Thanks to the many people who responded to my posting this morning.

I may seem ungratefully slow in this response, but several people
responded very quickly by e-mailing me off-list things like Powerpoint
files, which in some ways has been great but also meant this reply had to
wait until I had deleted enough old stuff that the university e-mail
system once again allowed me to send messages ...

Anyway, I have had a couple of really useful responses about the specific
issues of preparing people to work in archives in less developed
countries, which was the main thing I was after, including a specific
contact on Libya. The biggest Powerpoint is actually going to be very
useful.

Conversely, it is just possible that with my background I would have
suggested to students bringing a portable digital imaging device, i.e. a
camera, with them even without the help of the many people who suggested
this. My first paragraph wasn't the whole of what I had planned, just a
very brief outline!

Just to reassure people on the "us and them" aspect: one of my strongest
points was always going to be that while you cannot expect archivists to
drop everything just because they see a new face, at the start of any
major new piece of research in a particular archive the researcher should
arrange to discuss what they are doing in some detail with archive staff,
because the staff can very likely propose short cuts on access procedures
and suggest classes which are likely to be particularly productive.

I will be giving two examples where TNA gave my projects a great deal of
practical assistance, and a multi-million pound project by commercial
consultants funded by a government agency who paid multiple researchers to
spend multiple years (really) at Kew without ever introducing themselves
to TNA staff, with quite daft consequences (name of the project and the
agency available off-list ...)

Best wishes,

Humphrey Southall

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