Dear All,
Suzette has had very few responses regarding
SUSCAGs report to the HMC 'archives at the millennium', so
if you still haven't got round to sharing your views on the
future, now is your chance. What follows is a summary
compiled by Suzette, of points suggested, including issues
raised at the last SUSCAG meeting. We would welcome any
feedback to this draft before it is sent off to Chris
Kitching at the end of the month. Has anything vital been
missed? Should anything in particular be emphasised?
Please air all comments on the discussion list.
Jacqui Seargeant
Secretary, SUSCAG
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12 November 1998
Archives at the Millennium
Dear Mr Kitching,
On behalf of SUSCAG I am writing with comments about the above
consultation document. I apologise for the delay in our response,
but as the Secretary has explained this was unavoidable. Thank you
for granting us an extension.
First of all may I express the appreciation of SUSCAG that there is a
lottery mapping exercise commissioned by the HMC, PRO and SRO. This
development is very much welcomed by the group.
Secondly, SUSCAG is very pleased to note that there will soon be an
opening of a local office for Scotland, to be situated in Edinburgh.
This will be very helpful.
There is some concern about the apparent contradiction between the
HMC’s desire to have a strategic plan to use lottery funding for the
UK heritage sector and the low level of recurrent funding which seems
to be given to special collections and archives holdings in HEIs.
The tremendous boost given to these collections in the last few
years by the distribution of funding under the Follett initiative has
served to raise awareness of the strength of these collections for
researchers and to improve access greatly. User expectations have
therefore been increased and developments in IT have
also improved online access to these collections.
Another concern arises from the increase in project-based work and
its impact on and correlation with core institutional staff. Such
staff must have the time to ensure a degree of continuity, which is
necessary for adherence to locally devised and national
standards so that the work of the projects can be successfully
integrated, and this is often not possible, given other pressures.
The diversity and richness of the material held in archives and
special collections in UK HEIs is described in the recent JISC
publication Accessing our Cultural Heritage and the SUSCAG
publication Ensuring Scotland’s Cultural Heritage, which covers
only Scotland of course. In the new HMC framework there are calls to
increase both education and access. SUSCAG hopes that in the future
it will be successful in bidding for lottery funding, in order to
enable these institutions to offer greater access to the wider
education community, as these collections become more widely known
about and appreciated.
Yours sincerely,
Suzette Bell
SHEFC Project Manager, on behalf of SUSCAG
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jacqueline M Seargeant
Archivist
University Archive
Corporate Communications
Heriot-Watt University
Edinburgh EH14 4AS
Tel: 0131 451 3638
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