Connecting Histories

“There is no time like now. There is no waiting for the moment.” Vanley Burke, photographer, 21 September 2005

2 2 Izzy, Community Connecting Histories is a series of Access Officer, interconnected activities aiming to and David, one bring to light the hidden histories of of the project Birmingham’s diverse communities. By volunteers, making these histories accessible we working on the hope to stimulate learning, encourage Vanley Burke Archive debate about our shared identities, our common sense of belonging and our multiple heritages, and to make a contribution to the promotion of social justice.

One of the strengths of the project is that it evolved within a long-standing partnership and builds on a raft of previous work. Birmingham City Archives, the School of Education at the University of Birmingham, Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery and members of the Black Pasts, Birmingham Futures group have been working in partnership over the past six years on a programme of projects and initiatives raising awareness of culturally diverse histories in the city.

These projects include Using History to Build Community which worked with a group of teachers to develop teaching materials for black history; Making Connections: Birmingham’s Black International History, a book and touring exhibitions raising awareness of archive, museum and library collections; and Connecting Identities,a youth inclusion project which used archives and photography to explore issues of identity, pride and belonging. For Connecting Histories this partnership was extended to include the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick, and the project archives through digitisation, ■ Provide e-learning environments for is supported by a grant of just over notably 3000 reel to reel sound a broad range of users £820,000 from the Heritage Lottery recordings in the Charles Parker Fund. Archive ■ Provide an opportunity for individuals and groups to influence Connecting Histories aims to: ■ Increase the diversity of the and inform archival policies and workforce in the archive sector practices ■ Increase access to culturally diverse archive collections through ■ Increase the number and diversity ■ Expand and sustain existing cataloguing and selective of archive users partnerships digitisation ■ Expand the archival knowledge and ■ Develop transferable models of ■ Preserve sound and photographic skills of local communities working. 24 The project is being delivered by a multidisciplinary team of 14 over a The current project team consists of: total period of 30 months, supported by a Management Board, a Project ■ Project Manager Siân Roberts Advisory Group and a number of ■ Community Access Officer Izzy Mohammed individual, organisational and ■ Archivists Helen Fisher, Jim Ranahan and Anna Riggs community supporters and advocates. ■ Trainee Archivists Aishling Fox and Arike Oke The development of the immediate ■ Digitisation Officer Brigitte Winsor partnership and a critical mass of ■ Research and Learning Recruitment currently underway for 2 posts support was a significant factor in Officers securing the funding for the project ■ Academic Advisors Dr Robert Carter, University of Warwick and and will be crucial to ensuring its Professor Ian Grosvenor, University of success. Birmingham

Access

For several years Birmingham City ■ Vanley Burke Archive range of users from the 16+ age Archives and the Head of Photography ■ George Hallett Archive group and which will be hosted on the at Birmingham Central Library have ■ Charles Parker Archive project website. The learning packages targeted collection development and ■ Banner Theatre Archive are on the following themes: photographic commissioning policies ■ Papers and photographs of Derek towards increasing the relevance of our Bishton and the Ten:8 photographic ■ How to research Black History and holdings to reflect the cultural diversity collective Heritage of the city’s population. Connecting ■ Birmingham Trade Union Resource ■ Advanced Research Skills (aimed at Histories provides the vehicle for Centre Archive and related papers of post graduates in the Social cataloguing some of these collections Paul Mackney Sciences) and for making them accessible, both ■ Migration and Settlement on site and remotely over the project Learning ■ Campaigning for Social Justice in website which will be launched in Birmingham, from the eighteenth March 2006. The collections included All of the collections share two century to present day for cataloguing in the project are listed common themes in that they are ■ Challenging racism, anti-Semitism below (a brief summary of each one is the archives of individuals and and Islamophobia included in the first project newsletter organisations involved in both which is available at documenting the life of diverse The first two packages, which are www.birmingham.gov.uk/ communities in the city and in currently being developed by Ian connectinghistories): actively campaigning for social Grosvenor and Bob Carter, are focused justice. on the development of research skills. ■ Birmingham Hebrew Congregation The following three packages will Archive Consequently these themes form the provide users with an opportunity to ■ Indian Workers Association Archive foundation of the five learning build on those skills, and are more and related papers of Avtar Jouhl packages which are aimed at a wide thematic and content driven in nature.

3 3 The Project Team Back, from left to right: Dr Robert Carter, Professor Ian Grosvenor, Brigitte Winsor, Anna Riggs, Jim Ranahan; Front, from left to right: Izzy Mohammed, Helen Fisher, Sîan Roberts, Aishling Fox, Arike Oke

25 4 In addition to the collections which are being catalogued as part of the project, the website and learning packages will draw on material from other City Archives collections including, for example, Birmingham Sikh Council, the Sparkbrook Association, Henry Gunter and the Afro-Caribbean Association, Birmingham Community Relations Council and the photographic archives of Sukhvinder Singh Ubhi, Terry Lo, Tim Smith, Pogus Caesar and others.

4 The website will also host a variety of David Lammy MP, information and resources including Minister for photographic galleries and exhibitions; Culture, during a catalogues of archive collections; recent visit to the project discussion board; community events notice board; guidance on how to plan, fund and do community history and archive projects; and information on careers and training in the archives and heritage sectors.

Workforce development

One of the most important challenges range of skills and working practices our own events in community venues for Birmingham City Archives, and for from across the archives, museums, such as the African Caribbean the archives profession generally, is library, voluntary and academic sectors. Millennium Resource Centre, direct how to make the workforce more Early indications from the project are email and postal mailshots and representative of local and national that this provides a stimulating and appearing on local community radio. demographic patterns. For this reason safe environment for both personal and However, the most effective method the project includes two positive action professional development. has inevitably been personal training placements for graduates from approaches from Izzy, going out and a Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Community engagement about meeting and talking to background who will qualify as community organisations and key archivists by the end of the project. A significant part of the project individuals. Arike Oke and Aishling Fox both began activities is the strategy for engaging their placements in March 2005 and individuals and organisations who have Another key element of the project is are currently working towards the not previously used archives, primarily, to facilitate the sharing of information, archive qualification through distance although not exclusively, people from skills and practice between team learning with the University of Wales BME communities. As the project title members and City Archives’ staff and Aberystwyth while gaining experience implies part of the ethos of the project individuals and community groups. on the project. is to focus on shared experiences, There is a wealth of historical and connections and histories as a means cultural information and experience in The placements were advertised locally of developing cross-community the city’s communities which should and nationally in the press and through contacts and activities. inform and enrich both our collections various interest based electronic lists and professional practice. Similarly and mailing groups. Nearly 50 Izzy Mohammed is currently working there is a huge interest locally from graduates from BME communities with a broad range of communities, individuals and community applied for the placements and the from long-established communities in organisations in opportunities to quality of applications was very high. It the city to newer arrivals, on a number develop the skills and experience was apparent from the application of heritage projects, supported by other required for managing community forms that although a small number of members of the team. These include, archive and heritage projects. applicants had previously considered for example, a group of African archives as a career, for the majority it Caribbean women elders, a Bangladeshi Connecting Histories is therefore not appeared to have been a progression youth group, a group of Iranian asylum seeking to actively collect materials from an initial interest in the content, seekers, and a consortium of groups from individuals or organisations but the aims and the ethos of the project, from the city’s Somali communities, all rather to assist with developing the which led to a consideration of of whom are engaged in projects such capacity and skills within groups and archives as a potential career. as developing their own archive, communities to care for their own Interestingly a similar progression could researching the history of their archives and develop their own be seen in a number of the applications communities, telling their life histories projects. This capacity building activity for the Community Access Officer post, and experiences or developing history is taking a variety of forms as each which also attracted a very different trails combining archives and the built group has very particular needs, field from that usually seen in environment. emphasis, skills and experiences. applications for posts at the City Activities currently range from Archives. We have employed a number of ways providing advice and training on to promote the project’s activities to planning and delivering oral history One of the benefits of working in a community organisations. These projects and funding applications to multidisciplinary team is that it include attendance at high profile actively delivering a six week training provides each team member with the events, such as the Adult Learners Fair package in archive cataloguing and opportunity to engage with a different and Celebrating Sanctuary, organising basic preservation skills. The latter 26 5 5 Izzy on the Connecting Histories stall during Celebrating Sanctuary event for Refugee Week

initiative involves around 10 volunteers volunteering programme who will who received training in the basic receive training from the project team cleaning and repackaging of to work with community groups on a photographic prints by the Central variety of projects. Library’s Conservation Department and who have since attended every What happens next… Saturday to work with members of the project team in cleaning, repacking and Connecting Histories began officially in cataloguing parts of the Vanley Burke February 2005 (with the project team Archive. in post by mid April) and is due to run until July 2007. The first six months The response to these early initiatives have been far busier and more has on the whole been extremely successful that we ever anticipated positive, and indeed has so far when we developed the project. Early exceeded our expectations as to indications are that the project will go almost be overwhelming. After the first a long way in fulfilling its brief to four months it became apparent that develop new models of working for the the emphasis needed to shift archive service and continue the somewhat earlier than anticipated cultural change which has been from formulating strategies to involve ongoing for the past few years. The and engage groups, to developing challenge for the next few months is strategies for managing the demand how we build on the early success to and levels of expectation, extending ensure a sustainable future for a truly the project team’s capacity to deliver, active and participative community and ensuring the long-term engagement with the archive service sustainability of the activities and for as many of Birmingham’s citizens as interest beyond the life of the project. possible.

One way we are extending the Siân Roberts project’s capacity to deliver is to Project Manager develop new partnerships. We are Connecting Histories currently developing an umbrella heritage forum for newer communities in partnership with the Midlands Refugee Council, and are also in the early stages of working with Birmingham University’s Guild of Students to develop a network of students from their community 27 The Charles Chaplin Conference: the importance of archives

It is very rare to find a scholarly conference devoted to a single figure from film history, but a little tramp can go a long way. The Charles Chaplin Conference took place between 21 and 24 July at the London College of Communication and was organised by the British Film Institute (BFI) in association with the University of Southampton. The conference was timely as there has been a recent surge of interest in Chaplin.

Whilst Chaplin remains, and it seems The major aim of the conference was company that introduced Charlie to always will be, one of the most not to necessarily reassess Chaplin and cinema audiences worldwide. This is an recognisable figures in international his films, but to look at how his work international collaboration between the cinema, there has been a recent flurry fits in with the wider picture of National Film and Television Archive of activity surrounding his work. The twentieth century culture. To quote (UK), Cineteca di Bologna (Italy) and Great Dictator was re-released to Michael Hammond, one of the Lobster Films (France) and healthy audiences, his feature films conference organisers: “While there demonstrates the importance of were released on DVD to strong sales, have certainly been retrospectives of archives working closely together, new restorations of his films have his films at festivals there has until now particularly on projects of this size. played a major part in the programmes been no attempt … to consider his of the Il Cinema Ritrovato film festival impact, his influences and the creative Whilst many of Chaplin’s Keystone in Italy, and The Kid appeared on a list environment from which he arose and films have remained in circulation, they of films that children should see. that he worked in.” are invariably in very poor condition Chaplin has also become central to the and appear in severely truncated BFI’s cultural activities through film Throughout the four days, the eventful versions, sometimes with the intertitles restorations, DVD releases, a research programme of talks, discussions and missing or changed, making them programme, and now this conference. screenings attracted historians, difficult for historians and scholars to archivists, academics and fans from study. These new restorations, where around the world. There was even a the original versions are reconstructed 6 6 A wardrobe guided walk of Charlie’s childhood as closely as possible, are very welcome set record of haunts in and around East London. The as it allows us to see how Chaplin Chaplin as diverse conference papers ranged from developed as a performer and Calvero in looking at the influence of the Music filmmaker. As in a lot of restoration Limelight. Hall, Chaplin’s performance technique, projects, there were some technical From the his imitators and his collaborators. If and ethical challenges, but the end archives of there was one overall theme of the results were very impressive and Roy Export conference, it was the continued showed the contribution that Company importance of archive materials. It was thoughtful film restoration can make Establishment refreshing to find that archival issues to historical research. were high on the agenda with two panel sessions devoted entirely to The second panel of archive archives. presentations concentrated on the ‘supporting materials’, the non-film The first panel was a presentation from archives. Whilst there has been a some of the key conservators currently renewed interest in the films of involved in restoring the short films Chaplin, there has also been a growing made at Keystone during 1914, the awareness of the various Chaplin- 28 7 7 A page of related archives, which are increasingly Chaplin’s being made accessible. The Natural handwritten History Museum of Los Angeles County notes for the has begun to electronically catalogue a famous final number of its collections, including its speech in The Chaplin holdings. Whilst the museum Great Dictator. From the archives does not sound an obvious choice for a of Roy Export Chaplin collection, it was originally Company known as the Los Angeles County Establishment Museum of History, Art and Science when Chaplin first made a series of donations beginning in 1932. As this is a classic example of an archive collection being housed at an unlikely institution, it was very welcome to hear some of the BFI’s plans for its Chaplin research programme. One of the outcomes of the programme is to map the various archive holdings that relate to Chaplin around the world, which will form the basis of an online researchers guide.

Cecilia Cenciarelli gave a fascinating talk on the work that is currently being undertaken at the Cineteca di Bologna as part of Progetto Chaplin. Whilst the 8 8 Cineteca is restoring the feature films A set sketch of the interior of and some of the Keystones at its Lydia’s house in L’Immagine Ritrovata film laboratory, Monsieur they are also cataloguing and digitising Verdoux.From the Chaplin paper archives. This is a the archives of diverse and vast collection, which Roy Export includes scripts, photographs, set Company designs, production reports, music Establishment compositions and correspondence.

Since the mid-1950s, the majority of these archives were stored in the basement of Manoir de Ban, the Swiss mansion where Chaplin lived for the last 25 years of his life, before being transferred to the nearby Archives de Montreux in 1991. In 1996, members of the Chaplin family established the Association Chaplin to safeguard Charlie’s legacy and work. The Association realised the cultural significance of the archives and entrusted the Cineteca di Bologna to research, catalogue and digitise the entire collection.

The Cineteca has been digitising and Besides the online catalogue and sources ever more important. What researching the Chaplin paper archives access to digitised documents, the makes the Bologna project so exciting for three years. The archives were project also provides other significant is that for the first time, Chaplin’s own transferred to Bologna for the duration access outcomes. The Cineteca has archives will be made easily accessible of the project and will be returned to published books on the production of to researchers, which will in turn open Montreux when it has been completed. Modern Times, The Great Dictator and other avenues of exploration. 89,000 digital images have already Limelight, which have used extensive been created, with approximately 25% material from the archives. And there Tom Vincent of the collection remaining to be have also been exhibitions on the National Advisory Services scanned. In 2003, an online catalogue making of A Woman of Paris and City The National Archives was launched – Lights curated from archive material. www.charliechaplinarchive.org – where Thanks to the Association Chaplin and a selection of material is searchable If anything was to be concluded from Cecilia Cenciarelli at Cineteca di with image previews of the original the conference it would be that Bologna documents. Once the project is Chaplin still remains a captivating completed, the entire catalogue will be figure in modern history. There still available online with the digitised remains much to discuss and study documents available to view at about the man and his work, making Cineteca’s library. the need for wide-ranging archive

29 e-RM at the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA)

The revolution in information and communications technology, and in particular the widespread adoption of email as a preferred form of communication, has steadily eroded the quality of the records kept by organisations in both the public and private sectors. For public sector organisations this is a particular problem, because of the high degree of accountability they have in exercising their public duties.

9 9 Neil Lang Recent well-publicised examples of the progress which has been made deficiencies in record keeping and across government departments (and information use include the Soham and increasingly in local government as Damilola Taylor cases, and Peter well) is very impressive. While Freedom Mandelson and the failure to make of Information has been a major driver, adequate records of telephone the benefits of improved information conservations regarding the Hinduja governance are perhaps an even Brothers’ applications for citizenship. greater imperative. All public bodies have a statutory obligation to keep records in The DCA e-RM system accordance with the Public Record Act. The DCA e-RM project, which consists In simple terms, e-RM is the of new software, training, and records replacement of the old ‘registered file’ management procedures, will enable system with an electronic records the Department to fulfil its system that is secure and scaleable to responsibilities in this area. meet DCA’s ongoing needs. Potentially, the records created may need to be Drivers behind the project preserved for long periods of time. personal workspace called Top Drawer, Hence, the system must be sustainable, in which staff can store draft The Freedom of Information Act, in and significant on-going investment documents. force since January 2005, gives will be required when the project members of the public the right to transitions into ‘steady state’. TRIM Context provides: have access to information held by ■ Ready access to records and easier government bodies. It also strengthens DCA’s e-RM system was selected by sharing of information existing rights, afforded to the public their IT business partner Liberata and ■ Better version control of documents under the Data Protection Act, their sub contractors Unisys on the ■ Close integration with the office concerning access to personal basis of an output-based specification desktop operating environment information. In order that public bodies (a document which states what the ■ More efficient use of network are able to meet these statutory Department wants from the software, bandwidth, and email inboxes obligations they need to manage their rather than which software it wants). (through use of pointers, rather than information (and increasingly that There are advantages to this approach, file attachments) means electronic information) including reduction of risk and better ■ Compliance with legislative, effectively. concentration on the business require- industry and corporate standards ment, rather than the technology ■ Compliance with legal, evidential It was for these reasons that the marketplace. Tower Software’s TRIM and accountability requirements Government announced, in its 1999 Context was selected, following an Modernising Government White Paper, appraisal of the software on The Following a successful pilot, the project its intention that, “by 2004 all newly National Archives’ approved list. It began in earnest in April 2004. This was created public records will be consists of a shared information divided into two major phases – electronically stored and retrieved.” This repository, in which documents and delivery to London HQ, and delivery to was always an ambitious target, but records will be formally managed, and a regional HQ functions. Over 2,300 30 10 10 An e-RM Benefits of e-RM training session e-RM will bring about a radical change in the way the Department handles information, and will yield significant benefits. e-RM delivers improved access to information, powerful search capabilities and a logical filing structure that will make finding information easier and faster – even after the authors of the records and those that know where they are stored have moved on. A single, shared information space will allow us to identify opportunities for working together and sharing knowledge and experience. e-RM will improve both our productivity and the quality of the work we do, by delivering the right information at the right time.

Business process re-engineering has largely been out of scope of the project to date, though the system put in place to handle Parliamentary Questions (PQs) electronically gives an insight into what can be developed on the e-RM infrastructure in the future. The e-PQ system is saving over 500 hours of registry time per year, but as importantly gives a number of qualitative benefits for the Parliamentary Branch. Parliamentary Questions need to be answered to a very tight timescale, and the system is helping to monitor progress as well as quickly identifying who in the Department is best placed to answer the question as ‘action officer’.

Raising the profile of Information Management

The need for better information management is now being widely recognised in both the public and private sectors. In addition to the government targets put in place, users in DCA HQ are now TRIM Training which are raising standards, widely Context users. This number will rise to publicised failings in information 3,000 by the time the project sunsets The e-RM project has taken an management – such as the ENRON in January 2006. innovative approach to training. It has scandal, and associated legislative set up a training suite, which can train action (for example Sarbanes-Oxley) The Approach up to 20 users at a time, and – is steadily moving the traditional developed a computer based training ‘records management’ role in both The e-RM system has been delivered in (CBT) package, based on Saffron’s public and private sectors from a a phased approach of ‘tranches’. Each application (Saffron is the company low-profile back office function, to a tranche consists of up to 250 users, which produced the package), which higher profile ‘information with delivery typically over a 25 week guides users through their initial management’ role (and the Chief cycle from the initial start-up meeting training. The CBT is subsequently Information Officer, or CIO, with the Head of Division, to ‘e-Day’ available for them to run from their is becoming more commonplace as a when the tranche goes live. Much of desktop. The training is followed up by Board level function). The future of this time is spent in developing the floorwalking support, and two ‘one to electronic records management is functional business classification one’ sessions, during which the trainer looking bright indeed when its scheme for that tranche. The project sets up local preferences (such as management is as likely to be found has put in place a network of shortcuts to the areas of the fileplan on the Board as in the basement! ‘information managers’ (IMs), who which the user will normally work spend part of their time supporting with). The training has provided Neil Lang e-RM for their area. There is normally intensive support, and has received e-RM Project Manager a ratio of 1 IM to 30 staff. A crucial very good user feedback. It has been a Department for Constitutional Affairs function of the IMs is the much more cost effective and flexible [email protected] development of the fileplan. approach to training than outsourcing. 31 The Penny Black Changed the World: a major digitisation project at The British Postal Museum & Archive

The British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA) is the leading resource for all aspects of British postal history, managing both the Royal Mail Archive and the collections of the former National Postal Museum. From staff records to stamps and from transport to telegrams it cares for the visual, written and physical records from nearly 400 years of postal history.

11 11 The Penny Black The BPMA is dedicated to increasing the volume of mail sent per year him to – the world’s first access to its invaluable collections increased 30 times over. The items in improve on ever postage while ensuring their long-term the collection are a unique resource for and replace stamp preservation, and a great step towards postal and social historians, and the individual achieving this came in Spring 2005, story that they tell holds strong links examples when it was awarded a Heritage with many areas of the National and to Lottery Fund (HLF) grant for the Curriculum for Key Stage 2. purchase digitisation of the R M Phillips additional collection of Victorian philatelic Access smaller material. Entitled The Penny Black collections Changed the World, the project will Until 1998, when the National Postal to establish a provide online access to the world’s Museum closed, about two-thirds of definitive record of the development of most extensive collection of Victorian the collection was exhibited but since the British postage stamp in the postal history and will interpret it for then only a fraction of the original Victorian era. An obituary in the new audiences. material has been displayed in the December 1977 issue of Stamp Royal Mail Archive Search Room. The Monthly described Phillips as ‘a shy Importance online digitisation project is designed man who shunned publicity’, but his to increase access to this unique collection, which includes many The Phillips Collection consists of 45 collection while minimising handling of personal observations, will become albums of Victorian philatelic material the original material. It will also raise globally accessible with the launch of presented to the nation in 1965 and awareness of the collection as a this online project. held as Public Record. The collection is heritage resource and help promote the important as it documents the use of less traditional sources for Content fascinating history of the development learning and understanding history. of philatelic design and technology The albums chart the design process from the Penny Black, through to the R M Phillips and technological developments Jubilee issue of 1887 and beyond. The involved in producing a format for the introduction of the penny post in 1840 Reginald Phillips of Brighton was a adhesive stamp, a process which was a pivotal point in British social property developer and philanthropist remains largely unaltered to the history and marked the birth of mass who built up his collection over a present day. They contain documents communication. Previously expensive period of more than 30 years, and correspondence; artists’ drawings; and therefore exclusive, the move eventually winning the Grand Prix at unused designs; finished artwork; towards an affordable postal service the London International Stamp printers’ proofs; trials of cancellation, encouraged people to learn to read and Exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall in perforation and paper and ink; in write, and throughout the Victorian era, 1960. His commercial success enabled addition to thousands of examples of

32 12 12 Sample of a Treasury Competition entry from the Phillips Collection

postage and fiscal stamps and items of designs were introduced to meet collection. His 1965 valuations are also postal stationery, including first day changing communication and revenue included for historical interest, but no covers of the Penny Black, and needs in a period of rapid economic attempt has been made to update illustrated stationery by William expansion; and it was discovered that these figures. Mulready. too many perforations made sheets unnecessarily fragile, while too few Conservation The collection shows how solutions to made separation difficult. problems of security, cancellation and The exceptionally high monetary value separation evolved. For example, a Phillips meticulously listed the contents of the collection and its very fragile portrait of the Queen was chosen, not of each album page and wrote condition means that handling and just as a symbol of nation and introductory notes to provide historical scanning must be carried out with authority, but as a security measure background information. These entries extreme care, and the document because ‘the eye being educated to the have been included unchanged in the inviting companies to tender for the perception of differences in the online catalogue descriptions with contract set out the preservation and features of a face, the detection of any separate archivist’s notes to explain security requirements in great detail. deviation in the forgery would be more any inaccuracies, maintaining the Conservation surveys identified items easy’; additional stamp values and overall feel of a very personal that needed to be stabilised to ensure

13 13 The exhibition area in the Royal Mail Archive Search Room where a small part of the Phillips collection is currently on display

33 safe handling before digitisation could little intimidating, and so is unlikely to and outreach manager, conservator and take place and the BPMA conservator attract casual interest, but the project philatelic curator. Once HLF support specified guidelines for best practice. will introduce the material to a had been secured, an additional completely new audience, providing an committee of cataloguing staff was The album pages themselves are too excellent introduction to stamp design established as a forum for determining flexible to provide adequate support for and postal history. The images will and documenting the course of the the material, and any flexing of the obviously be of great interest to project, to ensure that decisions were sheets could result in items becoming philatelists or anyone interested in well informed and to bring together detached or damaged, or in the design, but will primarily be used as the different areas of expertise in the team. fracture of perforations. For this reason, basis for education and outreach work. The whole experience has been a each mounted album page stays in its valuable learning process for all staff Melinex pocket during scanning, so the Education and will inform other digitisation scanning equipment used will have to projects and help with the preparation be of a particularly high quality to The bid for funding was based around of future funding bids. Whilst ensure that no definition is lost. access, education and, to a lesser technology develops and digitisation Documentation is overseen by the HLF extent, preservation. The BPMA has becomes an increasingly important Grant Officer assigned to the project recently appointed a project outreach part of best practice for archives, it is and forms part of the contractual assistant specifically to develop a Key especially important for the BPMA in agreement between the HLF and the Stage 2 education programme. After terms of access as it currently lacks BPMA, so digitisation companies have conducting consultation work with sufficient exhibition space. Once to follow the best practice to the letter. teachers, the outreach assistant will complete, the collections will be ensure that the programme is relevant available on the BPMA website Digitisation and inclusive, and will develop creative www.postalheritage.org.uk. ways to bring the subject alive for The digitisation process began at the young children. There is scope to use The Royal Mail Archive is based in beginning of November and is the collection creatively to support a Freeling House, Phoenix Place, expected to take five months. The wide range of curriculum subjects from London WC1X 0DL 2,500 album pages will be scanned at art and design to history and literacy, 600 dpi, but will go online as links from and also to address issues of national Clare Stephens the catalogue at a lower resolution, identity, community and citizenship. Cataloguer, Philately high enough to enlarge single items Most BPMA users are white British, but The British Postal Museum & Archive effectively on screen, but low enough the project will make the collection to be downloadable in a reasonable available to the international time. The higher resolution images will community, and its use in schools will only be viewable in the BPMA Search also introduce the material to groups Room, but may be used on the web in from a diverse range of backgrounds. the future. Digitisation seems Online access is also more convenient particularly appropriate for a philatelic for users with limited mobility and collection as the most minute detail those with impaired vision, with the can be appreciated, enhancing the provision to enjoy the material in a experience of users. setting best suited to individual needs.

Access to the original material at the The project has been managed and BPMA is by appointment and with one administrated by the BPMA catalogue to one supervision, which may seem a manager Adrian Steel, with the learning

14 14 Visitors using the Royal Mail Archive Search Room

34 The British Library’s online catalogue of Wolley Charters

The Wolley Charters, numbering some 1039 deeds, wills, marriage settlements, inventories, surveys and miscellaneous records, have hitherto had a low profile amongst the named collections in the British Library. Gathered together by the attorney Adam Wolley of Matlock (1758-1827) in the course of his antiquarian investigations, they relate mainly to his native Derbyshire and neighbouring counties, but include some material from further afield, for example from the towns of Berwick, Newcastle and Cambridge.

The dates of the documents range series designated by roman numerals project which mounted most of our from the twelfth century to the mid with piece numbers in arabic from i.1 mainstream legacy catalogues on 1700s, the bulk being of the thirteenth, to xii.144. Until now, handwritten Manuscripts Online Catalogue (Molcat) fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. As calendars and selective indexes have in 1999. might be expected, two-thirds are in provided the only finding aids, as Latin (about 30 are in French) and all indeed is the case with most of our Not long after Molcat was first but 43 are on vellum. charter collections.2 The lack of printed launched on the internet, Professors copy for scanning meant that charters Caroline Barron and Nigel Saul of the Although the documents are (except those in the Additional and Department of History at Royal predominantly concerned with Egerton series) had to be excluded Holloway, University of London, made transfers of land, highlights of the from the retrospective conversion us aware of a strongly-felt need collection include papal bulls granting privileges to Dale Abbey between 1217 and 1283; charms against headache and toothache scribbled on a 15 15 Advanced Search thirteenth-century grant of forestry; screen of the the sale in 1491 of 13 fothers (over Catalogue of 292 hundredweight) of lead – a Wolley Charters product of the local mining industry; a grant of arms made in 1660 to the London merchant William Fisher, son of William Fisher of Littleover, in recognition of his loyalty to the crown during the Interregnum; and the expenses of the summer assizes of Sheriff Francis Bradshaw in 1630-1631. There are some notable seals in good condition, especially on the early charters.

Adam Wolley bequeathed his research materials to the British Museum where they were received in 18281. The charters retained their identity as a separate collection, numbered in twelve 35 16 within the academic community to have information about charters also online and accessible remotely. After some deliberation about realistic timescales and competing commitments, we agreed to work together on a project under the formal concordat for scholarly co-operation between Royal Holloway and the British Library. Together we were successful in obtaining funding from the British Academy for a six-month pilot to take place between September 2004 and February 2005.

16 Our partners brought to the project Bull of Pope an expert understanding of how Martin IV researchers would want to exploit the confirming data, not just for local and family privileges of Dale history, but also in other disciplines Abbey, co. Derby. 1283. [Wolley such as sigillography and place name Charter xi.23]. studies. They could envisage which By permission of types of search would be most the British popular and anticipate where Library misunderstandings might arise. We were in agreement that a new and others in the second phase of document type, language, date in structured database should be development of our Integrated original form, modern date, medium, developed especially for charters to Library System. measurements, condition, content, allow targeted searches, for example endorsements, public memoranda, to find a particular name as witness After research into existing rules for administrative memoranda, rather than as grantor, and that charter description and analysis of data bibliography, seals, witnesses, grantors, transcription of original spellings we found already online, for example grantees, and place names. A field was should be mandatory alongside the charters of Canterbury Cathedral provided for provenance, but it was not modern equivalents. The small Wolley on the Kent Archives Service website, populated for Wolley Charters since Charter collection was an ideal we agreed the following fields for our their earlier ownership is generally candidate for testing our proposals in database: charter reference number, unrecorded. With the exception of the a pilot application because we knew original date, measurements, condition, that we could deliver a complete, endorsements and memoranda, all usable dataset within the timescale. elements can be searched singly or in From our own point of view, and more combination in the Advanced Search. importantly to satisfy the funding The Quick Search option on the body, this was preferable to capturing homepage allows the user to enter a a tiny proportion of a larger collection keyword or words, with Boolean such as the Harley Charters, seductive operators and truncation as required, to as the latter might be as a resource search any field. for in-depth research. To compile the information the The British Academy award covered researcher, Dr Jessica Freeman, worked the salaries of an IT student on work systematically through the collection, placement for six months to build the reading each charter in turn, and 17 database and user interface, and a 17 writing a new description, including a Seal of William postdoctoral researcher for four full witness list and territorial location de Gresley on a months to prepare and input the to the level of field names where grant of land in data. They worked for the whole appropriate. By referring at the same Hetley, co. Salop. period at the British Library, although time to the handwritten calendars, she Early 13th cent. they were formally employed by was able to correct some long-standing [Wolley Charter v.33]. By Royal Holloway as British Academy errors, and she could also supplement permission of rules required the fund-holder to be earlier published works such as I. H. the British in the higher education sector. The Jeayes, Descriptive Catalogue of Library database is modelled on the British Derbyshire Charters (1906). The Library’s standard architecture for timescale was an aggressive one, small systems using Microsoft SQL aiming at an average throughput of 65 Server, with the web interface in items per week, and it was a notable asp.net. It is a separate catalogue at achievement that all the charters were present but in due course it will be catalogued within the deadline. made cross-searchable with Molcat However, very little time was left for

36 checking, editing and standardising names. These refinements had to be Further Information undertaken by other personnel after the end of the project and are not yet 1. Adam Wolley bequeathed a further set of original documents and completed. transcripts, bound into 53 volumes and numbered Additional MSS 6666-6718. These are not part of the Wolley Charter database. Medieval names do not make much impact on our current accessions 2. Additional MS 6699, a volume received with the Wolley charters, is a cataloguing, but with over 3,300 handwritten catalogue with indexes of persons and places. Its descriptions personal names in the charter are superseded by another handwritten, undated calendar without indexes. database, we were forced to face the Place name entries for Wolley Charters are included in the Index to the issues of how to treat them Charters and Rolls. in the . . . British Museum (2 volumes 1900, 1912). consistently. We began by recording all the original spellings, although we 3. The author of this article will be pleased to demonstrate the catalogue on were well aware that these forms request and answer queries. Email: [email protected] or telephone would be unsuitable for computerised 020 7412 7749. matching. As we became familiar with the collection, and with families reappearing in different guises and spellings, we were able to pull together some of the variants. However, in many cases preferred forms still need to be established and cross-referenced fully in an authority file to allow accurate and comprehensive retrieval. This could not Images were not a deliverable of the attention, raising the possibility of be attempted until a body of internal pilot project, since we could not future collaboration. A display of evidence had been assembled, as there guarantee to produce them within the charters from the holdings of are few external sources of reference timescale, nor could we properly Derbyshire County Record Office, which for people who may be unknown address the difficulties inherent in included names familiar from the outside their immediate localities. digitising vellum documents with database, contributed to the success of attached seals. Nevertheless, the launch, and for the London visitors, The vexed question of surnames, experiments with selected documents Adam Wolley finally came to life when patronymics and toponyms is also not demonstrated that it would be feasible we were shown the entry for his fully resolved yet. We have followed to include images in a follow-on baptism in the parish register of the rule of noting the form used in the project and gave us an estimate of Matlock St Giles. document, rather than trying to costs and rates of throughput to determine on slim evidence whether support a funding bid. We now hope to The Online Catalogue of Wolley Richard, son of Adam de Stanton is continue the partnership between the Charters can be accessed direct at properly recorded as Richard Stanton British Library and Royal Holloway and www.bl.uk/catalogues/wolleycharters/ or Richard Adamson. To guide users utilise the practical experience we have Home.aspx or via a link from the through the potential confusion, we gained to re-catalogue the Harley Manuscripts Online Catalogue offer a Browse List, accessed from the Charters (approximately 13,300 homepage at http://molcat.bl.uk3 Advanced Search screen, which documents) in the same format. An presents the variants from which they application for a three-year project, Rachel Stockdale may make their choice. Place names starting in 2006, is currently under Head of Manuscripts Cataloguing were more easily standardised, and consideration by the Arts and and Collection Management modern forms have been added down Humanities Research Council. The British Library to parish level on the authority of Bartholomew’s Gazetteer and the The Wolley Charter Catalogue had its English Place-Name Society’s Place- formal launch on 5 July 2005 at Names of Derbyshire. Derbyshire County Record Office in Matlock, with the enthusiastic support Those who know what they are looking of the County Archivist, Dr Margaret for can make targeted searches via the O’Sullivan. The opportunity to describe web interface, or they can browse the our work and offer demonstrations and list of names. However, unlike a printed hands-on testing to an interested local catalogue, the database offers no audience raised the profile of the overview of its contents or easy access collection and fostered useful contacts by subject, and beginners will within the region. Members of the encounter technical terms which are Derbyshire Victoria County History not explained. In due course of time, (VCH) Trust have since commended the we would like to add enhancements catalogue and offered some corrections such as glossaries, with background and based on their own research, and interpretive essays modelled on other ongoing work on the Wolley British Library web catalogues. Manuscripts has been brought to our

37 Limbo: the story of the Hayes Repository

The recent disappearance of the Intermediate Repository at Hayes in Middlesex from the records management picture seems to have happened without fuss and without its role over the second half of the last century being marked in any way. RecordKeeping asked Kelvin Smith – a former Officer in Charge at Hayes, now Head of the Cataloguing and Accessions Unit of The National Archives’ Records Management Department – to put this right.

The Hayes Repository always fought prepare them for transfer for However, in 1949 tenure of the shelters shy of calling itself a records centre. permanent preservation. was prematurely cut short or This may have been because it was set threatened. With much difficulty and up before the descriptor became Provision was made unexpectedly soon delay more permanent quarters were common but it was also because it did after the Second World War for the sought and eventually found in 1950 at not truly carry out the functions of realisation of the scheme by the Hayes. The buildings on the Hayes site such a facility. It was usually referred to occupation of temporary (at Bourne Avenue) were erected in as the ‘Public Record Office (PRO) accommodation in deep shelters – 1941 and 1942 as a Royal Ordnance Intermediate Repository’ and, when it parts of underground railway stations factory (ROF). They included a hospital was first established, as the ‘Limbo not yet brought into service – and and some living quarters (production accommodation at Hayes’. other buildings. These included Belsize went on 24 hours a day during the Park (War Office files), Camden Town, War). There were also some very large The word limbo was first coined in Clapham Common (Admiralty and water tanks (for use against incendiary 1943 when accommodation problems Principal Probate records), Clapham bombs), which by the 1980s were at Chancery Lane and the rapid North (Board of Trade records), Goodge mysteriously full of fish! The buildings increase in the creation of public Street and Yeading (Ministry of Health on the site were each allocated a letter records led to government records). as a ROF and this arrangement departments increasingly making their own arrangements to house their 18 18 The Southall records when they ceased to be current railway steam (it must be remembered that this was engine in ‘W’ before the structured approach to building appraisal put forward by the Grigg Committee in 1954). In many cases such departmental accommodation was highly unsuitable and there was a temptation, once they were disposed of in that way, for the departments to make no further effort either in the way of arranging and weeding documents or by transferring those suitable for permanent preservation to the PRO. The remedy was therefore the ‘limbo project’ – the single intermediate repository under the general supervision of the PRO in which departments might house obsolete or obsolescent records with the staff necessary to weed and 38 19 19 Army records continued when the PRO took the site from all over the country to extra racking in ‘A’ over in 1950. The two largest buildings Lord Chancellor’s Department staff building (A and Y) were racked out first. This drafted in on site especially for the took longer than expected, mainly event. 1974 was a particularly busy because of a steel shortage at the time, year (two general elections). Later, but by the end of 1952 they held new accommodation for the papers records from 27 government was made available in the shape of departments (291,000 linear feet) and Z building. W also, at various times, all the deep shelters had been cleared housed an ancient fire-fighting of records. tower, parts of Richmond Terrace, London, during its refurbishment By the 1960s the repository was in full and a railway steam engine (an swing, housing semi-current records unusual favour to Southall railway and employing staff from 39 enthusiasts). government departments (engaged in review, deposit, retrieval and ■ V building was occupied by the replacement of records). The site Passport Office and held records of covered 39 acres and its perimeter passports issued and similar fence measured one mile 140 yards. material. Its claim to fame was an The total amount of records stored on appearance in the film The Day of site reached a peak of 1,145,000 feet the Jackal when police tried to link a (220 miles). There were also two film birth certificate of a dead individual vaults (X and M buildings) holding with a passport application – you cinematograph film that, because of its know the scam …. nitrate base, had to be kept under very special conditions, and an underground ■ J building was largely used by store (S building) housing magnetic Customs and Excise to store cars number was Nelson, the one-eyed cat tape and the PRO archival microfilm seized at Heathrow Airport. A Rolls adopted by MoD’s Polish Section, who library. In the 1990s there were several Royce and a Bentley were kept lived on site for several years. missionaries from the Church of Jesus there for (it seems) some years. Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) The Hayes Repository was a most undertaking microfilming of the ‘burnt ■ In 1953 some of the unoccupied enjoyable place to work. It had a collection’ of First World War Soldiers’ space in A building was made decidedly family atmosphere where Documents. available for the storage of furniture everyone was friendly and always given by the public for the relief of prepared to help out their colleagues, Other buildings on site included box victims of the great flood disaster of right across the range of staff from the stores, canteen (C building), first aid that year. night security guards to the officer in post (B), garage (R), and small records charge. The PRO staff were drawn from stores. Some buildings were put to The site was run by the PRO, which what is now the Records Management unusual uses at times: had on average about 15 staff there, Department. When officers in charge of including a typing pool. It was run from the site were chosen (it was usually a ■ W building was largely unused and, O building (the ‘Administration Block’), bridge between what is now Records by the 1980s, fell into a rather which also housed a very active unit of Management Executive and Client dilapidated state. Until then it held the Ministry of Defence (MoD). There Manager) they were always wary of ballot papers from parliamentary was also a small search room for what they were being let in for. elections (which by law are kept for carrying out Chancel Repair searches; However, I think without exception all one year and a day after the there was a regular trickle of solicitors’ left Hayes with happy memories. election). The days after a general clerks to look at such records. election were always hectic times Altogether on site were over 200 staff Kelvin Smith for the site. Fleets of Post Office employed by the various government Records Management Department vans delivered the ballot papers departments. I must not forget in that The National Archives

20 20 ‘O’ building – the Administration Block

39 RecordKeeping Autumn 2005

Standards and guidance Digital Preservation Documents from the National Council on Archives and The National Archives

The National Council on Archives (NCA) has published a new Advocacy Document to help archivists convince other people why preserving electronic records is an urgent issue. This Advocacy Document, called Your Data At Risk,is designed to be a companion to a Digital Preservation Handbook being prepared by The National Archives (TNA).

To tackle sustainable digital may be non-computer specialists, The business reasons for digital preservation of an organisation’s and/or non-archivists, such as Chief preservation now and in the future are records successfully requires a strategic Executives or Directors of Finance. the same as the business reasons for direction and policy commitment from preserving paper records now and in the top of the organisation. This This Advocacy Document explains, in the past, except that, due to increasing strategic direction then needs to be layman’s terms, the importance of legislation and information creation, translated into operational digital preservation, the dangers of these reasons are now ever more effectiveness. In many local authorities, ignoring it, and gives a brief outline urgent. These reasons include the let alone many other community or of some strategies to tackle the exploitation of Intellectual Property public organisations, neither of these problem. Copies are available from Rights and Copyright; increasing have yet come to fruition. the NCA website, demand by auditors and customers for www.ncaonline.org.uk and hard information, both current and historic; The most up-to-date data available, a copies can be requested from Ruth efficiency gains in administration costs; survey carried out in December 2002, Savage, NCA Policy and Development and legal imperatives such as Freedom across local authorities in England, Officer. She said, “The reality is that of Information, Data Protection, Wales and Scotland, found that none the longer an organisation leaves Environmental Information Regulations had a facility for the storage and doing something about digital and Corporate Governance. And the preservation of electronic records, and preservation, the worse, and the more issues concerning increasing data only 5.9% had contracted support. No expensive, the problem gets, and the creation continue to grow: it is doubt things have improved since then, more material will already have been estimated that we humans have but this is indicative of the magnitude lost. Also, it should be made plain created and stored 100 times as much of the job to be done. that digital preservation is not a information in the period since 1945 as ‘project’. Thanks to increasing in the whole of human history up to Advocacy Document business pressures, legislation and the that point, and creation continues to modernising government agenda, it is grow exponentially. Your Data At Risk is aimed at explaining now part of how everyone does day- the need for digital preservation to to-day business, including local While a piece of paper or vellum can people who need to know about it who authorities and archives.” last for centuries left alone in a dry,

40 dark room, nothing created by a The project was a landmark in terms of from the moment of creation and a computer has that kind of longevity. both its scale and its technological proactive policy and strategic approach Computers and their contents only achievements, costing around £2.5 to their management to secure their survive by the active and ongoing help million. In a terrible irony, the problems preservation in the long term. What is of human beings. There are various of hardware and software dependence key is that all those who have an issues with digital preservation: have now rendered the system interest in the life of the digital degradation of tape and plastics, the obsolete. What was cutting edge in resource are involved. There are three ICT framework used to accession, store, 1986 was virtually unreadable by 2000. main strategies that can be used as a catalogue and preserve digital items as This is one of many case studies in the means of dealing with the challenges well as the obsolescence of hardware Advocacy Document that illustrates of digital preservation. Each approach and software, even CD-ROMs and the urgency of digital preservation. has its own benefits and drawbacks. DVDs. However cutting edge any particular technology is today, there is And it isn’t just formal documents that The ‘do it yourself’ strategy assumes no guarantee that it will be readable or we should be worried about. Emails that the organisation takes an ‘in even accessible in a few years’ time. and web pages are documents which, house’ approach. This is a good strategy like traditional paper-based letters, if there is sufficient organisational For instance, The Domesday Book of newspapers and other documents, may expertise to support a cross-disciplinary 1086 can still be seen and read by the be fleeting and worthless, or they may team drawn from structurally distinct public at The National Archives. In have intrinsic or contextual worth. All groups. It promotes skills sharing and 1986, BBC Domesday was launched to the traditional skills of the archivist are team working which results in stronger celebrate the 900th anniversary of the important in deciding which electronic retained organisational competence original Domesday book with the idea documents are preserved. As an and enables a greater degree of of capturing a massive range of archivist, you already have all the skills organisational control and ownership of information on the social, you need to deal with that. But the results which delivers a good outcome environmental, cultural and economic problem isn’t the content of digital in the long term. However, this strategy make up of the UK. Contributions from items, but the format and media they is not a realistic option for researchers and thousands of school are stored in and the processes organisations without the capacity to children from across the country were involved in making sure they survive. support staff with appropriate recorded onto two 12” videodiscs that expertise, for instance, small charities, could be viewed using a special BBC The fragility of digital assets means especially as the initial stages in Microcomputer. that they need careful management developing this kind of strategy can be

1 1 Digital storage media such as CDs carry a high risk of loss or damage if not properly managed

41 time consuming because of the issues organisational and contractual manuals that are available dealing with involved in establishing successfully problems and in the long term while these subjects, and to help people functioning cross-disciplinary teams. not necessarily promoting in house make the best use of those manuals. ownership of the pan-organisational Both Your Data At Risk and the A ‘consortia’ strategy assumes that an processes that need to be in place. Handbook list sources of further help organisation takes a partnership Furthermore, there are limited options and advice and there are lots of them. approach, working with other external for contracting out in an For instance, there are good web pages organisations with a similar interest. underdeveloped market. and manuals from The National The process of establishing the Archives and the Digital Preservation partnership secures commitment from No matter which approach you and Coalition. each organisation and a clear allocation your organisation choose (and you of responsibility, while it can lever may use all or any of them over the The Handbook will provide a quick economies of scale, enabling the course of the next few years), the introduction to the Open Archival pooling of expertise across important thing is to start doing Information Systems (OAIS) standard. organisations. This strategy can lay the something. Develop a strategy, thinking OAIS is an International Standard for foundations for longer-term about the capacity of your organisation digital archiving, originally developed collaboration in other areas. However, and its needs. Make sure that you have by NASA to archive the digital the initial stages of developing the a champion in authority who can argue information and documents produced partnership approach may be time on your behalf. Start to create an ICT by the Space Programme. The new consuming if you do not work in history for your organisation. Think Handbook will cover all the basic partnerships already. Communications about how electronic records are processes involved in digital archiving. across different organisations can be managed from creation to archiving difficult while the implementation within your organisation’s records If all this seems overwhelming to you, stage of this strategy can become management system. Make sure that don’t panic! Help is available: Your Data difficult if the reality of divergent aims you raise any concerns about electronic At Risk lists a number of sources of amongst partners becomes more records with any other organisations assistance. Get your copy now from apparent. with whom you do business, especially www.ncaonline.org.uk or from Ruth if this may affect your legislative Savage, NCA Policy and Development Lastly, an organisation may decide to duties. Officer on ruth.savage@ contract out or outsource its digital nationalarchives.gov.uk preservation function. This strategy can TNA Digital Preservation Handbook T: 020 8392 5376. be a sensible option where an organisation can benefit from external The primary audience for the TNA Ruth Savage expertise and a new perspective. Digital Preservation Handbook is NCA Policy and Development Officer However, it still requires ‘in house’ skills archivists in regional and local archives. to define and manage what needs to The Handbook is intended to be less be done in terms of any legal, technical than some of the detailed

42 Interpreting Electronic Record Management Requirements: the development of formal rationales

Earlier this year the Records Management Advisory Service (a component service within The National Archives’ National Advisory Services) started to develop a major new piece of guidance to assist record managers and also software suppliers and developers to interpret the complex requirements contained within the Functional Requirements for Electronic Records Management systems (ERMS), which were last revised and published in 2002.

These requirements have been used 499 requirements. The team within The text, illustrative examples are included since March 2003 as the benchmark National Archives, which is responsible where appropriate. for the electronic record management for the development of these require- The first initial product of this project software evaluation programme which ments, became aware that many in the has recently been published on the The National Archives (TNA) has records management and archival TNA website page entitled 2002 offered for the assessment of electronic community find the requirements Rationale for functional requirements document and record management difficult to place in context as they are available at: (EDRM) software applications. Final technical requirements and the www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ applications for the evaluation relationship with the fellow require- electronicrecords/rat2002/ programme were accepted in March ments is not always entirely clear upon 2005, with the last tests due for a casual read of the document. This first stage currently covers only completion in 2006. While new section A1 Record Organisation of the products may no longer be presented We recognised that to produce the core requirements but that alone for evaluation against the 2002 level of information which had been covers some 68 functional Functional Requirements, it is hoped sought would require a major new requirements. Initially this release has that the combination of the piece of work and in January this year been provided in the form of a PDF requirements, test scripts and we began to consider what was document named ERMS Rationale – additional published guidance may still required and how best to explain the Section A1. In addition to progressively be relevant to those using or purpose behind each requirement; this providing the complete set of developing ERM and EDRM products. would also include guidance on how requirements in PDF format, the each requirement should be interpreted Rationale data will be more accessible The requirements against which ERM together with explicit linkages and to users as it will be incorporated into and EDRM products are subjected to relevant dependencies. The purpose of a simple, searchable online database on test and evaluation (including those in the Rationale documentation is to the website. the four optional modules) total 432. provide the fundamental reasoning and Furthermore a new module on Case principles behind each requirement in In its final form it is hoped that the Management and Workflow has been the core and optional modules in a Rationale will be of use to all records added which provides a further 67 clear and unambiguous manner. In managers who have an interest in the requirements, giving a grand total of addition to straightforward Rationale functionality of systems and will help

43 Figure 1 organisations to get a much better understanding of why the requirements exist – and also how Each rationale contains: ERM and EDRM products actually have to deliver the required functionality. We also hope it will A table of 8 elements – these comprise: assist those involved in specifying the business requirements for records 1. the requirement number e.g. A.1.1M management systems and also third 2. text of the requirement party integrators who increasingly are being asked to integrate ERM and 3. entry for footnotes (where applicable) EDRM solutions into an organisation’s IT infrastructure. 4. the rationale describing the purpose

Each requirement is analysed within a 5. example with a graphic display if applicable table and each Rationale attempts to 6. links or dependencies to other requirements explain the reason and purpose for the requirement. Examples are intended to 7. test criteria (i.e. where tested in our scripts) provide a practical explanation of how the requirement should actually be 8. keywords (where relevant) implemented. Where this will assist understanding, the text is supported by Figure 2 graphical illustrations (Figure 1).

The development of these graphical Graphic illustration of illustrations is just one way we are inheritance hoping to explain how specific functionality should actually work and A1.21M Disposal metadata example provide a tool for interpreting if a The ERMS must be capable of making the class system is actually delivering what is required. Requirement A1.21M is a level metadata element “Disposal.Schedule ID” good example of this approach. (Figure inheritable on creation of new sub-classes. 2 includes an illustrative example as used in the Rationale.) Disposal Schedule ID = Schedule 1 Where the class “North West C North West Region Region” has been allocated the The requirement itself states that: disposal schedule entitled “The ERMS must support inheritance of “Schedule 1”, when the sub- Disposal Schedule ID = Schedule 1 metadata by lower levels of the class “Regional Planning” is classification scheme so that, by default, C Regional Planning created it should automatically addition of a new class results in inherit the same disposal automatic inclusion of those attributes schedule as the parent class. by the new class, which are defined as inherited from the higher level (i.e. inheritance on creation).” The work is still ongoing and is material, which will be provided to the The Rationale we have developed for expected to be updated both with the authors of the new standard. TNA’s this requirement states that: addition of the remaining requirements functional requirements are regarded and also with improvements based on as one of the core benchmarks for ERM “The ERMS must have the ability to user feedback. The plan calls ultimately specifications and the development of define which metadata elements will be for the establishment of a last updated the Rationale document will inform the inherited. When classes are added to a feature and a glossary. author’s understanding and classification scheme, child classes will interpretation of our requirements. initially have some of the same This work is intended as a major new metadata attributes as the parent. resource for record managers and Our intention is to publish the full The aim is to achieve consistency and project teams charged with specifying Rationale by the end of the business make the creation of the classification their requirements for ERM solutions year. We would welcome feedback and scheme easier, with the user not having but it also serves a further purpose to anyone who wishes to approach us to populate all the fields manually each support the forthcoming proposal for direct either with comment or time a class is created. Authorised users the development of a new European questions should e-mail the Records should be allowed to edit metadata Commission sponsored standard for Management Advisory Service at: elements during the lifetime of each records management. The DLM Forum [email protected] object as appropriate.” is formulating a proposal to the European Commission this autumn for Richard Blake This is supported by an illustrative a revision of the Model Requirements Head of the Records Management example, an excerpt of which was used for the Management of Electronic Advisory Service for a recent presentation (Figure 2). Records (the MoReq standard). National Advisory Services

An overall key to explain the format The National Archives is actively and structure of the example diagrams supporting this proposal and our has also been provided in PDF format current Functional Requirements for on the 2002 Rationale for functional Electronic Records Management requirements webpage. systems will form part of the research 44 Recently released useful publications

Publications from The requirements for electronic records number of other countries, it management systems (ERMS) specify considered that it did not provide an National Archives mandatory, highly desirable and effective regime for the protection of desirable levels of functionality. The cultural property. In September 2005 Annual report and resource accounts purpose of the rationale docum- DCMS launched a consultation 2004-2005: History for All entation is to provide fundamental document, which asks a number of The second annual report and reasoning and principles behind each important questions on the most resource accounts on the work of requirement in the core and optional suitable way for the UK to meet its The National Archives has now been modules in a clear and unambiguous obligations under the Hague published, along with the second manner. The first initial product of this Convention. report of the Advisory Council on project has recently been published www.culture.gov.uk/global/ National Records and Archives. online (see page 43 for more details). consultations/ www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/ www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ operate/reports.htm electronicrecords/rat2002/ Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) – Local Area Assessment of UKDA and TNA Memorandum of Understanding Agreements Compliance with OAIS and METS between the Information Local Area Agreements are agreements Standards Commissioner and the Keeper of between central government and a In conjunction with the UK Data Public Records local authority and its partners about Archive, The National Archives have The Information Commissioner and the the priorities for a particular area, and released a report comparing their Keeper of the Public Records have are a means for delivering new preservation practices to the leading signed a Memorandum of resources and ways of working. MLA internationally recognised standard for Understanding setting out how they has produced a briefing on how the digital archives (see page 9 for more will work together on promoting and sector can benefit from engaging with details). monitoring the records management LAAs. www.data-archive.ac.uk/news/ code of practice. www.idea-knowledge.gov.uk/idk/ publications.asp www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/policy/foi aio/983051

FOI Matters National Council on Archives (NCA) The Records Management Publications from – Your Data At Risk Department's Freedom of Information other organisations The NCA has published a new Unit have released the first edition of Advocacy Document to help archivists FOI Matters, a quarterly newsletter convince other people why preserving designed to keep the departments they Department for Culture, Media and electronic records is an urgent issue. consult under the Freedom of Sport (DCMS)/Improvement and Your Data At Risk is aimed at Chief Information Act informed about the Development Agency (IDeA) – Executives of local authorities, Finance work of the Unit and their application Cultural Connections Officers and other non-specialists in of the Act. You can request a copy by DCMS have joined up with the local positions of authority who may make emailing: RMDrequests@ government IDeA to develop the policy or resource decisions that affect nationalarchives.gov.uk. Cultural Connections web resource. archival services (see page 40 for more This provides information on good details). Inspection services for archive practice and service improvement for www.ncaonline.org.uk/ repositories local authority cultural services, and publications/reports/ The National Advisory Services at The MLA is working with DCMS to develop National Archives co-ordinate advisory archives content. work and undertake inspections of www.idea-knowledge.gov.uk/idk/core/ Revised Data Protection Code of repositories under the Standard for page.do?pageId=76729 Practice for records managers and Record Repositories (2004) and the archivists supporting framework of standards. Department for Culture, Media and The draft code of practice for records This leaflet offers further information Sport (DCMS) – Hague Convention managers and archivists under section and advice about the inspection Consultation document 51 of the Data Protection Act 1998 has process. The Convention for the Protection of been revised and version 3 is now www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ Cultural Property in the Event of published for comment. archives/framework/ Armed Conflict (the Hague www.archives.org.uk/about/revisedcode Convention) was signed at The Hague ofpractice.html 2002 Rationale for functional on 14 May 1954. The UK decided not requirements to ratify the Convention when it was The National Archives' 2002 functional first drafted because, along with a 45 RecordKeeping Autumn 2005

Contacts Contacts and staff news

Staff changes Contacts

Tel: 020 8876 3444 (followed by staff extension) Records Management Fax: 020 8392 5286 Department: Tomas Bianchin, Christine Gazley All staff email addresses are of the format and Lynsey Aylmer have joined [email protected] the Cataloguing and Accessions Unit as Accessioning Administrators. In the Inspection National Advisory Services and Client Management Unit, Enquiries to [email protected] Justine Rainbow and Mandy Goldsmith have joined as client Katie Woolf, Communications and Advocacy Manager managers. Katy Baldwin has x 2380 joined the Unit as a fast streamer for nine months. Advice on places of deposit and public records Including disposal, legislation, standards for storage and access: We wish them all well in their Andrew Rowley, Head of Archive Inspection Services new jobs. x 5318

Advice on non-public records Including standards for storage of and access to private archives, advice to grant awarding bodies, sales monitoring and liaison with regional archive councils and regional agencies: Norman James, Director of HMC Advisory services x 2615

Regional Archival Liaison Scotland – Alex Ritchie Wales – Michelle Kingston Eastern Region – Anthony Smith South East Region – Melinda Haunton Yorkshire and the Humber Region – Amy Warner North West and Northern Ireland – Mary Wills East Midlands and West Midlands – Liz Hart and Rosie Logiudice North East Region – Catherine Guggiari South West Region – James Travers London – Rachel Bell

Electronic Records Management Enquiries to [email protected]

Ian Macfarlane, Head of Electronic Records Management Development Unit x 5366

Records Management outside central government Enquiries to [email protected]

Advice on developing effective information and records management systems for paper and electronic records: Richard Blake, Head of Records Management Advisory Service x 5208

46 Records management in government departments Enquiries to [email protected] Meg Sweet, Head of Records Management Department x 5315 Kelvin Smith, Head of Cataloguing and Accessions Unit x 2303 Howard Davies, Head of Inspection and Client Management Unit x 5340 Malcolm Todd, Project Manager: Sustainability of electronic records x 5340 Stuart Abraham, Access Manager x 5346

Key contacts in other National Archives departments

Information legislation ■ Advice on Freedom of Information and its impact on records management and archives ■ Information on proposed records and archives legislation ■ Guidance on data protection and its impact on records management and archives Susan Healy, Information Policy Project Manager x 2305 www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/policy

Digital Preservation issues Enquiries to [email protected]

Adrian Brown, Head of Archive Services and Digital Preservation x 5257 www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/preservation

Conservation and preservation of traditional materials Enquiries to [email protected] Mario Aleppo, Head of Conservation x 5263

Copyright and intellectual property issues Tim Padfield, Copyright & Policy Manager x 5381

Advisory Council on national records and archives Tim Padfield, Secretary x 5381

Social inclusion and diversity issues Including online and cataloguing initiatives and The National Archives' User Advisory group: Rachel Hasted, Social Inclusion Project Manager x 2531

Archives awareness initiatives Lucy Fulton, Archives Awareness Campaign officer x 5277

Education, learning and access, schools and universities Tom O'Leary, Head of Education & Interpretation Department x 5298

Academic publications and development of material for the higher education and lifelong learning sectors Vanessa Carr, Head of Research, Knowledge & Academic Services x 2212

The Catalogue and Archives 4 All Louise Craven, Archival Catalogue Programme Manager x 5232 47 £2.00

Tel: 020 8876 3444 Fax: 020 8392 5286 Email: [email protected] The National Archives Kew Surrey TW9 4DU www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/services/recordkeeping.htm