Preservation and Conservation Section

Date

13-14 August 2014

Location

Geneva, Switzerland

Society without Memory is a society without present or future

The concept of cultural heritage has multiple dimensions unsuspected and unexpected in the digital age. While it may have appeared as outdated, backward-looking, moribund, today its pertinence is renewed and underlined through the natural and man-made disasters that are frequently in the news. More than ever, we see that cultural heritage is essential in our digital society: we need to preserve our memory, to provide access to information for future times,
defend rights (including copyright), and make collections in paper or electronic form sustainable in the long term.

Another dimension of cultural heritage is its global aspect: all peoples and all nations are now aware of the fragility of our world and wish to preserve the culture and the history of mankind for future generations. Digital technology – while certainly still in need of improvement and not providing a solution to everything but exploring some interesting avenues - represents a chance for the preservation of human history.

The Satellite Meeting is organized by IFLA’s Preservation and Conservation Section (P&C) on August 13th and 14th 2014 in Geneva, before the annual and general IFLA Conference in Lyon, which will be held under the auspices of the Geneva Library Association (AGBD), Association for International Librarians in Geneva (AILIS) and the School for Information Sciences in Geneva (HEG), wants to reflect the most current and up-to-date issues of "Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age", taking into account the aspects mentioned above. It will be a place for exchange and idea sharing between Swiss and information professionals from around the world.

Topics

Contributions are invited on topics such as:

Challenges for Cultural Heritage

• Disasters and Preservation Issues:
  the Latest Developments evolution of risks (manmade, natural such as climate change, the impact of virtual technologies such as the cloud),
• Sustainability and Cultural Heritage
  evolution of the treatment of materials and the changes in priorities for mass treatment, long term validity of physical treatment of materials, the balance between treatment reversibility and physical preservation needs, etc… physical repository versus virtual repository (cloud), open access to long term preserved collections, climate regulations, etc
• Legal Issues and Cultural Heritage
  the respect of the public domain (free access and use for all) when the original is digitised, private manuscripts collections and privacy, copyright on documents related to cultural heritage, etc
• The Digital Era reorganisation of preservation including the preservation of digitally born objects, new work flow in the library including preservation and access (restoration and digitisation), etc.

Cultural Heritage as a Worldwide Topic across Nations

• State of preservation of cultural heritage in Africa
  preservation activities, current situation and future requirements based on the 4 themes addressed the first day
• State of preservation of cultural heritage in America (North America, Caribbean, South America)
  preservation activities, current situation and future requirements based on the 4 themes addressed the first day
• State of preservation of cultural heritage in Asia - Oceania
  preservation activities, current situation and future requirements based on the 4 themes addressed the first day
• State of preservation of cultural heritage in Europe and Switzerland
  preservation activities, current situation and future requirements based on the 4 themes addressed the first day

Proposal submissions

The deadline for submissions is: 28 February 2014

Please send your proposal, abstract (300 words), biographical and contact information by email to: Danielle.Mincio@bcu.unil.ch.

Proposals will be reviewed by members of the Selection Committee. Authors of the selected proposals will be informed by 15 March 2014. Full papers are to be submitted by 1 June 2014 to allow time for editing and translations.

Paper presentation: between 10 and 15 minutes will be allowed for paper delivery

Important dates

• 28 February 2014: deadline for submitting proposals
• 15 March 2014: successful speakers notified
• 1 June 2014: full papers to be submitted

Please note

All expenses, including registration for the conference, travel, accommodation etc., are the responsibility of the authors/presenters. No financial support can be provided by IFLA, but a special invitation can be issued to authors.

Congress Attendance Grants

The French National Committee and IFLA have worked hard to secure funds for Conference Participation Grants. Up-to-date information will be available on our Conference Participation Grants webpage.