Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport Written Evidence


Memorandum submitted by Deborah Wilton

  I am the Manager of the Worcestershire Record Office, the archive service for the Worcestershire County Council. The County Council is the archive authority for Worcestershire by virtue of the Local Government Act, 1972.  The Record Office is also the Diocesan Record Office for the Diocese of Worcester. The Record Office supplies a public archive service to the inhabitants of the county, and also visitors from this country and around the world who wish to make use of the unique material within the collections.

  I start my submission with some general comments, and then group my further comments under the three specific headings within the call for submissions:

GENERAL

  The focus on collections and stewardship is most welcome. I know that at the time of the Archives Task Force report there was general concern as to how issues around stewardship could be effectively addressed. In the light of various reports drawing attention to the need to make the vast amounts of information contained within uncatalogued or poorly catalogued collections (eg "Full Disclosure" National Council on Archives 1999; "Survey of archive cataloguing problems" Historic Manuscripts Committee 2002; and various reports on cataloguing backlogs within the regions of MLA) this is a timely development. There has, indeed, been welcome growth in, and recognition of, archival activity recently, which has been formalised in such initiatives as the Government Policy on Archives, 1999 and the previously mentioned Archives Task Force. These initiatives have concentrated on important matters such as access, digital media, records management and educational use but have lacked a similarly strong focus on cataloguing needs. The two sides of archival activity, firstly, locating, preserving and cataloguing the material, and secondly, making it as widely and easily accessible as possible, are indissoluably linked and therefore require equal acknowledgment and strong funding.

  Access to unique documentary evidence of the past is enabled by good cataloguing. This is a cornerstone of a democratic society based on access to information, and also enables and illuminates other cultural activities at many levels, giving context to historical, architectural, archaeological and other activity, and inspiring cultural activity generally.

FUNDING

  Archive services are just one service within local government, competing for resources and having to justify their activities. Cut backs in funding will often target services that are not life and limb, or not highly/nationally politically charged. This makes long term planning and sustainability of activity problematic. The financial position of different archive bodies will, of course, vary, but Worcestershire County Council is consistently at or near the bottom in terms of amounts of Government grant, which again puts pressure on services. Pressure is often on increasing access and developing outreach and learning activities. These important activities cannot be sustained, however, without a consistent use of resources dedicated to cataloguing or, in the words of the NCA "resource discovery". The bringing into the system of new information enables perceptions of the past to be refined, and revitalises the resources being used by the public. I have found over the years that informed users are, in fact, very aware of the importance of this activity and that users are keen to make funding of archives a political matter where necessary.

ACQUISITION AND DISPOSAL

  Whilst the Worcestershire Record Office has developed a comprehensive acquisition and disposal policy, which it has registered with The National Archives, it recognises that a major weakness is our lack of resource to carry out substantial proactive collecting. This means our collections may become unbalanced, at the expense of possibly more marginal or under-represented groups, and also that unique and valuable written evidence can be irretrievably lost.

  Other pressures on collections include increasing private sales, either by negotiation or on the open market, which Record Offices are not funded to undertake, or if there are able to do so takes away valuable staff time from other activities such as cataloguing. This is a concern, as, possibly uniquely within the sector, archive collections are often held on long-term loan agreements, and owners may choose to withdraw their collections to realise their monetary value. Many Archive Offices have historically depended upon the public spirited willingness of owners to loan documents to enable them to offer a wide range of source material to the wider public, but increasing awareness of market value, and changing attitudes within society are now putting this system at risk. The other side, however, of this situation is where collections are accepted in lieu of tax, and we have recently benefited by the allocation of such a collection. Nevertheless, such an allocation does not bring with it related funding for cataloguing, so problems still remain.

  Further future challenges include the preservation of collections, both traditional paper and parchment documents, but increasingly also documents created in electronic media. Preservation covers a wide range of issues, from the provision of modern repositories to BS 5454, which are expensive to build and run, but essential for the long-term safety of collections, to detailed work by trained practitioners, and to the creation of surrogates to ease wear and tear on originals. Electronic surrogates, however, bring their own problems through issues of technical compatibilities over time and adequate and safe storage.

EFFECTIVENESS OF RELEVANT ORGANISATIONS IN REPRESENTING CULTURAL INTERESTS

  The sector is better organised now than it has been for some time. The National Archives play a valuable role in establishing and monitoring good practice, and being a major advocate for archival matters generally. Similarly, the establishment of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council has, overall, been to the advantage of the archive sector, although in many ways it still remains a "poor relation" of the sector in terms of financial support and government interest, reflected in levels of funding allocated. A direct link between advocacy and allocation of resources is lacking. However, the impact of MLA's support of archives in cross-domain projects, such as the new Library and History Centre for Worcester, can be felt and is very much appreciated.

  Users and Friends of Worcestershire Record Office enjoy a strong sense of pride in being able to access the County's (and their) heritage. Notions of personal and shared identity are supported by the ability to feel and touch the past. The importance of sustaining cataloguing activity and developing new methods of access are key to building these shared community values.

  (NB: The views expressed above are my personal views and should not be taken to represent the views of Worcestershire County Council).

25 September 2006





 
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