Armren: AHRC Funded Project 2006-2007

ARMReN: AHRC funded project 2006-2007

Rationale and research context

Records and archives provide evidence of the activities of organisations and individuals. Records are essential to almost all management activities, to enable actions to be taken and decisions made. They support accountability and provide evidence for administrative and legal transparency. Archives play an important role in the maintenance and development of social and cultural identity, in the facilitation of research in all arts and humanities subjects, and in enabling citizens to exercise their rights.

Information policy legislation in the UK (specifically freedom of information, data protection and proposed national records and archives legislation) and the e- government target of 2005 place archives and records management firmly on the government’s agenda, but also increase the need for research to assess the impact of policy and to evaluate the systems which manage digital records. Research is also critical to the understanding and management of the consequences of the vast changes in the archives and records domain as evidenced by the advent of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA, see http://www.mla.gov.uk/) in 2000, the creation of The National Archives (TNA, see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/) in 2003, the ever-increasing interest in family and local history and the government’s emphasis on the role of libraries and archives as educational resources in the information age. A raft of recent and forthcoming publications emphasise the role of archives and records as evidence and as critical in ensuring the transparency of government and administration, as well as their importance in education and in advancing citizens’ rights (for example, K Smith (2004) Freedom of Information: a practical guide to implementing the Act Facet Publishing; A Flinn and H Jones Open access or empty archives?: contemporary history and freedom of information Manchester University Press, forthcoming; P Casini (2003) ‘European Governance, Citizen’s Rights of Access to Documents and the role of Archives’, Archives and Manuscripts, 31: 2; M Moss ‘The Hutton Inquiry, the President of Nigeria and what the Butler hoped to see’ English Historical Review cxx: 487, 2006).

The research community for archives and records management within the UK is numerically small and is based, usually within larger departments, at only six universities: Aberystwyth, Dundee, Glasgow, Liverpool, Northumbria and UCL. In spite of the small number of academic researchers, applications for PhD research, both from UK and overseas students, are increasing steadily in number and quality. One of the reasons for the Network application is to encourage postgraduate research in the discipline. The community has had its own informal Discussion group, the Forum for Archives and Records Management Education and Research (FARMER, see http://www.liv.ac.uk/lucas/FARMER/) since 1999, and a North European Archival Educators Forum began in May 2005, but the AHRC Network represents an opportunity to develop a lasting and broader community, and to bring in researchers from other academic disciplines.

Stimuli for this initiative have come from the 1st AHRB-funded PhD conference in archives and records management (Liverpool, June 2005), within UCLSLAIS from the International Centre for Archives and Records Research and User Studies (ICARUS) (see http://www.slais.ucl.ac.uk/) and from the ‘Archives and History’ seminar series organised at the Institute of Historical Research since 1998 and within UCL from the ESRC/Leverhulme Evidence Centre (http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/evidence/info/index.html), the School of Public Policy (Constitution Unit, see http://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/foidp/) and the Centre for Sustainable Heritage (see http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sustainableheritage/).

1. To establish an enduring network to foster research in the academic discipline of archives and records management. 2. To develop interaction between researchers in arts, humanities, social sciences and law, as well as between administrators and information professionals in business, industry, local and national government, in order to advance understanding of recorded evidence in its relationship to transparency and accountability, evidential value, citizens’ rights and life-long education, and theory and practice in archives and records management.

Objectives

1. To improve the dissemination of archives and records management research among communities which will directly benefit, including researchers in other academic disciplines and information and cultural heritage professionals, together with the organisations and institutions which create and preserve records and archives. 2. To enhance the provision of archives and records services to user communities in the public and private sectors. 3. To foster the development of younger academic researchers in the discipline and to encourage the development of collaborative partnerships, both within the UK and internationally.

These aims and objectives will be achieved through the creation and maintenance of an electronic forum and information resource, three one-day research seminars held at two different universities, additional expert speakers at two ‘Archives and History’ seminars and dissemination of results through a conference paper and a refereed journal article.

Speakers and participants

The participants will be the research community for archives and records management, including archival academics, records professionals who undertake research in the workplace and academic researchers in arts, humanities, social sciences, law and fine arts. This Network will make it possible to bring together researchers in archives and records management from all six UK universities which have existing research communities in these subjects, and will give opportunities for making even stronger links with European and international colleagues, for example, through the newly formed North European Archival Educators’ Forum. The Network will enable closer collaboration with researchers in a variety of disciplines to ensure that the archives created and preserved now will provide future generations with the research material they need. Management of network and research seminars

The principal applicant and the first-named co-applicant based at UCLSLAIS will provide day-to-day management for the Network project. The part-time administrative assistant will provide administrative support for all the Network activities and in particular the research seminars. The second co-applicant will be responsible for specific aspects of the Network eg the autumn 2006 seminar. The Network project will fall within the UCLSLAIS research group, ICARUS (International Centre for Archives and Records Research and User Studies), which will provide expert guidance and support for the project.

A management group, consisting of representatives from TNA, other academic departments in UCL, FARMER, and the National Council on Archives (NCA), (which represents both the professional and user communities) will meet on two occasions. They will be kept in day-to-day touch with developments through the electronic forum and by regular electronic briefings.

In order to ensure long term value of the resources developed by the Network, UCLSLAIS will host the website for a period of at least 3 years beyond the Network award. During the project we will explore with the community the most effective ways of embedding the Network activities into scholarly activity for the discipline: FARMER has expressed its support for the proposed activities and is likely to be able to support continuing work after the end of the Network award.

01/06 EJS