Digital Dreams. Information Technology, Social History Research and the Future of Archives, Museums and Libraries

48th Annual Conference of IALHI-International Association of Labour History Institutions
in association with Worklab-International Association of Labour Museums

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).

The conference Digital Dreams is organized by IALHI-International Association of Labour History Institutions and Worklab-International Association of Labour Museums, with the support of ITH-International Conference of Labour and Social History and ELHN-European Labour History Network. Hosted in Ghent, Belgium by Amsab-Institute of Social History.

More information: www.amsab.be

See also the Call for Papers (deadline 30 June)