ARA publishes its Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Direction report
ARA publishes its Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Direction report
As part of ARA’s ongoing commitment to embedding equity, diversity and inclusion in all that it does, we have published a new Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Direction report.
This builds on the work we are doing in this area, which in 2023 included:
A seven part free training series: “Embedding Equality, Equity, Diversity and Inclusive Practice in the UK Archive Sector” this webinar series is designed to allow members (and others) to move through the training at their own pace. Part 1 introduces key issues and concepts. Part 2 builds on this knowledge, offering practical steps to embed inclusive practice in your workplace. You can find out more about the training and access all the training materials here on the ARA website.
Working with the Diversity Allies, we launched three blog series on the main ARA Website:
In addition members can access Community Conversations – a series of videos hosted by Elizabeth Oxborrow-Cowan featuring online interviews that explore the experiences of people from different backgrounds in their engagement with the archive sector from a variety of perspectives.
The Diversity Allies also worked with a number of ARA’s sections and groups to provide training and insights on a variety of topics.
We are also working hard to embed equity, diversity and inclusion in our publications and events. At out conference in Belfast many of the presentations touched on EDI topics and issues and Jenny Moran once again hosted the ‘Is It Okay’ fringe session. It was encouraging to see that this was now programmed for the largest conference space, having been in the smallest at our last conference in Chester – a move that was rewarded with a good attendance from delegates. In attempting to be more inclusive and accessible we learnt a lot of valuable lessons and very much appreciate the honest feedback from delegates, that will help us to do better in Birmingham in 2024.
We are continuing to work with colleagues in the wider GLAM sector, for example the Libraries EDI group convened by SCONUL, as well as regularly attending What Next? meetings to understand and learn from the work of culture sector colleagues.
In ARC magazine the Editor and Joint Editors make a strong commitment to bringing news that relates to EDI topics and also showcasing a variety of voices. In 2023, we had twice as many female feature writers as male and nearly half of all our feature writers had another protected characteristic (that we knew about).
Our podcast series ‘Outside the Box’ which launched in 2022 and continued in 2023 also features a wide range of voices and topics in order to highlight to the public that archives are for everyone.
There is always more to do in this area of our work and we welcome constructive feedback to help us do better.