Research & PSQG
Volunteering in Archives

National Archive Volunteering Project of the Year 2009

This is a new initiative, led by the National Council on Archives in partnership with the Museums, Libraries and Archive Council, Society of Archivists, Scottish Council on Archives, The National Archives, and the Welsh Assembly Government.

The award aims to:

Celebrate volunteering in the archive sector
Recognise good practice in using volunteers in the archive sector
Recognise the contribution of volunteers to the archive sector
Show how volunteering can help contribute to building stronger communities at a local level, and support community cohesion

Eligibility

The award is designed to recognises work involving volunteers within an institutional archive service in the UK. The project must involve volunteering in 2009/10 (although it can be part of a longer term programme) and the evaluation must include some feedback from the volunteers involved in the project.

Criteria for assessment

Organisations who wish to nominate projects are asked to complete a nomination form, in the form of a case study (based on the MLA's case study template). In particular assessment for the award will be made against the following areas

Impact on volunteers
Impact on the archive service
Wider Impact (e.g. on community, organisation, archive sector etc)

Further guidance is incorporated into the nomination form.(English) (Welsh)

Winner:

Suffolk Record Office with Volunteer Ipswich, Volunteer Centre Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk Local History Council, Suffolk Family History Society, Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, and History Friends of the Suffolk Record Office

Project:

Making a Difference Volunteer Cataloguing Backlog Project

This project was developed to: reduce the backlog of cataloguing (one of the major factors preventing use of holdings), make collections more accessible for leisure, formal learning etc, broaden and develop volunteering opportunities, provide for the effective management of volunteers and help volunteers achieve their goals in the three branches of the record office. The record office wanted to provide a supportive environment in which more 16+ users and non-users could volunteer safely, be helped to develop and feel valued in the community in which they live, work, grow up and grow old.

For more information see full case study on MLA website

Judges Citation:

A project representing a step change in the way the archive service works with volunteers. The judges were impressed by the clear aims of the project and the tangible evidence of outcomes for the service, the volunteers and the wider community. The project clearly demonstrates how a local authority archive service, with support within the council, can develop strong links with volunteering organisations and local community groups to offer wider volunteering opportunities.

The success of the project in balancing the fulfilment of strategic objectives for the service with a flexible approach to accommodating individual volunteers’ needs is an example to the whole UK archive sector.

Highly Commended

Black Cultural Archives - The Heart of the Race: Oral Histories of the Black Women’s Movement

This project aimed to: collect testimony from a range of Black women involved in the movement for the rights of Black women in the UK, including activism, organising, campaigning and lobbying at a grassroots, national or international level; ensure that the interviewees participating in the project reflect as fully as possible the range of experiences, backgrounds and identifications of women within the movement and the different groups across the country that constituted it; catalogue and preserve these testimonies and their transcripts, and make available access to them as part of the Black Cultural Archives’ collection; train volunteers in oral history interviewing and transcription; hold an event, develop an exhibition and an online resource based on the testimonies collected, to inspire interest and debate.

For more information see full case study on MLA website

Judges Citation: A project effectively conceived and delivered by an independent archive. The judges were impressed not only with the project’s aspiration to document a significant yet relatively undocumented area of social and political history, but with the methodology used. Volunteer interviewers and transcribers were carefully matched to interviewees to ensure a common interest and were closely supported by the Project Co-ordinator. Volunteers benefited from high quality training in oral history and mentoring on entering heritage and information professions. The project has also enabled Black Cultural Archives to develop its longer-term volunteer strategy and provide advice to community organisations seeking to undertake similar projects.

Highly Commended

The National Archives with Berwick upon Tweed Record Office, Bishops Stortford and District Local History Society, Glamorgan Record Office, Cornwall Record Office, East Sussex Record Office, Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse: Museum of Norfolk Life, Keighley Local Studies Library, Liverpool Local History Society, Llanfyllin Dolydd Building Preservation Trust, Newport Pagnell Museum/ Newport Pagnell Historical Society, Northumberland Collections Service, North Staffordshire Historians’ Guild, Radstock Museum, Southampton Central Library, Swaledale Museum, Wyre Forest Historical Research Group - Living the Poor Life

The project is deeply rooted in the records and experience of the nineteenth century poor. Key archives of the (Ministry of Health) MH 12 Poor Law Union Correspondence are held at TNA. These records are arranged by county, and then by union, making them ideally suited for a remote volunteering project whereby local groups may research and catalogue their own “local records”. Working with volunteers from across the country, the project targeted 21 different areas (22 poor law unions). Inland and coastal, industrial and rural areas are all covered allowing researchers to make detailed comparisons of poor law practice in a variety of areas. Volunteer editors are producing the detailed entries for the TNA Catalogue from scanned document images of selected poor law union correspondence.

The project aims to: enhance the searchable capacity of TNA’s Catalogue; create a project model that could be used more widely within TNA for the involvement of volunteers on large scale cataloguing projects; demonstrate across the sector the potential for large-scale, “remote” volunteering projects; increase the opportunity for volunteers to work on significant research/cataloguing projects; encourage the diversification of volunteers by giving people the opportunity to work remotely from their own homes, rather than travelling to the archives, and to work at their own time and pace, e.g. evenings and weekends for those in full time work or full time education; provide a genuine opportunity for people to be involved with their heritage and to build new audiences for archives by encouraging a pool of passionate local advocates to promote and publicise the material; give the volunteer editors the opportunity to develop new skills, and to gain a range of other benefits.

For more information see full case study on MLA website

Judges Citation: An innovative project demonstrating how a national institution can use its capacity, and work with a range of local partners, to provide national volunteering opportunities. The judges were impressed by the evidence of impact on volunteers, not only the significant numbers involved in the project, but with the passion displayed by the volunteers for the archives and the range of opportunities volunteering had afforded them.

Highly Commended

Warwickshire County Record Office with Heritage Lottery Fund, Leek Wootton History Group, Lillington History Society - Waller Volunteer Transcription Project

The Waller family archive was purchased by the Warwickshire County Record Office in 2006 following a robust funding campaign. Built around the purchase a project, “Outside the Box”, was devised to catalogue, preserve and promote the collection. A strong element of the promotion of the collection was to involve volunteers and local partners within a comprehensive outreach programme. The volunteer programmes included a research programme, conservation support (inc training), transcription programme (inc training and workshops, Project Board involvement, Community and schools support and Events programme. The programme was set up to ensure that every volunteer involved was given training and support regardless of their situation which meant accessibility for all but particularly for disabled and house bound individuals through email and disc based resources.

For more information see full case study on MLA website

Judges Citation - A strong volunteering strand of a wider externally funded project. Judges were particularly impressed by the aspiration to encourage volunteers from non-traditional audiences in disadvantaged communities and amongst house-bound individuals. The project demonstrates how volunteering projects can have a significant impact on the community at large, for example with the setting up of a new local history group.