[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

The use of Archives



The following is forwarded from the Archives-NRA list with permission please respond directly to
Nick Kingsley nkingsle@gloscc.gov.uk as he is not a subscriber to this list. He would love to have some UK focused stories, but will take anything he can get.

NCA = National Council on Archives


<snip>
The NCA is planning an event in Parliament in February to try and win some friends at Westminster.  As part of this, we will be producing a brochure to drive home, as forcefully as possible, the value of archives to Society.  We are looking for telling, heart-warming, and even funny stories about the purposes for which people have used archives.  Can you help?  Stories can be about individual enquiries, or about classes of records which attract an unusual sort of use.  Examples might be:

Archives saving the cost of structural surveys on buildings to be altered or demolished

Archives being used to guide the restoration of historic buildings

Archives bringing members of widely separated families together after many years

Archives proving a right to compensation for industrial injury

Archives as the inspiration for plays or music

Archives as a record of vanishing cultures or ways of life.

Please send any contributions to me by the end of November.  The identity of individuals will be concealed, but I would like to mention the offices from which examples come to add verisimilitude; please say if you are not happy with this.

I would also be interested to know about bizarre places you have rescued archives from.  My personal worsts are the basement of a disused hospital, flooded with sewage; and an unlit, rat-infested cellar under a (functioning) Works canteen.  I am not sure if we will be able to use these stories in the brochure for Parliament, but it makes a nice subject to reflect on on Friday afternoons!

Nick Kingsley
nkingsle@gloscc.gov.uk

<snip>

Peter Kurilecz CRM, CA
pakurilecz@aol.com

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>