ARA Sections
The ARA's Sections are in place to provide professional support, guidance and training to the ARA Membership.
As an ARA Member you get free access to all of the Sections below that may be of interest.
Whether your role or interests are focused on business records, education and learning, records management or data standards we aim to support our members with opportunities to gather and share information around practical advice, best practice, useful resources, links with appropriate organisations and ways to promote education and research.
In summary the Sections are:
Archives for Learning & Education Section (ALES)
The Archives for Learning and Education Section (ALES) advocates for the use of archives in formal education and informal learning activities. ALES provides skills training and shares useful tools, resources and examples of good practice with its members to help them deliver innovative and effective user learning experiences.
Email: ales@archives.org.uk
Twitter: @ARALearning
Blog: https://aralearning.wordpress.com/
Read ALES Terms of Reference here.
Archives & Museums
Archives & Museums provides a focal point for record keepers, conservators and volunteers interested in archives, museums and galleries and working in all types of institutions and work-settings. Members are encouraged to share challenges, solutions and best practice across areas of all museum and object management.
Email: sam@archives.org.uk
Twitter: @ARAArchMus
Blog: https://aramuseums.wordpress.com.
Archives & Technology
The Section for Archives and Technology aims to provide a community of best practice and research around the intersection of archives, records and technology. Members are supported in keeping abreast of developments and working towards best practice in the curation of digitised and born digital materials, and their discovery and use.
Email: sat@archives.org.uk
Twitter: @ARAArchiTech
Business Records
The Section for Business Records Section represents the interests of business records within the ARA for all archivists and records managers working with business archives. It provides a forum for advice, support and the promotion of best practice in the field of business records for individual members and the ARA as a whole.
Email: sbr@archives.org.uk
Twitter: @ARABusinessRec
Blog: https://arasectionforbusinessrecords.wordpress.com/
Community Archives & Heritage Group (CAHG)
Community Archives & Heritage Group (CAHG) aims to support and promote community archives in the UK. It brings together bodies and organisations concerned with community archives and provides a forum for the regular exchange of views, information and best practice.
Email: enquiries@communityarchives.org.uk
Twitter: @Carchives
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CommunityArchivesCAHG/
Website: https://www.communityarchives.org.uk/
Film, Sound & Photography
The Section for Film, Sound and Photography was established to exchange views, information and best practice on the archiving, preservation and conservation of film, sound and photographic archives. It provides practical advice and useful resources to archivists and curators of collections and encourages education and research in this field.
Email: fspg@archives.org.uk
Twitter: @ARAFSPG
Preservation & Conservation
The Section for Preservation and Conservation aims to promote information exchange and contact between members with an interest in preservation and conservation. It helps develop and deliver training in the field and encourages research within the practice of archive conservation, the nature of archival materials and the causes of their deterioration.
Email: preservationandconservation@archives.org.uk
Twitter: @ARA_PCG
Conservation Training Scheme:
Email: conservationtraining@archives.org.uk
Twitter: @ARAConsTraining
You can find out more about the Section for Preservation and Conservation here.
Records Management and Information Governance
The Section for Records Management and Information Governance is dedicated to helping members and others involved with or concerned about records management. It provides a forum to help with the exchange of information, to advise on training matters and to facilitate contact between ARA members with a special interest in records management.
Email: rms@archives.org.uk
Twitter: @ARARMIG
Section for Specialist Repositories (SSR)
The Section for Specialist Repositories (SSR) provides a forum for those employed outside local record offices. Its members include archivists working in business, museums and schools, among other environments. It aims to represent the interests of those in small, specialist archive services and environments, including many lone archivists. It maintains a core interest in higher education.
Email: srg@archives.org.uk
Section for New Professionals
The Section for New Professionals supports those in the first five years of a career in record-keeping professions, including trainees, interns, recently qualified professionals, para professionals and those embarking on the Professional Development Programme within the first five years of employment. It aims to bridge the gap between new professionals and the wider archive community through the provision of training events and networking sessions. The Section also hosts the popular Peer Pals programme which aims to bring mentors and mentees of different levels of experience together to share knowledge and demystify starting out in the sector.
Email: newprofessionals@archives.org.uk
Twitter: @ARANewProfs
Blog: https://aranewprofessionals.wordpress.com/
Archivists of Scottish Local Authorities Working Group (ASLAWG)
ASLAWG (Archivists of Scottish Local Authorities Working Group) represents Scottish local government archivists and records managers. It aims to promote the preservation and use of Scottish local authority records, provides a support network and a platform for the exchange of ideas, and helps develop and share best practice in the management of local authority records.
Email: ashleigh.thompson@edinburgh.gov.uk
Chief Archivists in Local Government
The Chief Archivists in Local Government Group (CALGG) aims to influence policies and practices to promote the preservation and use of archives that are in the care of local authorities with archive powers in England and Wales. It provides a platform for the exchange of ideas and information among local authority archive services and with others.
Email: calgg@archives.org.uk
Environmental Sustainability Group
The Environmental Sustainability Group was set up in 2022. The purpose of this new group is to advocate for environmental sustainability in the record-keeping sector and to provide the tools and resources to help members enact this professional duty to the environment. You can read about the group here.
Email: ARAenvironment@archives.org.uk
Twitter: @ARAEnvironment
Legislation and Standards Working Group
The Legislation and Standards Working Group (LSWG) is the section of ARA responsible for responding to formal consultations on local, national and international legislation and standards that impact on our membership and the wider record-keeping professions.
Email: legislation@archives.org.uk
National Surveys Group
The National Surveys Group coordinates two important surveys for the sector The Survey of Visitors to UK Archives and The Survey of Distance Users of Enquiry Services. The surveys take place in alternate years so each survey takes place once every two years.
Contact: arasurveysgroup@archives.org.uk
Security and Access Group
The Security and Access Group provides an informal network for archives and libraries to share good collections security practice and exchange information about collections security issues such as reading room security, security of collections in storage and cyber-security, among others.
Contact Joe Marshall at National Library of Scotland on J.Marshall@nls.uk if you are interested in joining the group.
If you are interested in joining a Section, contact the section representative.
See below for events and resources.
EVENTS AND RESOURCES
Full details of all ARA events can be found here:
Resources can be found in two places:
Resources section here which contains documents and links to external resources.
Training Resources area which is part of the Member Zone, contains video training resources.