 2009 had been a success and expressed the need to involve young professionals in Oslo.

This year marked a change in CITRA with the introduction of parallel sessions, which was found to be successful and will be continued at the next CITRA meeting in Oslo.

The following themes were compiled by the CITRA working group from feedback given by each session chair.  These are the conclusions from the professional program of CITRA 2009:

1. The CITRA participants are enthusiastic about international and regional collaboration on training and education development. Speakers and participants mentioned the following areas of potential collaboration:
   • Internships and exchanges
   • Shared on-line resources
   • Mentoring programmes
   • Collaborative research
2. Recruiting staff from under-represented communities and backgrounds is becoming more challenging as the entry level qualifications become more exacting, therefore there should be more flexibility in the options for entering the profession.
3. Distance learning, which is of good quality and co-exists with more traditional learning models, offers great opportunities to developing countries as well as to individuals.
4. There are enormous challenges facing 21^st century educators and trainers, for example the need to equip students to:
   • cope with the fast pace of change in the general working environment as well as in the technology we all use as tools in our work
   • operate in a digital environment, managing electronic records at the same time as maintaining the historical perspective
   • understand business processes
   • develop the interpersonal skills necessary to advocate and promote their programmes and work
   • play a role in capturing oral traditions
   • and to manage their own professional development as educators, particularly in using digital tools for their teaching.
5. There is a clearly discernable feedback cycle of educators, professional associations and employers/organisations which operates through formal accreditation processes or more informal networks and impacts both initial education and continuing training and professional development. The cycle results in the constant review and update of the education and training curricula.
6. The inter-relationship between research and teaching programmes is vital in sustaining recordkeeping education in university environments. It is also necessary for archives to foster research and development projects, making use of any partnership opportunities (with universities and/or industry)

Stay tuned to the ICA website for a further conclusions and recommendations from CITRA 2009.

“Train the trainers in Records Management” is a project launched by EURBICA and developed by ICA. It uses the “Train the trainers” resources pack and the Moodle platform, a free web application to create effective online learning sites.

It aims to provide a handbook for creating training curriculum that would help trainers identify needs, develop a program, deliver lessons, assess results and adapt subsequent programs.

The point of the program is to be practical and efficient: to start from the learner’s perspective, using a problem solving approach based on case studies. The platform brings together existing resources: standards, the IRMT method for “How to write a case study,” existing case studies, etc.

So where does the project stand? The project is advancing well and the resource pack has been used in interesting ways, for example in Netherlands National Archives. The handbook has yet to be finalized, and when it is, it will be made accessible on-line at the ICA web site. The next step will be to use the methodology to develop resources for other archival themes where training is needed.

These new demands include being present at the beginning of the information lifecycle, assessing the authenticity of information and monitoring it over time, identifying records for preservation, developing preservation standards, understanding intellectual property issues and developing appropriate policies, in addition to performing description, access and dissemination functions.  She also emphasized the importance of research and development divisions in institutions.

Most graduates of North American archival programs today will not get jobs as a typical archivist, Prof. Duranti explained.  More and more employers are calling for professionals qualified to work in specialized domains like medical and financial recordkeeping, digital preservation, etc. The extreme archivist therefore must have a solid grounding in archival principles, but should also be given the opportunity to specialize in order to respond to this growing demand.

I spoke with Prof. Duranti afterwards to follow up on her ideas for the extreme archivist entering the workforce today.

What is the demand for the extreme archivist?

There is an enormous demand, it’s unbelievable!  Looking at job postings today it’s amazing how specific they are.  For example, one posting from the World Bank asked that the applicant have taken courses in financial records, so we added one to our program.

How can a program respond to the needs both for specialization and flexibility, given that professionals today will likely have more than 10 jobs in a career?

Flexibility and specialization aren’t incompatible.  The model of the University of British Columbia allows for this by combining core requirements, electives, and a specialization.  It also gives students the possibility to pursue a dual degree.

You spoke about the importance of communicating with fields outside archives, and mentioned that archivists should raise awareness for their profession by writing in the journals of other professions.  What are some other ways we might do so?

It’s important to get students involved in research, to attend and present at conferences and to hold trans-disciplinary colloquia, as the Association of Canadian Archivists Student Chapter at UBC has done.  The key is research that spans fields.

During the late nineties, in cooperation with ICA, IRMT developed a resources pack including courses, training materials, and a procedure manual to help building competencies in Electronic Records Management. These resources are available on line, on the IRMT web site, and can also be sent by cd with a request to the Trust.

Now focusing on Southern and Eastern Africa, the Trust seeks to develop a new approach. Its efforts aim to establish a Centre of Excellence for the Management of Electronic Records to serve regional needs. It would be a way to raise awareness, and it would help governments to build skills and knowledge.

The Eastern and Southern African Management Institute (ESAMI) in Kampala, Uganda has agreed to host this Centre.  This is a great opportunity, as the Centre is owned by ten countries and will be used by others, and as it will be a reference for Sub-Saharan Africa education.

EASTARBICA is partner in the project. The Trust hopes to establish partnerships with universities and work closely with the National Archives of the countries concerned.

While they hope to provide free training to archivists in public institutions, at the moment lack of funding has kept the Centre from opening its doors.

Entry gate into Medina

Palace of Manuel de Vilhena, now the National Museum of Natural History

Citra participants in the streets of Mdina

Examining legal documents at the National Archives

The cathedral of Mdina, designed by Lorenzo Gaffa was completed in 1700

the Greek plaza

The reading room at the National Archives, Rabat

Passport applications

Reception hosted by the Friends of the National Archives, Santo Spirito, Rabat

The project started in 2009 and will be completed in 2012. Its objective is to provide access to born-digital and digitized archival documents, finding aids, and information about the archival institutions.

Wim van Dongen hopes to increase awareness about the project during CITRA and looks forward to engaging in discussions with conference participants about the portal. The portal was developed based on international archival standards, such as the ISAD(G)/EAD, EAC, EAG and METS.

It is an ambitious project with a short timeframe, and given the enthusiasm and hardwork of all participants, this project will be an important contribution to on-line access and preservation of European cultural heritage.

For more information, see the website: www.apenet.eu

There is great diversity between these countries, but also some constants regarding archives and records keeping : insufficient or underdeveloped legal frameworks ; public policies that don’t take account of archives and records; lack of education and training ; trained professionals going to work elsewhere; lack of professional consideration for archivists; archival traditions influenced by those of the former colonising countries; partial privation of these nations’ memory; the importance of oral tradition (and why low consideration is given to written documents); and concern for the safekeeping of records that can testify to justince and accountability in the face of poor governance.

Why education and training matters: It’s essential to educate and train archivists to protect memory and heritage.
It’s also necessary to have well trained archivists to support good governance and to meet the demands of financial security and transparency.

How to approach education and training:  When basic classical education remains often a luxury, because of a lack of educators and educational institutions, it is no wonder that many southern countries give priority to on-the-job education and  training (seminars, workshops, conferences, lessons by professional associations, e-learning).

Several educational programs exist on a regional level, like the EBAD (École de Bibliothécaires, Archivistes et Documentalistes, in Dakar, for French speaking African countries) and the Tunis School or Cordoba School (Argentina).  National schools exist as well as curricula within university programs, especially in Commonwealth.  Finally training is available in the form of the stage technique international de la Direction des Archives de France, or the IRMT tools – International Records Management Trust.

In many countries, the solution is mixed. In Haiti, two graduating classes underwent a basic one-time training class, then more than half these “archival technicians” attended the stage technique international de la Direction des Archives de France, and two executives went on to complete Masters degrees in Toulouse and Montréal.  This educational program had lasting and growing effects: the two archivists who completed Masters degrees came back in Haiti to work and train other archival workers there.  They created the Haitian Archivists Association, and are eager to develop a records keeping program.

Which strategy for the future?
Education and training in archives and records management is essential for southern countries. But there are now new challenges to confront: the digital gap must be bridged, and archival education must address the management digital records.
To do so, the strategy must be pragmatic:

• Choose priorities in each country, taking into account local situations 
• Enhance the capacity of regional professional schools
• Use e-learning and the tools proposed by IRMT and PIAF (Portail International Archivistique Francophone)
• help students grow through mentoring 
• Use opensource software such as ICA’s AtoM
• Communicate between countries,  consult, and share experiences.

Record Keeping has a way to go in many developing nations:

• It’s a low priority ; the complexity and importance of the issue aren’t fully understood.
• There’s a lack of education and training for archivists.
• The legal framework is outdated.
• Changes in work environments and new technologies present a considerable risk for the records preservation.
• The importance of oral tradition makes it more difficult to manage records.
• Responsibility isn’t always entrusted to senior management and there is little career advancement for records managers.

Developments in freedom of information legislation presents an opportunity that archivists must take advantage of.  This freedom has been viewed for a long time as an essential human right which is necessary to make use of the other rights (UN General Assembly, 1946). But in some countries, its development is quite recent. We must use it to raise awareness about the importance of archives and record keeping.

• Good record keeping is essential for the mechanics of governance.
• It’s an opportunity to develop education and training.
• It can lead to meetings between archivists and between professions to find a coordinated approach.
• It must go hand in hand with updated legal frameworks.

It’s time for immediate action:

• Participate in Freedom of Information discussions : be informed, and insist on participating.
• Highlight the critical role of record keeping for the access to information, for the participation of citizens in the democracy.
• Make the most of  Freedom of Information initiatives by prioritizing and building record keeping capacity.

The onus is on us !