Onderzoekt en verzamelt de geschiedenis van werk, werkenden en arbeidsverhoudingen wereldwijd

IALHI-conference 2017: Call for Papers

Datum: 
30 juni 2017
IALHI confernce 2017, Call for papers

The Call for Papers for the 2017 IALHI-conference is open until 30 June 2017. The conference theme is: Digital Dreams: Information Technology, Social History Research and the Future of Archives, Museums and Libraries.

If you would like to present your project please send your proposal (500 words) along with a brief professional profile (150 words) to: ialhi2017@amsab.be.

Call for Papers

The use of computers and information technology in museums, archives and libraries has been going on for several years now, however in a number of aspects the digital era in the sector is only beginning, both in the way of opportunities (think Augmented Reality) or as a threat (think Digital Dark Age).

The emerging new IT technologies are challenging and changing the traditional policies of museums, archives and research institutes. Smartphones, networks and GIS technologies open up dazzling new opportunities of transmission of our collections and new communication strategies.

  • But will the digital era be a dream or a nightmare?
  • At what cost will it come?
  • Will the new technologies be global or rather widen the gap with the South?
  • How will IT change the agenda, methods and needs of research, collection management and public programmes in the domain of labour and social history?
  • Can digital technology open up closed collections of workers’ culture or help us bring the history of the labour movement to a larger audience?

The international conference Digital Dreams will bring together museum curators, collection managers and researchers in the field of social history to jointly discuss common issues of existing and emerging digital opportunities. The conference will not be limited to theoretical approaches but will also consider best practices and best cases and look for prospects of collaboration on joint research projects.

Special attention will be given to the implementation of technologies that will further open up our collections for research (think Linked Open Data). This is undoubtedly a two way lane: research will help archives, libraries and museums to collect and preserve the collections in innovating ways (think Crowd Sourcing) and to disseminate cultural heritage to new and much broader user groups (think Virtual Exhibitions). On the other hand, virtualization, digitization and cloud technologies will offer new opportunities to researchers on an unseen scale (think Text Mining).

About the IALHI-conference

IALHI, the International Association of Labour History Institutions, is organizing its 48th annual conference in Gent, Belgium on 6-9 September 2017. The 2017 IALHI conference is being organized by AMSAB – Institute of Social History and co-organized with Worklab-International Association of Labour Museums, with the support of ITH-International Conference of Labour and Social History and ELHN-European Labour History Network.