At the XXVIII Annual Conference held at the George Meany Memorial Archives in Silver Spring, MD, from 1 to 4 September 1997 the Secretary presented his Annual Report.
1 - Co-ordination Committee
Since the Athens Conference (1996) the Coordination Committee consists of Kyrill Anderson (RTsKhIDNI, Moscow), Stephen Bird (NMLH, Manchester), Gerd Callesen (ABA, Copenhagen), Geneviève Dreyfus-Armand (BDIC, Nanterre), Francesca Gori (Feltrinelli, Milan), Jaap Kloosterman (IISH, Amsterdam), Daniel Ophir (Lavon Institute, Tel Aviv), Herman Rösch (Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn) and Wouter Steenhaut (AMSAB, Ghent) as secretary.
The Committee has held 3 meetings in 1996-1997:
- November 30, 1996 in AMSAB, Ghent
Attending: Stephen Bird, Gerd Callesen, Hermann Rösch, Geneviève Dreyfus-Armand, Francesca Gori, Jaap Kloosterman, Wouter Steenhaut (excused: Kyrill Anderson, Daniel Ophir) - March 1, 1997 in BDIC, Nanterre
Attending: Gerd Callesen, Geneviève Dreyfus-Armand, Francesca Gori, Jaap Kloosterman, Wouter Steenhaut (excused: Kyrill Anderson, Stephen Bird) - September 1, 1997 in GMMA, Silver Spring
Attending: Stephen Bird, Gerd Callesen, Francesca Gori, Jaap Kloosterman, Kyrill Anderson, Wouter Steenhaut (excused: Geneviève Dreyfus-Armand)
The meetings of the CC discussed the following items:
- Evaluation of the XXVII Annual Conference IALHI, Athens, 26-28 September 1996
- Approval of the report in question (by Marien van der Heijden)
- Preparation of the XXVIII Annual Conference, Washington, 1-4 September 1997
- Recruitement of new members of the IALHI
- Representation of the Museum group in the CC
- Proposal to the formal formation of the EALHI
- IALHI Newsletter
- Working group IALHInet
- IALHI projects
2 - Membership
Christine Coates, librarian of the TUC Library at the University of North London, as well as the Museum of the Revolution (Moscow) wish to become member of the IALHI. Interest in membership is expressed by G. Muller (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina Florianopolis-Brazil), and by the ILO-Archives Committee (Geneve).
Furthermore the secretariat has sent information to potential members such as Labour Heritage (London) and the Archiv der Arbeiterjugendbewegung (Oer-Erkenschwick, Bundesrepublik Deutschland).
After the Athens' Conference the IALHI (theoretically) consisted of 96 members from 26 different countries, from which 46 did pay their membership fee in 1997 (as per August 15), an increase in membership of 4 institutions compared to 1996 (42 substantial members).
3 - Museum Group
Except for a few loans, activities and projects between individual members of the Museum working group, there was no co-ordinated activity of the group itself. The CC (Paris, 1.III.97) in an attempt to activate the Museum group decided to propose to Conference to increase the number of CC seats from 8 to 9, and to reserve one for a representative of the group, to be elected by the group itself. The CC is of opinion that the members of the Museum working group must be members of IALHI.
4 - EALHI
In order to support the activities and scholarly projects of the European members of IALHI in the European Union, some members of the CC want to set up a European Association of Labour History Institutions. This new group however would remain an integrated part of the IALHI.
5 - IALHI Directory Update
At the request of some members the secretary has compiled an update with the most essential information on each member. The concerning circular has been answered by 45 institutions. Towards the end of 1997 this list will be sent to all members. A copy of IALHI's Directory will be sent to new members, while the other members will receive all informations on those new members.
6 - Publications and Communications
6.1 IALHI Newsletter
The IISH (Amsterdam) is willing to continue the free publication of IALHI Newsletter. For the last issue of IALHI Newsletter many contributions were sent in, also from non-members. The IISH will put the Newsletter on the Internet; twice a year a printed copy will be available. Members can regularly send their announcements or contributions to the IISH in order to put them on the Web. The address of the Newsletter is http://www.iisg.nl/~newsletter.
6.2 IALHI on the WWW
IALHI has now a place on the World Wide Web on the server of the International Institute of Social History, at the address http://www.iisg.nl/~ialhi/.
6.3 Labour Migration
Unforeseen circumstances have kept IALHI from publishing the promised international reading list on labour migration. It will be published in the next months.
6.4 Circular Letters of the Secretarv
The secretariat has sent circulars on April 10, May 21, June 4, and June 26, 1997, concerning the XXVlll Conference in Washington, membership fee, Directory Update 1997, project Periodicals Labour History, cultural project Bread and Roses, European Labour History Network-Labnet.
6.5 Directory Update
The Directory Update of IALHI's members will be published at the end of 1997.
6.6 Relations
Relations with the Intemational Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the International Council on Archives (ICA) have been continued by Jaap Kloosterman and Wouter Steenhaut. Kloosterman is chairman of the Executive Committee of the Section of Business and Labour Archives (ICA), while IALHI's secretary is an active member of the Section of Archives and Archivists of Parliaments and Political Parties.