The call will reflect on how COVID-19 has impacted the sector (for better or worse) two years on. It will be hosted by John Chambers chief executive of ARA, with co-hosts Robin Sampson from Norfolk Record Office, Anne Barrett from Imperial College and Susana Sanchez-Gonzalez from the John Ryder Library, Manchester.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many challenges to our sector – but has it also brought benefits? Our co-hosts bring a variety of experiences; from running archive services and community projects during the pandemic, to collecting the science, to setting up virtual reading rooms.
The call will be hosted by John Chambers – Chief Executive of the Archives & Records Association who oversaw the setting up of the ARA Together programme and other aspects of ARA’s COVID-19 response.
Co-hosts are
Robin Sampson - Robin is a qualified archivist and is currently employed as Project Manager on Norfolk Record Office's Community Archives: Skills, Support and Sustainability project. His recent article for ARC magazine argued that despite the difficulties Covid-19 has caused the sector, the events of the past couple of years have brought some positivity and new opportunities.
Anne Barrett - Anne is College Archivist and Corporate Records Manager at Imperial College in London
Susana Sanchez-Gonzalez – Susana is Special Collections Reader Services Co-ordinator & ICP PhD candidate in Museology at The John Rylands Research Institute and Library at The University of Manchester.
The call will be on our ARA Together Discord Channel.
If you are already a member of ARA Together’s Discord online server all you have to do is click this link on the date and time of the call. Then go to the ARA server by clicking on our logo in the left hand grey menu. At the bottom of the left hand menu you will see VOICE Channels - just click on Weekly Call to join the call.
If you aren’t yet a member of 1,400 strong ARA Together Online Community on Discord, signing up is very easy to do. Simply click here to create your Discord account and sign in.
Once you are signed in, you can access the ARA Together server from the left-hand menu bar (shown with an ARA icon). In the ARA Together server you will see different channels showing on the left with different channel titles. Please review the #server-rules and then jump into the #welcome channel to introduce yourself. If you need any support with Discord, simply pop your questions in the #server-support channel or email Deborah at deborah.mason@archives.org.uk.