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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