Editor’s note, Feb 2010

• Posted on February 1, 2010

Now that some of those 2010 resolutions have already been broken, there is room for more.

Professional organisations can play an important role in our sector. It’s time to bite the bullet and consider your professional memberships in the next year.

Our AP blog this month talks about how professionals in the archive and heritage sector can communicate, collaborate and advocate more effectively in 2010. In our guest blog, correspondent Uthando Baduza suggests that institutions like museums should address current socio-economic challenges. In the second guest blog, Thomas Gstraunthaler reports on a recent conference about the economics of heritage in South Africa.

In our news section, we bring you breaking news about an initiative to form a National Trust in South Africa. We ask you to comment on the draft report on the supply of and demand for skills in libraries and archives sector recently released by DAC. We report on problems with 2010 funding, announce a new exhibition at Luthuli Museum on South Africa after apartheid, and congratulate Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum on their recent award.

Under our Resources section, Xolelwa Kashe-Katiya reports on discussions about critically analysing various sources of indigenous knowledge at a recent workshop of the Archives and Public Culture programme at the University of Cape Town. This is complemented by an interview with Antonio Arantes in English and Portuguese about the politics around drug-related indigenous knowledge in Brazil.

Tell us in our online poll what you would like to see more of on the Archival Platform this year. Watch this space: we’ll soon be announcing our new Director!

With best wishes
Harriet Deacon
Acting Director
The Archival Platform.