A new bursary and a new professional

Lara Garrett writes about her experience at the ARA 2023 conference in Belfast as the recipient of a new bursary from Artefactual:

The 2023 ARA conference in Belfast was the first ARA conference that I have ever attended. Being new to the sector (I started working in my first archives role in November 2022, and have just enrolled on the postgraduate diploma), the experience was incredibly valuable.

I am very grateful to Artefactual for generously sponsoring my place at the conference. I had the pleasure of meeting Jenn Roberts, Sarah Mason and Maaike Bos from Artefactual and spending Thursday night’s gala dinner with them. It was wonderful to meet so many new people over the three days and to find out about all the innovative work being done across the sector.

In particular, I enjoyed learning about the work being done to make the sector more inclusive and accessible. The panel discussion with Philip Milnes-Smith, Iida Saarinen, Ella Clarke and Jack Kirby provided fantastic food for thought, sharing lots of practical tips as to how we can improve the accessibility of our profession, premises and collections. A key takeaway for me was the importance of making accessibility information really clear on websites. Jack suggested that, if resources are limited, archives could include a line on the website to the effect of “if you have any accessibility needs, please email us at…”. I liked this suggestion as it is simple to implement but shows users that accessibility is taken seriously.

I also enjoyed learning about digital archiving. This is an area of the sector which I had not yet had a chance to explore, so I wanted to take the opportunity to learn more about it. Francesca Mackenzie’s interactive workshop on file formats was especially fun and opened my eyes to a part of the archives world that I hadn’t known existed!

Another highlight was attending Naomi Korn’s session on copyright. I’ve always been very nervous about potentially infringing copyright legislation. Naomi highlighted the risks of being too risk averse with regards copyright, for instance, losing out on outreach opportunities and the chance to reach more diverse audiences. It was really interesting to hear her viewpoint on approaching copyright with some appetite for risk, and this is something I will bear in mind as I embark on my archival career.

The ARA conference was a hugely enriching and enjoyable experience, and I hope that I am able to attend again!