At a committee meeting of the Religious Archives Group
yesterday we were shown a letter, dated 29 April, sent to a
colleague of one of us from Dr Fred Hughes, Head of the
School of Theology and Religious Studies at the above
college. The letter proposes the establishment at the
college of a Centre for Christian archives, drawing in the
papers of organisations which may be "having to destroy
papers for lack of space and finance". A list of possible
archives is appended and this contains some, for example
those of the YMCA and YWCA, which are already on deposit in
suitable repositories, though the college seems to be
unaware of this.
The R.A.G. committee reacted with some concern to this
letter and will be making a formal response, but we thought
the Society should be alerted to this initiative
immediately. Has anyone else been approached? The letter we
saw was addressed to the secretary of one of the groups
they plan to target. I shall send a paper copy of the
letter to Dick Sargeant.
Chris Penney
University Archivist
Special Collections
Main Library
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham B15 2TT
Tel: 0121 414 5838
Fax: 0121 471 4691
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