From November 26th to 27th, the 14th General Conference and Seminar of the East Asian Regional Branch (EASTICA) of the International Council on Archives (ICA) was held in Tokyo, Japan. The SIRM at Renmin University of China (RUC) and the Fujian Province Archives were newly added as category C members.

KATOH TAKEO, Chairman of EASTICA and Curator of the National Archives of Japan, addressed at the conference. Anthea Seles, secretary general of the International Council on Archives, and Laurence Brewer, Chief Record Officer of National Archives and Records Administration of the United States, were invited to give keynote speeches. Delegates from six countries and regions in East Asia discussed the theme of the conference.

Professor Wang Jian, from SIRM of RUC, on half of SIRM attended the meeting. At the meeting, she introduced the continuous efforts made by SIRM since being a member of the International Archives Council (ICA) in 1988, and expressed that SIRM has further promoted regional and International cooperation and exchange, and has a willingness to make greater contributions to the East Asian region and the international archives community.

EASTICA membership is divided into four categories, of which category C is for institutions related to the management and preservation of archives or professional training institutions for archivists. After becoming a member，SIRM will participate in the activities of the East Asian Branch under the leadership of the National Archives Administration of China and perform the duties of the Beijing Academic Center.

Attachment: Outline of International Exchange and Cooperation, SIRM, RUC

The SIRM at RUC was first established at the beginning of the People’s Republic of China, and has since developed into the largest, and strongest higher education institution with most comprehensive first-tier clusters of disciplines. After SIRM became a member of the International Council on Archives in 1988, it actively joined the international cooperation of the communities, continuously enhanced its international influence, and gave Chinese voice. As a category C member of the International Council on Archives, it has made unremitting efforts in various activities of the ICA.

During the “Thirteenth International Conference on Archives”, Professor Feng Huiling, SIRM’s teacher, served as the keynote speaker, and SIRM hosted the “Eighth International Symposium on Archival Education”, which was the first time that Section for Archival Education and Training of the International Council on Archives authorized Chinese universities to hold academic seminars. Since then, SIRM has participated in the annual conferences of the International Council on Archives. So far, more than 30 teachers and students have been invited to make speeches or poster displays.

Teachers of SIRM have successfully applied for and completed three high-quality research projects of the Programme Commission of the International Council on Archives (PCOM). Two teachers were invited to join the ICA-Req (Principles and Functional Requirements for Records in Electronic Office Environments) implementation strategy research team, undertaking ICA-Req translation work. In addition, they had made contributions to the adoption of ISO 16175 (1-3) into national standard GB/T 34840.

Since 1996, teachers of SIRM have served eight times in various institutions or subcommittees of the International Council on Archives. Among them, in the Section for Archival Education and Training (SAE) of the International Council on Archives, four teachers have been elected as members of the steering committee, one teacher has been elected as the vice-chairwoman and has become the longest-serving member of the committee with her outstanding contributions, and the first in Asia and so far the only vice-chairwoman.

As the sponsor and the first organizer of the “International Symposium on Archival Education in the Asia-Pacific Region”, SIRM has successfully hosted two seminars, gathered many international archival education experts and scholars to share the results, and disseminated the results of Chinese archival education research to international archives communities.

In July 2017, with the support of the Chinese Committee of the Memory of the World Programme of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Memory of World Center-Beijing was established at SIRM, which is also the first academic center in the Chinese mainland. Since then, SIRM and the National Archives Administration of China have co-sponsored the “International Symposium on Memory of China and the World”. SIRM and the Academic Center have hosted two international symposiums and co-sponsored an international seminar with global influence. At the same time, it has created relevant courses, formulated “digital memory” talent training programs, set up digital humanities honorary research minor degree, and provided cutting-edge digital innovative talent curriculum system.

In March 2016, SIRM joined iSchools Consortium, the world’s top information Consortium. On the one hand, it expanded international cooperation in the fields of information, library, and intelligence, while taking advantage of the discipline of archives, and introduced the concept and research perspective of archive management to the iSchools Consortium, and promoted the Consortium to pay more attention to the management of information resources and the development of technology. The iConference held in recent years have more and more exhibited and shared scientific research results from the perspective of archives. In 2018, SIRM became a council member of the Global iSchools Consortium. In 2019, it was authorized to hold the global iConference in 2021. At present, it is planning to hold the “Fifth International Symposium on Archival Education in the Asia-Pacific Region” during the iConference in 2021.

In May 2019, the “2019 Advanced Training Certificate in Archival Studies (Beijing)” jointly organized by the National Archives Administration of China, the East Asian Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (EASTICA), and SIRM was held at Renmin University of China. This is the first time in recent years that the National Archives Administration of China has organized a training course jointly taught by experts at home and abroad. The Advanced Training Certificate in Archival Studies is a traditional project of the EASTICA. It has a history of 15 years and has trained a large number of archivists for East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific.