8Th European Conference on Digital Archiving

8th European Conference on Digital Archiving

Dear colleagues,

Switzerland has been chosen to present the 8th European Conference on Digital Archiving (ECA 2010) which will take place in Geneva, from the 28th – 30th April 2010. The European Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (EURBICA), the Section of Archival Professional Associations (SPA) and the Swiss Federal Archives have already started with the organization of this event that will unite the European archival community.

The Scientific Committee of the Conference would like to break new ground with the elaboration of the program by joining with the young generation of archivists. As traditional archivists, we leave an important heritage to our young colleagues – that could reveal itself as rather bulky one day. Therefore we see it as vital to compare our concepts, principles, our visions and new ideas in order to assess their validity and legitimacy.

Following the slogan “Archives Connecting Generations” we would like to encourage an exchange between several generations of archivists before and during the ECA 2010. Concretely we had the idea to invite young archivists for a brainstorming session in Berne, on the 4th and 5th September 2008(Spoken languages: French and English). The aim would be to gather new ideas to elaborate the detailed program of the ECA 2010.

The invitees should consist of the following people: 6 -7 students in the final stage of their archival studies, 6 – 7 archivists on the cusp of a promising career. The age limit is 35 years. The Swiss Federal Archives will provide for the payment of board and lodging. In return the travel expenses have to be borne by the universities, respectively by the employers of the young archivists.

We approach you today in order to ask for your support in finding suitable individuals of the young generation of archivists. Interested candidates should send us a letter of motivation and a brief curriculum vitae until 31stMay 2008. After a selection process we will invite the chosen candidates to the brainstorming session described above.

We hope that our project has aroused interest in our young colleagues and we look already forward to collaborate with them. For any questions and further inquiry we are available and look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

For the Scientific Committee:

Andreas Kellerhals, Director