The recent Society of Archivists Regional Meeting in the Borders looked at how archivists can use the new technology of Web 2.0 and blogs. For those of us at conference this followed on nicely from some of the talks there.
Kiara King from Glasgow University Archives gave us an overview of the tools that are available and an overview of two of the blogs she is involved in the Ballast Trust Blog and the GUAS Business Archives Blog. Kiara’s excellent presentation can be found here.
I spoke about our own work at the Scottish Borders Archive turning Victorian family diaries into daily blogs. The diary of Sir George Henry Scott Douglas has been available since April. It follows him on his Mediterranean voyage where he encounters pirates and as a tourist tries a new food, the kebab! His sister Charlotte’s diaries are publishing in weekly installments which give an insight into her love life and the mystery of her ‘dreadful secret’!
One thing that we all took away from the meeting is that Web 2.0 is a useful tool and there are many different ways to employ these technologies. If you want to see examples of how other archives are doing this take a look here.
Juline Baird Assistant Archivist Scottish Borders Council
The annual Society of Archivists Conference was held from the 1st-4th September in the comfort of the Marriott Hotel in Bristol. As always such an event provided an opportunity for archivists and records managers from around the United Kingdom (and beyond) to come together for 4 days of intellectual stimulation, to meet old friends and make some new acquaintances whilst partaking of some good food (and no doubt the odd drink).
Andrew Motion kicked off proceedings on Tuesday morning with the presentation that, for this observer, stole the week. Discussing the Poetry Archive, Motion gave us the full weight of his intellect, experience, depth of reading, and the occasional tease that he may burst into impressions of some of his favourite poets. At the core of his paper was the understanding that the full sense of a poems meaning can emerge through hearing the poet give voice to his own poems. As Robert Frost said “the ear is the best reader” and it benefits the listener to hear the interpretation of the poet, the pauses and the line endings. The Poetry Archive is currently receiving around 175,000 visitors per month and this archivist will soon be joining the crowd – hearing Robert Browning forgetting one of his own poems provided the biggest laugh of the week from me! Motion should also be congratulated for inducing something I never thought I would come across during an archives presentation – bringing a fellow member to tears. Jenny Moran informed Motion and the audience that the sound of a Cornish poet presenting his poems two weeks before he died had made her well up.
Following Motion was Randall Jimmerson from WesternWashingtonUniversity and his paper ‘Archivists and the Call of Justice’. To his credit Jimmerson acknowledged his forebears in his paper – for example, the call for justice is a notion heavily associated with the South African archivist Verne Harris whose writing on this subject is unlikely to be bettered. Jimmerson identified three key areas – accountability, openness and social justice – which the archivist should promote through the work we do in order to further a drive for a better society. Undoubtedly this was a stimulating and thought-provoking presentation although this author must concede that he has spent the past 3 years attempting to produce a thesis that somewhat argues against the thoughts offered by Jimmerson. Although I believe that, in general, most archivists wish to reach the same end-point regarding the documentation of all aspects of society it seems to me that Jimmerson’s advocacy of, for example, personal morality over professional ethics would lead us into a minefield (involving issues of trust, ideology, the fiduciary role of the archive) rather than removing the professional straitjacket. Such issues were raised by Patricia Whatley in her paper on Thursday. Is there a clear answer here? Probably not, although these two papers certainly aided me in dissecting the issues.
Some mentions should be made of the following papers:
Janet McBain issued a cautionary warning that Digital Preservation is not a substitute for the celluloid itself. Digital storage was also found to be 11 times more expensive than traditional storage of film cans. I apologise to Janet but, as with Motion and his sound recordings, what will live long in the memory was her choice of film. We were shown the 4th Marquis of Bute’s wedding in 1905. The highlight was surely the Pipe Band in a rowing boat following the happy couple as they were transported to the steamer for their honeymoon. McBain also explained why social networking sites were not necessarily advantageous to the role and functioning of the archive. Mentioning YouTube and film McBain raised the following issues: (1) Provenance – Film is broken up into clips and given a new title through which they take on a new life. Is this the commodification of our heritage?; (2) The moral rights of the individuals documented; (3) Ripping and re-use – there is easy access to corrupt the original; (4) Is their value in the new user? McBain raised the cheap and offensive comments that are sometimes attached to pieces of archival film on YouTube.
Steve Bailey presented one of the more out-of-the-box presentations of the week by using the example of Amazon to explain how records management decisions should be made from analysing user behaviour. I sense that many practitioners will take a lot of persuading that this is a suitable means through which to make RM decisions (in itself no bad thing) but questions of legislation, regulation, and business requirements instantly made me sceptical. I look forward to Steve’s continuing work in this area to see how it can be developed over the following years.
Tim Padfield spent an hour taking the audience through every conceivable facet of copyright in the digital environment; George Oates presented a riveting take on how collections could be awoken from their conceptual slumber in the archival repository to take on a new life in environments such as Flickr (in some respects this functioned as a counterpoint to McBain); and Susan Healy and Richard Blake provided an overview of the review of the Records Management Code of Practice. This is a Code which, in my limited experience, has aided RM practitioners immensely in ensuring compliance with regulatory and legislative procedures and it was interesting to see how they are planning to alter and tweak it.
A mention should also go to the Pump Rooms at Bath where we followed in the footsteps of the Romans (I may have had an illicit touch of the water – very warm!). A Gala Dinner with accompanying pianist made for a very pleasant meal and atmosphere which I enjoyed in the company of many of my fellow HATII graduates who can be seen in the photograph above. (From left to right: Stephanie Archibald (guest of Craig Gauld); Craig Gauld (Shetland Archives); Gemma Tougher (GUAS); Emma Yan (GUAS); Laura Brouard (Lothian Health Services Archive); Juline Baird (Borders); Chris (Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies)). Other conference photos can be found at http://soaconference2009.wordpress.com/
The University Archives has moved from its cramped quarters in the McCance Building to join forces with the University Library’s Special Collections Department in a light and spacious area on level 5 of the University Library. The new combined department, called Archives and Special Collections, comprises the archives of the University and its antecedent institutions from 1796, other important archive collections and the Library’s collections of rare books. The new facility, which was formally opened by the Principal, Professor Jim McDonald, on 29th May, now offers users the chance to consult the archives and rare books together in a bright and comfortable reading room. New facilities include plenty of laptop places and tables for group or individual research.
Our new address is:
Archives and Special Collections Andersonian Library University of Strathclyde 101 St James' Road Glasgow G4 0NS Tel: 0141 548 2497 Email: archives@strath.ac.uk URL: http://www.strath.ac.uk/archives
Following the recent meeting of the national SoA council a drinks reception was held at the Scottish Catholic Archives in Edinburgh. This was an opportunity for members to meet their national representatives and have discussions in a relaxed environment. The event was attended by both members and students and a good time was had by all! (Pictured are Society President Alan Cameron, Honorary Secretary Jenny Moran and Chairman Peter Emmerson.)
Juline Baird, Secretary, Society of Archivists, Scotland
A focus group session for archivists and records managers in Scotland who work with or care for business archives is being held at the National Archives of Scotland on Thursday 24 September 2009 from 1030 until 1230.
This focus group is your chance to feed your ideas and thoughts into a National Strategy for Business Archives in Scotland. The focus group is an opportunity to:
- find out the purpose of the proposed strategy in a UK context - help identify the issues that you feel affect your custodianship of business archives - identify links and partnerships that could be created to raise the profile of business archives - identify actions that could be undertaken to ensure business archives are captured, preserved and made accessible to as wide an audience as possible
As you may be aware a National Strategy for Business Archives has been published for England & Wales. This strategy aims to "raise the profile of business archives, ensuring they are utilised by business and research alike and that future collection are more representative of the UK's diverse economic activity."
With the support of the National Archives of Scotland and the Scottish Council on Archives, the Business Archives Council of Scotland and the Ballast Trust are working to create a similar strategy for Scotland that reflects our national context. Similar focus groups will be taking place in September aimed at users, academics and non-archivists who care for records.
Following the focus group sessions a draft strategy will be formulated and put out to wider consultation with the aim of a final version being agreed in the new year.
If you would be interested in attending, please contact David Powell (d.powell@archives.gla.ac.uk) on 0141 330 4159 or Kiara King at k.king@archives.gla.ac.uk
Further information about the strategy's development and planned events will also be available at our blog
To celebrate International Archives Day, University of Glasgow Archive Services has launched a new online resource highlighting the international scope and reputation of the University and its archive collections.
Through the collections map, users can gain an appreciation of the impact of Scottish businesses on the development of the world economy and the influence that University of Glasgow, its staff and students have had on the history and development of many countries.
Archive Services staff have selected a number of highlights from the collections for the launch on International Archives Day. The digitised archives give a fascinating insight into a broad range of activities, from geological surveys in Antarctica and Iran to zoological expeditions in South America and medical service in Nigeria; the building of ships and locomotives for service in China, Japan and New Zealand and management of international shipping; the export of sugar machinery to Mauritius and Java, and of beer to Burma, Malta and Australia; and the running of branches and mills in India, Romania, Malawi and Canada. Each entry gives a tantalizing taste of what is available in the wider collection, into which users are welcome to delve. The collections map can be found at: http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/archives/collections/internationalarchiveday/.
Please do have a look!
Clare Paterson Assistant Archivist (Scottish Business Archive)
The National Council on Archives has published their report on volunteering in the archive sector. This is the outcome of a survey carried out earlier this year of volunteers to “celebrate and re-investigate the role of volunteering in the archive sector.” The report is available from the NCA website and provides an insight into why people volunteer, what the benefits are, the procedures different archives use and several case studies. The Ballast Trust , is the only Scottish case study in the report. The Ballast Trust is a small charitable organisation based in Johnstone which processes technical archives (shipbuilding, railway and engineering plans and photographs) for other archive repositories. We rely heavily on the work of our volunteers and without them it would be very difficult for us to make sense of the material we work with. Because of the unique nature of the Trust’s operations and our use of volunteers with highly specialised knowledge we provided a good example of the benefits of matching specialist records with the appropriate specialist expertise to understand them. To find out more, please read the report or visit our website.
The Society of Archivists is the principal professional body for archivists, archive conservators and records managers in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Its Scotland Region is a vibrant and active section of the society which holds meetings and events regularly throughout the year.
