Dear All
Steven makes a really good point. However, we can only make
this argument effectively if we have the evidence to back it up. Does any
organisation collect stats that prove that this evidential role (as opposed to
the informational one, which of course if still important) is active and
valued? This might cover areas such as analysis of the nature of enquiries
received, the type of material consulted, feedback from users of what they then
went on to do with the information garnered from the archive. We really do
need evidence both at the institutional and the sector level. If one thinks
about the sheer number of stats the average school or hospital has to gather
and report on then that starts to give us some idea of the evidence base we
need to be providing to make cogent arguments in this period of austerity.
Regards
Elizabeth Oxborrow-Cowan
Director & Consultant Archivist
Elizabeth Oxborrow-Cowan Associates Ltd
Tel/fax 01939 234289
www.elizabethoc.co.uk
From: Archivists, conservators and records
managers. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Steven
Davies
Sent: 23 June 2010 11:48 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Fw: Budget and Archives
In my own
hasty, stating-the-obvious, train-of-thought style email the other day, this is
what I was starting to grope towards when I was talking about
"undemocratic consequences" of archive access withdrawal /
curtailment.
A friend who
knows little about archives commented recently that little old ladies who can't
do family history anymore is a shame, but that society would probably rather
'have more police on the beat' if given a choice re. funding priorities; and
that perhaps we could/should charge for access etc. to be self-sustaining. i.e.
he like so many others saw what we do as perhaps an unneccesary luxury.
He changed his
mind when I pointed out that people on lower incomes might therefore be
democratically excluded from accessing council minutes, electoral registers,
information pertaining to rights of way disputes, information pertaining to
abandoned mines near the house they want to buy, etc. etc.
The case can be
made to our local decision-makers that it's more democratic, efficient and
cost-effective to provide an environment where the public can access and
research these and many other sources themselves and are able to democratically
and fairly draw their own conclusions from documentary evidence - and NOT just
for "historical leisure purposes" - than it would be for councils to
have to put in an inordinate amount of staff time doing the research themselves
in order to meet their FOI obligations, which could then in any case be accused
of biased misinterpretation.
Steven Davies
Archivist / Archifydd
Flintshire Record Office / Archifdy Sir y Fflint
Tel./Ffôn: (01244) 532414
Chris
Pickford <[log in to unmask]> 23/06/2010
07:58
|
|
A rather too hasty
contribution to what needs to be a considered debate and a carefully
thought-out campaign, but it worries me that several of the contributions so
far seem to be putting archives firmly back in the "history box".
Moreover, there's nothing new in alliances with historians and historical
organisations that have been suggested - they mostly exist already (if a little
dormant), and support has been mobilised in the past.
It seems to me that
one of the (very) great advances of recent years has been the broadening of the
user-base for archives. It's the diversity of use, and the relevance of
archives to all in an often practical rather than cultural way, that justifies
the highest level of defence to services under threat. Making a broad case
should be a lot more effective than anything that appears to badge archives as
the playthings of a particular section of society.
By all means play
the history cards, but the other cards in the pack are the trumps
Chris Pickford
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