SCA Annual Lecture – Access All Areas: Preparing Archival Collections for Presentation with Zoë Reid
SCA are delighted to announce that this year’s Annual Lecture will be given by Zoë Reid, Keeper of Public Services & Collections at the National Archives of Ireland.
The National Archives preserves the memory of the Irish state. It safeguards Ireland’s public records, ensuring their availability as a resource for all. The National Archives holds approximately 50 million records, which tell the story of the evolution of the State and relate to the social, cultural, economic and political history of Ireland, from the Middle Ages through to the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 and into the modern era.
Our main goals as ‘keepers’ of large collections are accessibility and preservation, although these could be seen as being at opposite extremes. The aim of preservation is to protect and preserve the documents, but we are conscious that providing access to collections, particularly through physical material handling and exhibition, may put fragile objects in danger.
How can an organisation accomplish both? In this talk, Zoë Reid will examine how significant public engagement initiatives since 2021 have expanded the reach of the archives beyond their traditional confines. She will discuss challenges and highlights to demonstrate how the National Archives, Ireland have accomplished this while guaranteeing that no documents were damaged in the process.
Registration: Please click here to register.
About Zoë:
Zoë Reid is an accredited conservator and established the Conservation Department in the National Archives (Ireland) in 2002. She has been in charge of preserving the national collection over the long term and ensuring that the archives are open to the public in a secure manner. Her work has been widely published in conservation publications over the past 20 years and she has presented her work at conferences across the world. In 2022, she joined the senior management team as Keeper of Manuscripts with responsibility for Public Services and Collection Care.
Zoë has carried out a variety of conservation, preservation, and digitization work during the recent decade. Recent projects have involved key Decade of Commemorations projects including; The Treaty 1921: Records from the Archives, The Story of a Building, leading the National Archives partnership in the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland and presenting the Michael Collins Diaries. She is one of the co-authors of the book and exhibition ‘On an equal footing with all, Ireland at the League of Nations 1923-1946’.