Friday 25 April 2008

Contact details

Just a quick reminder to SOAS members to keep their contact details up-to-date with the Society so that we can keep communicating with you all! It has come to light recently that some members' email addresses are no longer active. We'd be grateful if you could also pass this message on to colleagues or friends who are not yet signed up to the blog but who are SOAS members.

Many thanks,
Susannah Waters, SOAS Publicity Officer.

Wednesday 23 April 2008

SOAS AGM 2008

The Regional AGM on the 8 March 2008 was preceded by a training event on the theme of Managing Work Placements. This was in response to requests for training in this area following Henry’s recent work experience questionnaire. Don’t say we never react to members’ requests! Henry Sullivan started by presented the results of the recent questionnaire (see previous blog entry!) and was followed by Stewart Fyffe, Enterprise in Education Co-ordinator, Dundee City Council places several hundred secondary pupils into placements each year. His entertaining presentation was useful in introducing records professionals to the purposes behind work experience placements. Stewart’s handouts are available on the Scottish Regions pages

Andrew Dowsey gave a presentation on his experience of placements through the New Deal initiative. These are individuals who are looking to develop key work skills and gain experience but who do not necessarily have any interest in archives or records. However, over a 13 week placement their output can be hugely beneficial to them as individuals. For the repository, it is a chance to gain staff to continue ongoing projects, such as catalogue Dean of Guild plans, and to finish off or start small projects. Concerns were raised over unsuitable candidates being foisted onto repositories, but Andrew’s own experience showed that the pre-placement process is very careful to find suitable individuals and that the repository can halt the placement, even after it has started, if it is not working. A lively activity followed where groups designed work placements for school pupils and New Deal placements and this generated a lot of useful discussion and sharing of experience.

After lunch, the focus turned to pre-course and on-course archive placements. Adele Redhead from the Glasgow IMP course and Caroline Brown from the Dundee course set out their ideas of what they consider to be suitable pre-course experience where quality over quantity was highlighted several times as well as reference being made to the FARMER guidelines! Adele also talked about the cataloguing placements undertaken by Glasgow students. It was great to have two Glasgow students give short presentations on their own placements, highlighting both the positive and negative aspects of their placements. Again these are available on the society's webpages. A useful discussion then ensued focusing on how the courses and repositories can help one another in order to provide better placements for students.

This was a useful day for those who attended and the speaker and discussions were both entertaining and informative. A huge thank you to the speakers who gave up their time to share their experiences.

David Powell. SOA,S Training Officer

Tuesday 8 April 2008

Offering Culture through Archives

Society of Archivists - Archives for Education and Learning Group
Annual Conference and AGM 2008

Wednesday 18 June 2008
10.00am – 5.00pm

Venue: Arnolfini, Bristol

SoA Members £50 / Non-Members £60
(this includes a full buffet lunch and wine and nibbles after the AGM)

Bookings are being taken through the Society of Archivists office and
payment should be made directly to them.

Contact details are as follows:
Society of Archivists, Prioryfield House, 20 Canon Street, Taunton,
Somerset, TA1 1SW
Tel: 01823 327030
Fax: 01823 271719
societyofarchivists@archives.org.uk

The conference theme relates to the Government’s recent announcement of a
Cultural Offer, which aims to provide all children and young people with 5
hours of culture a week. A detailed programme will be available soon.

The conference will explore the idea of a cultural offer for children and
young people. It will consider the impact of such a concept on the
heritage sector and on its relationship to the education sector, with
specific reference to the archive domain.

As a sub-theme, other sessions will look at specific examples of how
archives can be used to inspire creative learning. The day will conclude
with the Annual General Meeting of the Archives for Education and Learning
Group.

Keynote address:
Joe Hallgarten, Operations Manager for the Youth Culture Trust and
Education Director of Creative Partnerships.
With a background in teaching and educational policy and research Joe has
been closely involved with the proposal for this DfES/DCMS pledge. He is
now working for the Youth Culture Trust, which is a new body created to
implement the Cultural Offer for DfES and DCMS. Joe will explain the
background to the Cultural Offer and how it relates to existing
initiatives.

Friday 4 April 2008

Bill launched to create a Scottish National Register of Tartan

On Tuesday 25 March Jamie McGrigor MSP launched a Member’s Bill to create the first ever publicly owned Scottish National Register of Tartan.

The Register will work with Scotland’s tartan experts to draw together information about tartan designs held in private hands to create a Register on a statutory basis, that will be independently held, publicly accessible and sustainable.

The Register will also help promote and preserve tartan, provide a focal point for tartan and genealogical research and interest in tartan design and production. Working with the tartan industry in Scotland, the Register will provide a springboard to promote the expertise, quality and value of the Scottish tartan industry.

The National Archives of Scotland will create and maintain the Register, with input from tartan and tartan industry experts in Scotland. The Keeper of the Records of Scotland will act as Keeper of the Register of Tartans, overseeing the Register and the registration of new tartan designs.


Image credit: George Mackenzie and Jamie McGrigor MSP at the reception to mark the introduction of the Tartan Bill © Crown copyright: NAS