iConference 2023 and the 18^th Academic Conference in iSchool Federation of international top information colleges had been held from March 13^th to March 17^th, 2023.

Professor ZHANG Bin, professor at the School of Information Resources Management, Renmin University of China, Secretary General of the 8^th Information Resources Management Discipline Evaluation Group of the State Council, Director of the Teaching Steering Committee of Archives in Higher Education Institutions of the Ministry of Education, Professor YAN Hui, professor and the Associate Dean of the School of Information Resource Management, Professor XIE Li, Associate Professor MA Linqing, Assistant Professor YANG Zekun, Ph.D. candidate GAO Yubao from the School of Information Resources Management, Renmin University of China attended the meeting online.

The conference was jointly hosted by the Open University of Catalonia (Spain), Monash University (Australia), and the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (USA). The theme “Normality, Virtuality, Inclusivity, and Physicality” has attracted hundreds of scholars and practitioners from information science and information management around the world.

Professor ZHANG Bin gave a keynote speech entitled “Current Situation, Issues, and Strategies of the Development of Archival Science Higher Education in China” at the opening ceremony of the Chinese Forum. He first reviewed the development of archival science higher education in China. After that, he analyzed the current situation of archival science higher education in China, and pointed out the existing issues in archival science higher education in China. Finally, he put forward some strategies to improve Chinese archival science higher education from the aspects of educational orientation, educational reflection, educational layout, personnel training system, and the challenge of subject renaming.

Professor XIE Li, GAO Yubao, and Associate Professor MA Linqing (corresponding author) were authors of the English long paper “Plus ça change, plus c ‘est la M ême chose – The Australian Records Management Case” accepted by the conference, and Professor XIE Li gave a presentation as the representative. Using a historical approach, the paper traced the changes in file management and information management in Australia from 2007 to 2022 and compares them. The paper discovered that in essence and in practice, the management of documents and archives has not changed into information management, because in Australia, the difference between the management of documents and archives and information management is not significant. That echoes the theme of the conference “The more things change, the more they remain the same”. In the end, the authors suggested that this phenomenon needs to be studied continuously and deeply in order to clarify the connotation and boundary relationship of file management and information management.

Professor YAN Hui chaired one of the three Chinese forums. Assistant Professor YANG Zekun served as the co-host of all three Chinese forums. Researchers and students from Nankai University, Wuhan University, and Suzhou University presented on topics including digital humanities, electronic archives, the use of government data, and the identification of technological frontiers. After all presentations finished, Professor YAN Hui made a wonderful comment and summary of the forum.