The question of where local Historic Environment Records should be placed is 
a difficult one.  On the one hand a home within a Museum or Cultural 
Heritage Sector, particularly perhaps Record Offices, would have the 
advantages of encouraging wider access to HERs and greater community use, on 
the other it has been my, and I suspect many others', experience that when 
housed within planning services HERs and local authority archaeologists tend 
to be listened to more readily than when giving advice at arm's length. I'm 
not sure what the answer to this is though changes within local government 
may mean that HERs , like so many other services will become increasingly 
arms length in any case. I suspect that services related to planning will 
remain better resourced than those relating to culture/museums though 
conversely the latter are perhaps more used to getting grants from outside 
and will be better able to demonstrate a commitment to wider usage of HERs. 
I guess that one answer may be to have the HER and HER Officer housed within 
say a Record Office, while a Planning Archaeologist is based within the 
planning service. Rationally a larger HER would benefit from economy of 
scale but smaller local ones may feel of more relevance to the community. 
The creation of larger joint authorities, such as that proposed for the West 
Midlands, may present an opportunity for the best of both worlds.

Much food for thought!

Mike


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dan Hicks" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, July 26, 2015 6:59 AM
Subject: Archaeology, Austerity and Historic Environment Records


Dear all -
Colleagues may find this blog post of interest - 
http://profdanhicks.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/archaeology-austerity-and-future-of.html

It explores some of the broader significance of HERs as unique, often 
neglected and overlooked, and highly fragile cultural resources. It argues 
that we need to improve HERs' national coherence, their public accessibility 
and profile, and the stability of their future funding -- and that one 
important part of the way forward may be to build new connections and 
re-connections between Historic Environment Records and local authority 
museums.

The BBC broadcast mentioned in the blog post will be on Making History - 
this Tuesday at 3pm, and then on the iPlayer.

Dan
........................................
Dan Hicks MCIfA, FSA
Associate Professor in Archaeology, University of Oxford
Curator, Pitt Rivers Museum
Fellow, St Cross College, Oxford
http://www.arch.ox.ac.uk/DH1.html
Twitter: https://twitter.com/profdanhicks