ICA Section on Business and Labor Archives (SBL)
REPORT TO THE 16th SESSION OF THE ANNUAL
GENERAL MEETING OF ICA
SBL has benefited from the “full-time” work and travel of our Chair Hans Näss.
Due to his role as “ambassador” from Norway and his attendance at many
conferences around the globe, Hans has raised the visibility of SBL and the
importance of Business Archives. The SBL Chair is a member of the Executive
Board and has taken part in all board meetings. And the SBL Chair headed the
ICA Task Force on the revision of the revenue structure, 2005-2007. The Chair
and Vice-Chair Didier Bondue both attended the CITRA meeting in Abu Dhabi,
November 2005.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF SBL FROM 2004 TO 2008
1)
Created an outreach brochure which is available in English, Italian and
French versions. Printed copies were produced and distributed during many
archival meetings. Electronic copies are posted on the SBL website. Versions in
Spanish and Russian are in process.
2)
Created a uniform format (outline) for the country overviews, so they are
similar in style and content. The content of the 2004 Report [title] was revised
and the following 8 country overviews are now available on the SBL web site:
 Cameroon
 Denmark
 Finland
 France
 Greece
 Italy
 Japan
 Norway
 Portugal
 UK
 USA
3)
Held one or two Bureau meetings each year, many in conjunction with
business archives programs and conferences:
 Spring 2005 in Dortmund, Germany – organized by Karl-Peter Ellerbrock
 August 2005 in New Orleans, USA – held in conjunction with the Society
of American Archivists annual meeting, organized by Elizabeth W. Adkins
and Becky Haglund Tousey
 April 2006 in Blois, France – included a meeting with several French
business archivists, organized by Didier Bondue
 November 2006 in Edinburgh, Scotland – in conjunction with a 1-day
business archives conference sponsored by UK Business Archives



Council and Society of Archivists, organized by Alison Turton and Lesley
Richmond
February 2007 in Sydney, Australia – in conjunction with Economic History
Conference (APEBH) and a meeting with Commonwealth Banks archives
group, organized by Bruce Smith. As a result, a task force was
established to set up an Australian Business Archives Forum.
September 2007 in Genoa, Italy – organized by Alessandro Lombardo
June 2008 in Stavanger, Norway - in conjunction with a special program
and alternative membership quadrennial meeting, organized by Hans
Näss
4)
Improved management of SBL content on the ICA web site. Updates are
now made more quickly with the assistance of the ICA Paris office staff.
5)
Revised SBL by-laws to align with the new ICA constitution.
6)
Supported the development of a “Business Archives Handbook” in the UK.
7)
Increased contact with Asia Pacific business archivists as a result of
Bureau members participating in conferences in that region:
a) Access to Archives conference: Tokyo, Japan (May 7-11, 2007)
b) Seminar on business archives: Guangzhou, China (December 4-6,
2007)
8)
Vice-chair Didier Bondue attended the Croatian Archivist Association
annual meeting in Bjelovar, Croatia, October 2007.
9)
Joint project between SBL and SAA’s Business Archives Section to
produce a benchmarking survey of business archives. The web-based survey
will be disseminated in early summer 2008 and results made available by fall.
Respectfully submitted,
Becky Haglund Tousey, CA
Secretary, SBL
28 April 2008