Community Archives – keeping community at the heart of archives and heritage

Community archives and heritage groups celebrate and remember the history and heritage of communities, in the community, by the community and for the community. And it is this community context that makes the collections and heritage activities so meaningful. In this year’s conference we will wish to explore the benefits and challenges of keeping archives at the heart of community and community at the heart of archives and heritage. So we are looking for community-led groups and projects to present at our conference on topics such as:

· Engaging community audiences in community collections and histories

· Community, place and identity – community archives and meaning-making

· Making collections visible and accessible to communities

· The benefits of keeping community collections in the communities they describe rather than handing them over to formal heritage bodies

· Online communities and digital community archives

· Challenges and obstacles to sustainable community-held collections

· Digital preservation and community-held digital content

· Partnerships and networks supporting archives and heritage held in the community

· And any other relevant topics…..

Please send in short abstracts / suggestions (200 words) for papers (20 minutes) plus brief biographical details to Andrew Flinn (a.flinn@ucl.ac.uk) by 1st May. Joint presentations welcomed.

The conference will take place in University College London in mid-July and successful paper proposals will be contacted by the end of May. Travel costs will be paid for speakers.