Memorandum submitted by the Federation
of Family History Societies
This response comes from the Federation of Family
History Societies (FFHS) which represents more than 200 Family
History Societies worldwide, including 150 societies in the British
Isles with a combined membership of more than 250,000 family historians
and therefore represents the views of the principal users of Archives
Services. Founded in 1974, it is an educational charity which
seeks to improve the standards of research in family history through
its publications seminars and conferences and through its representation
on national bodies such as the National Council on Archives (NCA),
British Records Association (BRA) and regular joint meetings with
the General Register Office (GRO), The National Archives (TNA)
and Family Records Centre (FRC). It was one of the three bodies
that were asked to appear before the House of Commons Select Committee
which sat in 2004 to look into the Regulatory Reform Order on
Civil Registration. The FFHS also submitted a reasoned response
to the consultation document "Government Policy on Archives,"
[1999].
The FFHS is pleased to respond to the CMS Committee's
Inquiry into Museums, Galleries and Archives at a time when interest
in Archives in particular is at an all time high thanks largely
to television programmes such as Who do you think you are?
This is now in its third series and has proved so popular that
the BBC has moved it to a prime time slot on BBC 1. A number of
members of societies belonging to the FFHS have helped in the
making of these series and other series like Revealing Secrets
(Channel 4).
As a result of these programmes there has been
a huge increase in the numbers of people using the Archives and
Library Services, both of which are already over stretched, under
funded and understaffed. A report in the Daily Telegraph
on 19 September stated that £760 million was urgently needed
to update the Library Service nationally.
Sadly it did not mention Archives Services many
of which are also struggling to cope in unsuitable premises and
are severely understaffed and under-funded. This is an area of
real concern needs to be addressed by the select Committee.
The FFHS wishes to remind the Committee of the
figures given in a recent Parliamentary answer in which it was
stated that in 2005-06 the DCMS spent £299.4 million on museums
and galleries, £8.6 million on local libraries and just £0.3
million on archive development. On top of this there has been
a singular lack of response to the 1999 consultation on Government
Policy on Archives and the more recent report by the Archives
Task Force.
Archives is most definitely the Cinderella branch
of the Museums, Libraries and Archives sector and does not have
the same clout as Museums and Libraries when important collections
of Archival material come on the market. It has been a matter
of great disappointment to the FFHS that the nine Regional Archives
Councils which were set up in 1999 and the nine Regional Museums,
Libraries and Archives Councils have largely ignored the views
of users so far and the FFHS hopes this Inquiry will recommend
more user involvement in decision making.
The member societies of the FFHS are co-operating
in many projects with County Record Offices and have excellent
relations with many County Archivists. These projects involve
cataloguing, transcribing and indexing Collections of records
in addition to transcribing Parish and other records. They share
the concern that some important collections may be lost to Archives
Services.
At the present time Warwickshire County Record
Office is desperately trying to raise £150,000 to purchase
the Waller Collection while Staffordshire is seeking £2 million
for a large collection that is in danger of being split up and
lost to the county for ever. If it was a Medieval monastic manuscript
or a work of art that was being sold, the finance would be quickly
found!
During the 100 years or so in which County Record
Offices have been in existence, many individuals and organisations
have deposited collections of records on loan. In recent years
some depositors or their descendents have noted the increased
interest in family and local history, and have withdrawn their
collections and offered them for sale on the open market and via
the Internet. This appears to be a growing trend and the Archives
sector is often unable to bid for such collections due to a lack
of non-core funding apart from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The FFHS urges the Select Committee to support
the idea of creating an Archives Collection Fund which is topped
up annually and which could be administered by small committee
made up of representatives from TNA, BRA and NCA.
Conservation of Collections of Archives is another
area about which the FFHS is deeply concerned. There is a serious
shortage of skilled conservators with the result that many collections
are unavailable to researchers and have been unavailable for many
years. Many Record Offices do not have a conservator - Lincolnshire
Archives Office has been without one for some years and has a
huge backlog of records in urgent need of conservation. A national
pool of conservators could be formed with conservators loaned
out to Record Offices on one or two-year secondments during which
local staff could be trained in conservation skills.
The FFHS is also very keen to see the current
A2A programme of cataloguing collections continuing and being
extended. At present few Record Offices have an income stream
other than the allocation they receive from their local Council.
TNA has been very successful in putting collections of documents
online, eg the Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills on a pay
per view basis. With financial backing to get started, many Record
Offices could digitise some of their collections and develop a
source of income. The select Committee might wish to recommend
the setting up of a loan scheme by which Record Offices could
set up their own pay per view programmes.
The FFHS would be very pleased to attend oral
evidence sessions of the Select Committee if invited to expand
on concerns raised above and to put forward other proposals relating
to the care of our Collections.
This submission has been prepared specifically
for the Culture Media and Sport Committee by Richard Ratcliffe,
FFHS Legislation Monitoring Officer on behalf of the Executive
Committee of the FFHS.
21 September 2006
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