The London Metropolitan Archives has been awarded a grant by the Society of Archivist’s Research and Development Fund to carry out research into Volunteering for Collections Care. The project will be carried out by collections care consultant, Helen Lindsay, ACR. Please contact Helen if you are taking part in or have recently completed a volunteer project and would be willing to discuss the benefits and risks associated with collections care and volunteering. Thank you
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The study aims to build on the momentum set by the Public Services Quality Group forum The Value of Volunteering and the report Volunteering in Archives produced for the National Council on Archives by Louise Ray in 2009. It will consider the qualities and resources needed to establish, manage and maintain volunteer projects in collections care.
Using case studies from both libraries and archives that work with conservation and preservation volunteers, the study will focus on recruitment, supervision, task analysis and training. It will also consider conservator attitudes towards volunteers and the impact an increase in their use might have on existing services.
There has been a move in recent years to formalise the management of volunteers with many more organisations having volunteer policies and other documentation. There is a wealth of information on these management topics and it is not the intention of this study to repeat this information except where it pertains specifically to volunteers and collections care activities.
Conservators and collections managers are being encouraged to become more visible to the outside world, to actively position conservation services closer to the centre of their organisation and prevent them being seen as peripheral ‘add on’ activities. In addition, it is increasingly important for conservation to reach out and make more contact with the public in order to become more visible. Working with volunteers can provide many opportunities in which to explore the public benefits of conservation for the service, the individual volunteer and the wider community. This study will aim to clarify these values and the impact they could have for the sector
At the heart of the project will be the development of good practise guidelines which it is hoped will encourage innovative practice and support the development of new volunteer schemes. This is an evidence based approach where the development of peer reviewed guidelines will be based on existing good practise in the sector.
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