Dear Matthew,

Thanks for your reply - I must say I'm surprised you only had 3 responses as
it is about time we atarted getting more feedback from the user side on the
listserv and I'd have thought more people would want to respond.

The reality of the situation is:

In general: most archives in the private sector are set up to service their
parent organisations, not the public. We have to fight for the right to let
the general public in the door. The organisations usually do not have this
kind of service as part of their core function and can get very impatient if
us archivists get too pushy, even to the extent of shutting us down. In
this archives differ markedly from libraries and museums which are
established to collect and disseminate a particular type of information to
either the public or specified researchers. So it isn't that organisations
necessarily have a low regard for archives (although we are ALWAYS bottom of
the pile, literally - in the basement - and figuratively - when it comes to
budgets); they just have a different perception of our function to the
public researcher. In addition, a great many of us are part-time, one-man
bands who spend the bulk of our few days at work doing specific work for our
organisations - there's very little time left over for anything else.

Specifically re the RCOG: I would love to have my catalogue on the internet
but my College won't allow it on grounds of cost (I know, I know)! It is,
however, going up on the AIM 25 website as I am involved in that lottery
project. As there's little money here for more than the most essential
facilities (and when you think about it, why should there be, given the
terms of reference of my organisation?), there won't be any for web-based
images etc for the forseeable future - and even if there were I don't - and
won't - have the staff resources to follow such a project up. Nor would I
have the resources to physically service a huge number of researchers,
either in person or electronically - there ain't enough hours in the day!

Having said that all of us are slowly and painfully working towards the day
when we are treated as valuable for our research material as well as our
services to the parent body. It is a constant and desperately slow drip
process, and can be hurried along by researcher demand. So keep it up!

Clare

-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Goldschmied [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 18 April 2002 17:38
To: Clare Cowling [IS]
Subject: RE: How YOU are perceived


Clare,

Thank you for your participation in this very interesting discussion. I
have had 3 responses to the message so far and already I am seeing that
there is the desire to embrace changes but a real lack of hope that anything
is possible.

The problems and some suggestions

It seems that the first people to convince of the importance of archives are
the organisations that house them. Why do they have such a low regard for
their collections? My experiences at the RIBA suggested that there is great
importance put on the archive material itself but there seemed to be little
interest amongst council members etc in addressing a long-term archiving
strategy. They have just been awarded a small HLF grant to improve storage
but this will not go very far in securing the future of the material in the
long-term. To address the problem I think that we need to look at the best
way to get more people involved in the care of the material by making more
people value it as a resource. To do this you need more people to see and
use the material but at present that is only possible by visiting the
college. If people could access the material via the Internet you could
broaden the net of users to include the world Internet community (currently
560million people). Interestingly, participation in tertiary education in
the UK has grown to 35% because the number of institutions offering degree
courses has trebled since the 1960's. Combine this with escalating costs of
studying and you find that there are many more people making use of remote
research resources because they decide to live at home, study through
correspondence etc...

To get to a situation where all work is digitised and available online an
integrated digital system must be established that is efficient and useable.
On the acquisition side my company has developed a software application that
allows database creation and image digitisation to happen simultaneously
thereby ensuring the integrity of the text and image relationships.
Obviously it is designed to save time in the archiving and scanning process
and our current project has an average weekly throughput of 1200 scans
(fully archived). The client is a commercial architect with the funds to
implement such a system and the job is to archive and scan 100,000 large
format drawings. The software is uniquely configured to the job but was
designed so that it can be easily reconfigured for any other project. I
would love to discuss with you how we might be able to apply a solution to
your archive should you be interested.

As I mentioned in my initial message on the NRA site I are primarily
concerned with visual material but I understand that a majority of your
collections are manuscripts, or at least text based. In spite of this there
are ways to commercially exploit all of your material.


Potential for commercial exploitation of the material

Visual material can be licensed out to serve publishing, advertising and
marketing etc., often loosely described as the creative industry.
Undoubtedly there will be interest from the educational community and there
may be potential to sell cheaper licenses for lower quality digital versions
for use in research, presentation etc...

Text material is harder to evaluate at present in terms of commercial
potential but there are growing signs that networked resources can generate
revenue. Searching can be done through a 'shopping catalogue' and the
actual content can then be purchased for a small fee. The main target group
for the material would be the educational community who will readily pay a
small fee than spend a great deal of time and some money to come and see the
material first hand.

Tell the RCOG that there is a commercial opportunity begging to be fulfilled

They may say, "Great, but I'm afraid we can't afford to fund the project".
As long as they support the idea of commercial exploitation in principle the
lack of in-house funds is not necessarily a problem because there are many
sources of funding available elsewhere. I am sure that you are aware of the
myriad government initiatives that are in place or planned to make access to
archives easier and to promote the wealth of knowledge and experience that
is contained within UK collections. When my company begins to generate
significant profits we intend to begin offering funding in exchange for a
share of the income that may be generated but at present we wish to develop
relationships with government and organisations with important archives to
begin addressing the problems and breaking down the barriers to implementing
digital resources. We see ourselves as a conduit for access by bridging the
gap between analogue resources and digital delivery of those resources.

From what you wrote there is not even decent technology or storage available
for you to create a long-term prescient archiving strategy. A
well-considered business plan will automatically include providing the tools
necessary to carry out the plan (including extra manpower). Well considered
plans are the kind of thing that get funding from this government especially
if they appeal to the revised remits of various government departments and
committees such as RESOURCE, DCMS, A2A etc.


We are The Sinnott Partnership

Our mission is to empower culturally wealthy but cash-poor organisations
with the ability and means to create at the very least a self-sustainable
resource and at best a highly profitable commercial operation that can fund
future developments and provide utilities for preservation AND restoration.
This can be done by implementing simple systems and procedures for the
acquisition, retrieval and dissemination of material. We have spent the
last 18 months extensively researching the commercial aspects, identifying
key areas of interest (the market sector to serve), developing technological
applications to cut the costs of digitisation and looking at how to expand
the potential of commercial opportunity.

All of this will bring the perception of archives and archiving out of the
vicious circle that you mentioned and present a new image shifting from
'exclusive square' to 'virtuous spiral'.

These are my ideas and obviously I have little knowledge of the details of
your collections or your work but I hope that you have found them
interesting.

I thoroughly enjoy discussing this subject and I hope that some of the
depressing pessimism and resignation that I have witnessed on the NRA
discussions is alleviated in the years to come. This is all possible and
the sooner we start making it happen the sooner archiving as a profession
will be valued again.

Please comment on this and let me know if you would like to discuss anything
further.

Kind regards,

Matthew

-----Original Message-----
From: Clare Cowling [IS] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2002 2:33 PM
To: 'Matthew Goldschmied'; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: How YOU are perceived


I'd love to "engage in actively
implementing digitisation projects for the purposes of disseminating
cultural heritage, safeguarding historical artefacts, commercially
exploiting content to enable self-financing sustainable archives". All
archivists would. But it's a tad difficult when we can't even get sufficient
support from our organisations for basics such as a room to work in,
shelves, boxes, p.c.s or printers, or enough staff/hours to even do the most
basic cataloguing on word files (data bases? Pictorial web-based images?
Don't make me laugh).

Yes, the perception that archives is unimportant won't change until we make
our collections more accessible. But we can't do that because we have no
money to do so due to the perception of archives as unimportant. Any
suggestions, Matthew?

Clare Cowling
RCOG and IALS Archivist

-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Goldschmied [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 15 April 2002 18:20
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: How YOU are perceived


Dear all, who have participated in recent message string "How we are
perceived",

I formed a company 18 months ago and our business ideas rely upon the
skills and expertise of the archiving community, particularly those
curating and archiving collections of the visual arts community. My
business partner and myself are both graduates from UCL and through our
research for our respective degrees, we developed an interest in the
availability (or lack) of visual resources from collections around the
world. Some areas of study are catered for better than others but in
general there is a lot more that could be done to create access to archives
of all types.

In my own course of study (History of Art, with specialist courses in
Preservation, Conservation and Restoration 1996-1999) I researched many
themes such as; Art and Politics in Weimar and Nazi Germany, Renaissance
Portraiture, History and Analysis of Paint and I wrote my dissertation on a
comparison between the restoration of the mosaics of the Albert Memorial
and the mosaics of San Vitale in Ravenna. In every course there lay new
challenges of research methodology and the sourcing of material
(particularly visual) given the diversity of subject matter and where
source material was located.

Having recourse to the extensive collections of London's Heritage Community
made life easier but if my studies were in a culturally less wealthy city
the problem would have been far more difficult to overcome. If I could
have used electronic resources to find and view the relevant information I
could have saved hundreds of pounds, days-worth of time and most
importantly have spared the source material the potential dangers that are
raised by handling and removing the originals from the stability of their
storage environment.

A good example is the Print Collection at the British Museum where physical
access is severley restricted and only possible with a pre-arranged pass,
which fortunately we were given freely for the duration of our studies.
Once inside we had the opportunity to handle and to view all the Hogarths,
Gillrays and Newtons that we wanted yet always in the back of my mind (due
to my training in conservation etc.) was the fragility of the artefacts and
their long-term future. In praise of the BM archiving and curatorial staff
there was always helpful advice on handling and locating the relevant
image. Whilst this was a very useful resource I would say that 95% my
research could have been as fruitful using a digital version of the image
where the content of the image is available. As mentioned the benefits of
digital access are many, most importantly the safeguarding of the artefact
for future generations.

This is probably not the average example of voluminous archives but the
theory is applicable to most collections of analogue material. Since the
late 1990's the BM has made a small selection of images available on the
internet but not the more obscure material that I often needed in my degree
studies. I worked for a time as a volunteer cataloguer for a photographic
collection of architectural subject matter and the most important thing
that I took away from the experience was that without the archivists and
keepers of the collection there would be no way at all for the general
public to have access to the material. Access was gained by prior
appointment and viewing was obviously a 'hands-on' experience. It is
the 'hands-on' experience that often causes the most problems and I am sure
that 95% of all viewings would have been as fruitful by using a digital
copy of the image.

Hopefully the point of my message has become clear that the cornerstone of
any collection is the material itself but to have access to the information
effectively it must first be archived and organised. From this foundation
we can begin to concentrate on the long-term preservation of the material
without interrupting accessibility to it. Even better than that we can
begin to make the material considerably easier to access using technology
and thus cement the importance of the role of archivist in the chain of
dissemination. This in turn creates a virtuous spiral of creativity and
accessibility fuelled by the integrity of the information and imaginative
distribution of knowledge.

The government have recognised that this is the inevitable route to take
and my company seeks to become the bridge between the keepers of the
collections and the users of the collections who are always hungry for
more. We are keen to find more curators who want to engage in actively
implementing digitisation projects for the purposes of disseminating
cultural heritage, safeguarding historical artefacts, commercially
exploiting content to enable self-financing sustainable archives. In our
experience thusfar we have found that archivists are willing to listen to
our ideas yet they are reluctant to take them on or explore them further
with the decision-makers above them.

I used to think archivists were only bespectacled cardigan wearers who only
used 'quill and ink' but I've come to realise that they are an integral
part of the cultural heritage of the country. If you concentrate on your
essential archiving work and wear what you want, let people like me wear
the suit and working together we can raise the profile of archiving from
exclusive square to virtuous spiral. Anyone who cares what you wear is not
worth bothering about anyone who cares what you do as archivists is worth
worrying about. Your role is integral to the future of our own and our
children's experiences of history and culture and there are people out
there who value what you do. I subscribed to this mailing-list because I
care about your work and I find interesting ideas expressed through it
almost everyday. If this is any indication of the quality and passion of
archiving in (predominantly) the UK then I see a very bright future for the
heritage community.

This is an outsiders perception of archivists.

If you want to discuss this further or find out how to create a self-
financing sustainable archiving program by exploiting the material through
various avenues of dissemination please continue the discussion on the list
or mail me directly.

best wishes to all,

Matthew Goldschmied