Colleagues

At the recent SUSCAG meeting it was agreed that the Group should respond to
the consultation document: Resource's archives agenda.  Arnott Wilson
volunteered to draft a response on behalf of the Group, and this is
reproduced below.  The consultation document can be found at
http://www.resource.gov.uk/information/archive01.html.  It is a short
document, only 12 pages long.  The consultation exercise ends on 1 July
2001, so I would appreciate any comments on the paper and on Arnott's
response by the latest - midday on Friday 29 June 2001.

Thank you

Graeme S. Forbes
Head of Resource Management & Development
Napier University
Learning Information Services
Sighthill Court
Edinburgh EH11 4BN
Tel: +44 131 455 3558
Fax: +44 131 455 3566
email: [log in to unmask]

SUSCAG RESPONSE TO RESOURCE'S ARCHIVES AGENDA

The Scottish Universities Special Collections and Archives Group
(SUSCAG) exists to foster closer co-operation between University
Archives and Special Collections' departments and to consider
issues of common concern.  It is an independent group not
affiliated to any other archives body in Scotland or the United
Kingdom.  As it is expected that detailed responses to the
Resource consultation paper will be submitted by the Society of
Archivists, Scotland, and other bodies representative of the
archives community, this response confines itself to brief general
comments only.

At paragraph 2.5 of the consultation paper it is noted that, "the
exact geographical scope of Resource's archives remit remains to
be resolved through discussions with the devolved administrations
in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland".  Notwithstanding the
structural difficulties occasioned by differing placement of archives
reponsibilities within UK and Scottish government departments,
SUSCAG would urge that a concordat with the Archives profession
in Scotland be agreed as soon as possible.  Given the rapid pace
of development in the English Regional Archive Councils, there is
legitimate concern that Scottish repositories risk falling further
behind their English counterparts if there is no funding mechanism
which allows Resource to disburse funds to aid the development of
Scottish archives.  The report, "An Archival Account of Scotland"
published in February 2000 highlighted the very poor state of
provision for archives in Scotland including those repositories
based in the universities.  The provision of an Archives
Development Officer, as in the English Regional Archive Councils
would have been a most welcome start to addressing some of the
report's findings, but until some means of channelling resources
can be established it will not be possible to make real strategic
progress.

The second point is also related to financial provision.  Over the
past five years or so, funding available for manuscripts and archives
in universities has increased due to non-formula funding for specific
projects such as the Follett programme, and more recently the
joint funding councils' Research Support Libraries Programme.
However, the spread is very uneven and very little of these
resources have been applied to corporate archives, tending instead
to be disbursed on collections generated by individuals and
rare/printed books/pamphlet collections.  Assuming the proposed
'root and branch' review of archives in Great Britain comes to pass,
it should not therefore assume that archives in universities are in
any better position than those in other parts of the archives sector.
A further point  for consideration is that there is to be no successor
to the current RSLP funding programme.

Finally, whilst welcoming the intention to focus on the special role
of archives in relation to education, training and public profile, the
fundamental role purpose and value of archives must not be
forgotten.  Many archivists in Scottish universities are trying to
come to terms with the widespread implications of the Data
Protection Act 1998 and an impending Freedom of Information
legislative regime which will depend on the development of records
management services, which have largely not been present
hitherto.  Without an adequate focus on such development there is
a very real danger that the (increasingly) digital archives of
tomorrow will not survive and effectively access to them will be
denied.

SUSCAG will be pleased to provide any further information and to
participate in discussion as required.

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