SAMLA launch event

Working Group on Archives

Together with the WG on Cultural Heritage and Property the WG organized the conference “Archives of Traditional Culture: 100 + 10”. It announces its continued engagement with the International Council on Archives, Section on University and Research Institution Archives and the launch of the Norwegian national digital tradition archive SAMLA.

  1. Conference “Archives of Traditional Culture: 100 + 10” update

  2. Continued engagement with the International Council on Archives, Section on University and Research Institution Archives

  3. The launch of SAMLA

Conference “Archives of Traditional Culture: 100 + 10”

The conference “Archives of Traditional Culture: 100 + 10” took place on October 29-31 in Riga, Latvia. The conference aimed to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Archives of Latvian Folklore and offered a discussion forum about the past and future of tradition archives. It was jointly organized by the Archives of Latvian Folklore and the Institute of Literature, Folklore, and Art at the University of Latvia in cooperation with the SIEF Working Group on Archives and the SIEF Working Group on Cultural Heritage and Property and Riga City Council. See here for the conference program: https://lulfmi.lv/files/2024/100_10_Conference_Programme.pdf . It featured presentations by diverse humanities and social sciences researchers from 18 countries. The recordings of the conference are available via: https://www.youtube.com/@LFK1924

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Continued engagement with the International Council on Archives, Section on University and Research Institution Archives

The SIEF Working Group on Archives first became involved in the work of the Section on University and Research Institution Archives (https://www.ica.org/ica-network/professional-sections/suv/) (ICA-SUV) of the International Council on Archives back in 2016 when Maryna Chernyavska, currently the co-chair of the WGoA, joined the Section Bureau. In the years that followed, ICA-SUV held two conferences that engaged with folklore in archives: “Cultural Heritage Materials – University, Research and Folklore Archives in the 21st Century” (2017, Riga) and “Turning the Wheel: Access to Archives – Tradition and Variation” (2023, Dublin), which brought together folklore researchers, folklore archivists, professional archivists, and archival scholars.

After eight years of service, Maryna is stepping down from her role on the ICA-SUV Bureau. However, the engagement and collaboration between university, folklore and other research institute archivists will continue. We are pleased to share that Kelly Fitzgerald, Head of the School of Irish, Celtic Studies and Folklore and the SIEF WGoA Board member, was elected to serve on the ICA-SUV Bureau for 2024-2028. Kelly was instrumental in the establishment of the SIEF Working Group on Archives, has served on the board since the group’s beginnings, and has a wealth of knowledge and expertise in folklore studies and folklore archives to contribute. We look forward to our ongoing collaboration with ICA-SUV and further critical examination of the role of folklore archives in the broader archival world.

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The launch of SAMLA

The Norwegian national digital tradition archive SAMLA.no was launched on September 26, 2024 in Bergen, Norway. The SIEF WGoArchives has collaborated with SAMLA (https://samla.w.uib.no/about-samla/) for a number of years, including a series of webinars on folklore archives (https://www.youtube.com/@siefworkinggrouponarchives4385). The SAMLA launch event was followed by a one-day seminar (https://www.uib.no/en/ahkr/171616/samlano-and-way-forward-digital-tradition-archives-europe) that explored SAMLA’s innovative design, the research opportunities it offers, and the future of digital tradition archives in Europe. Several SIEF WGoA members have been part of SAMLA from the very beginning including the project lead Kyrre Kverndokk of the University of Bergen, Line Esborg of the University of Oslo, Audun Kjus of the Norwegian Ethnological Research, Fredrik Skott of the Swedish Institute for Language and Folklore and many others.

Seminar participants discussed in detail various stages and aspects of the project, demonstrated the front and back end of the online platform, presented the metadata schema, and shared challenges that came up in their work with a diverse and rich body of materials housed at three tradition archives: the Norwegian Folklore Archives at the University of Oslo, the Norwegian Ethnological Research at the Norwegian Folk Museum, and the Ethno-Folkloristic Archive at the University of Bergen. Susanne Österlund-Pötzsch of the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland and a board member of the SIEF WGoA presented her concluding remarks and offered thoughtful observations and considerations for a continued conversation on the topic of tradition archives and how we can preserve folklore materials and make them accessible to our growing audiences in a meaningful, efficient, and respectful way.

Maryna Chernyavska


SAMLA launch

Photographer: Silje Teigland Røstøen