Let’s celebrate democracy and rights on June 9th. 2015

Cartoon on the friction between tw political parties in Dutch elections (Scale based on the balance in Middelburg, province of Zeeland. Lithography by Joh. Braakensiek, 1897
Source: Zeeuws Archief-Zeeland Archives, Zeeuws Genootschap, Zelandia Illustrata III, no. 362

Celebrating International Archives Day 2015
June 9th. and International Archives Day is almost here again. There are so many topics to choose from! But we propose, that this years activities concentrate on democracy in many ways.

Topic: democracy
The National Archives of the United Kingdom has come up with this topic, suggesting that we make June 9th. a "Twitter day where archives share stories and records within their collection showcasing democracy and rights in different ways".

It is a subject, that most archives can relate to and tell stories about. No matter if you are a large, national archive, a municipal institution or a community archive, we all have records and other material, that can be used to tell the story of democratic development, and people who have stood up for their rights.

Ideas about what to share, could be records that

• have established fundamental rights in your country 
• tell the story of individuals, who played a part in establishing democratic conditions 
• relate to rights of specific groups ( indigenous, ethnic, LGBT, women, children...) 
• show the history of the right to form trade unions and political or religious communities 
• picture election and election days, both national and local
• sound archives with important speaches, interviews etc. 

Your contribution, your choice
And finally your contribution could naturally also be constitutional documents of huge importance and great archival beauty. It is your choice, and we look forward to your contribution.

#IAD15 #democracy : register on blog Ask Archivists
If you wish to join, make a comment on the same blogpost on the weblog of Ask Archivists. And on June 9th. post your content to relevant platforms - blogs, flickr, instagram, your website, etc. - and tweet about it using the combination of two tags: #IAD15 #democracy.

Join International Archives Day on Twitter!
We hope a lot of archives will join, and help show the world, how archives play a vital part in documenting the history of democracy.

This Twitter event #IAD15 #democracy is organized by Ask Archivists and Follow An Archive.

Detail from the first page on the first democratic constitution in the kingdom of Denmark. The original is kept at The National Achives of Denmark. (Original photo: Karsten Bundgaard, Det Kongelige Bibliotek – original is found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/statensarkiver/sets/72157626683287892