SBL held its annual meeting and seminar in Mikkeli and Helsinki in Finland June 10th-12th.
In its bureau meeting the section dealt with imminent matters concerning its membership, the membership dues, the times of crisis in the business world and promotional matters such as its website and the updating of information brochures and the dissemination of recommendations from SBL to the business world as well as its future program activities.
Even though member recruiting is temporarily on a stand still and even though the bureau decided to decline the ICA wish to strengthen the ICA budget through an increase of membership dues the bureau has taken a dynamic stand as to the continuance of participation in seminars and conferences around the world.
The seminar held in Helsinki on June 12th was in itself a proof of this attitude: an audience closing up to 60 participants in the spectacular reading room of the Finnish National archives listened to a number of speakers addressing a wide variety of issues such as:
- Profit or benefit? Global structures in management and preservation of digital data”,
- “The Evolution of the Document Management in the Bank of Finland”,
- Company archive and finance, case Saint-Gobain Group, Franfce”, Business Archives in United Kingdom”,
- Long-term digital preservation in Elka (The Finnish Business Archives) and Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences”.
Further the SBL chair will participate in discussions with the EABH (European Association on Bank archives” in order to form a strategy to save archives from financial institutions being at risk due to mergers and bankruptcies.
The chair and the vice-chair, mr. Didier Bondue, shall take part in a conference on Business Archives in Cordoba, Argentine, in mid-September, this being the first seminar on Business Archives in South-America ever.
Another first of its kind conference is being planned in India in December following up meetings in China and Australia in 2006 and 2007.
Plans for meetings in Paris and Norway in 2010 are being scheduled. And already at this stage I recommend all archivists to keep updated on the ICA CITRA meetings in Malta in November 2009 and Oslo, Norway in September 2010. These meetings are opportunity for archivists to meet for discussions dealing with imminent issues on a international level.
