As we look forward to the ICA Rome conference, to meetings of our Section, and to meetings with colleagues who may be considering joining our Section, it may be useful to try to define what we mean by Literary Archives.

This is the definition used by the British group known as GLAM (Group for Literary Archives and Manuscripts):

GLAM defines ‘literary’ as creative writing in all genres, whether or not intended for publication, including:

• Poetry
• The novel
• Other forms of fiction (including short stories and novellas)
• Other prose writing, such as essays and letters by or relating to ‘literary’ figures
• Writing for drama, in the theatre, or for radio, television and film
• Life writing, including literary biography, autobiography and self-representation
• The writing of criticism (both theoretical and practical) relating to creative writing, including editing, reviewing and the histories of literature
• The process of publishing or otherwise supporting the production and dissemination of literature

The definition is intended to hold good regardless of format. It includes book proofs, therefore, and both born-digital and digitised formats.

Do we have a similar definition for Artistic Archives?