Vch Cumbria Project Volunteer Report
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CUMBRIA COUNTY HISTORY TRUST: APPLICATION No. HG-09-08757 APPENDIX A CUMBRIA COUNTY HISTORY TRUST VCH CUMBRIA PROJECT VOLUNTEER REPORT November 2010 Sarah Rose ([email protected]) The Cumberland News 1 Contents Aims 2 Meetings and Volunteer Recruitment 2 Volunteer Research Interests 2 Volunteer Research Skills 3 Volunteer Training Needs 4 Appendix I Volunteer Interests Questionnaire 5 Appendix II Responses to Interests Questionnaire 6 Appendix III Volunteer Training Needs Questionnaire 13 Appendix IV Responses to Training Needs Questionnaire 14 Appendix V Places of Interest To Volunteers 19 Map A Distribution of Volunteer Research Interests 20 2 Aims This report presents the findings of research undertaken between September and November 2010, on behalf of Cumbria County History Trust. The aims of this research were as follows: q Identify potential volunteers for the Cumbria VCH project q Determine volunteers’ research interests and expertise q Assess volunteers’ training needs Meetings and Volunteer Recruitment The first stage in achieving these aims was to hold a series of meetings across Cumbria with those who had expressed an interest in volunteering for the project. These individuals were identified from CCHT’s membership list and from research conducted by Dr Ellie Stroughton in 2007, to gauge public interest in the VCH. The purpose of the first round of meetings was to discuss the requirements of researching for the VCH and to gain an idea of the particular interests of individual volunteers by asking them to complete a questionnaire (see Appendix I). These meetings were also an opportunity for volunteers to meet each other, and thus serve as a first step in gathering teams of people who might work together. Follow-up meetings were held a month later in four of the same locations. These meetings focused on volunteer training needs, which were also assessed using a questionnaire (see Appendix III). Attendance Meeting 1 Meeting 2 Penrith 15 9 Kirkby Stephen 14 12 Kendal 14 12 Carlisle 10 15 Whitehaven 13 - All meetings were reasonably attended – some far better than expected. The fact that more individuals attended the second Carlisle meeting than the first, was largely due to an advert about the VCH project in the local press. The press release on Thursday 21st October resulted in five requests for more information within 24 hours, and four more since. The details of a further ten potential volunteers were also obtained following the CCHT AGM at Carlisle on 30th October 2010. Those who were unable to attend meetings were sent information and questionnaires via email or in the post. There are currently 116 individuals who would like to volunteer for the project, most of whom reside in the eastern half of Cumbria. Volunteer Research Interests In total, 81 volunteers returned the a questionnaire which asked about their research interests (Appendix I). Kendal area = 17 replies Kirkby Stephen area = 17 replies Carlisle area = 14 replies Whitehaven area = 12 replies Penrith area = 21 replies 3 The geographic location of volunteer interests are recorded in Appendix V and plotted on Map A. There is a fairly strong correlation between where volunteers live and the place they would like to research. There is a strong swathe of interest running south of Brampton and Carlisle down to the south east of the county, with an outlying cluster of volunteers around Cockermouth and Whitehaven. Despite a rather surprising gap in the distribution of volunteer interests around the Kendal area (volume XIV),1 eastern Cumbria is far better represented compared to the west. There is a particular lack of interest in the costal areas corresponding to volumes V, VI and X. Fortunately, over half of volunteers said they would be willing to work on townships beyond their own area of interest, and so they might be deployed in those places where resident volunteers have not been forthcoming. The highest concentrations of volunteer interest are in the areas covered by volumes III (Penrith) and XI (Kirkby Stephen). The majority of volunteers in the Kirkby Stephen area belong to the Upper Eden Valley History Society and would be willing to contribute to the VCH as a group.2 They are well organised and very keen to start. Volunteers in the Penrith area have instead shown interest in the project as individuals, rather than work as part of any local history group to which they may belong. As this situation is also true in other parts of the county, there is a need to organise individual volunteers into working groups. It has already been suggested that volunteers from Lorton and Derwent Fells Local History Society and Cockermouth Museum Group will be able work together, along with any individuals from Lamplugh and District Heritage Society who wish to help in future. As a group, volunteers have displayed a wide variety in their topics and periods of interest, ranging from archaeology to transport and industry. That said, the medieval period appears less popular than the modern, particularly in more urban areas like Carlisle. This could have consequences for work on some VCH topics, such as early settlement and landholding, as well as the level of skill and experience among volunteers - particularly for palaeography and Latin. Just nine individuals said they were happy to work on all nine VCH topics, although most volunteers specified between three and six topics. Social history is by far the most popular, with 72% of volunteers wishing to contribute to that section. Local government was the least popular, with 37% of volunteers interested in that topic. Volunteer Research Skills In total, 66 volunteers have responded to a second questionnaire used to determine their research skills and potential training needs (Appendix III). In total, 12 individuals have gained certificates, diplomas or Masters degrees in local history research, while 61% of volunteers said they had received some form of relevant training in the past - formal or informal. Most volunteers had used a variety of documents in their own research, although the most common were parish registers and other church records, census and probate material. Volunteers were asked to score their level of confidence at particular research skills on as scale of 1-5. The first question asked was how much experience volunteers had at using archives and libraries. There was a considerable degree of experience 1 Attempts have been made to contact Staveley Local History Society, but there has been no response. 2 Contributions to volume XI may also be made by members of Orton and Tebay Local History Society who expressed a interest in volunteering at the AGM. 4 at using county archives, with 65% of volunteers scoring 4 or 5 for the use of Cumbria’s record offices and 61% for use of its libraries. That said, 18 less experienced individuals did request specific training in how to use record offices. Volunteers were less familiar with more specialist archives and those further afield. Half of volunteers (51%) scored 4-5 on their experience of using Higher Education libraries; 27% with special archives and collections; 14% with the National Archives and 13% with the British Library. Most volunteers were confident in their use of computers, with 74% scoring 4-5 both for word processing and in using the internet for their research. However, there were much lower levels of confidence in using spreadsheets or online catalogues. The online resources volunteers were most familiar with was A2A, for which 30% of volunteers awarded themselves marks of 4-5. Just under a quarter of volunteers believed themselves very confident at using the National Archives catalogue, British History Online and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, with 23% giving a mark of 4-5 in their use of each of these. Volunteers were least confident at using the Bibliography of British and Irish History, with just 5% scoring 4-5. However, this may be partly attributed to the fact that this resource is not freely available. There was a distinct lack of skill among volunteers with regards to reading medieval and early modern documents, with 89% scoring themselves just 1-2 out of 5 for their knowledge of medieval Latin, and 62% for palaeography. In terms of informal feedback, many volunteers said they were happy to contribute to the Resource Bank, but felt that they would rather not write the VCH articles. It may be worth considering whether this reluctance could be overcome with appropriate training in academic writing and the particular style used by the VCH. Volunteer Training Needs Volunteers were offered a choice of potential training opportunities, the most popular of which was in the use of online resources. This was requested by 36 individuals, which reflects the general lack of confidence at using these research tools. Palaeography was the second most popular option, with 33 requests for training, while medieval Latin received 30 requests. Again, this response fits with the skills gap revealed by the questionnaire. Some volunteers did, however, voice concerns about the possible time commitment required for training in Latin and palaeography. Training in the use of record offices was requested by 18 individuals, most of whom had little or no previous research experience. Only 11 individuals felt that they would benefit from some training in word processing: a figure which corresponds to the high levels of confidence most volunteers felt at using computers. However, 32 individuals would like guidance in the use of spreadsheets and databases if deemed necessary for their research. Some volunteers indicated they would also like training sessions focusing on particular types of sources and how to get the most out of them. The most popular were census and probate records, although one or two people at each meeting would also like to receive some guidance on researching buildings and the landscape.