York: Gateway to History

Gateway to Your Archives

Thank You

Summary

• Know how the archives and local history service works at York Explore;

• Aware and able to communicate why community archives are important;

• Know how to create a box list and hierarchical catalogue for your collection;

• Feel confident in making appraisal decisions;

• Understand the opportunities and challenges around keeping or depositing your collection;

• Feel in control of your digital archives and able to store them appropriately;

• Aware of the risks to your archives and how to implement affordable storage solutions;

• Inspired to develop local projects and share your history with the local community.

Activity 6: Using your archives

How could you get your community involved and inspired in local history and heritage

Your Archives and You

Storage Solutions

Case study: Cupboard to Community Archive

Break for refreshments

Activity 5:

Build your community archive

Plan how you would convert this space into a community archive.

What do you think is achievable on a tight budget of around £700?

£685

Storage Solutions

Digital Records - things to remember

Shelving and packaging

Activity 4:

Your digital records

What are the risks your digital records face?

Depositing your Archives

What are digital records?

Storage Solutions

• No strict rules, but important to be aware of issues

• Store at least 2 copies of your digital records in more than one place

• Beware of media and format obsolescence

• Update your records at least once every

five years

Information created and saved electronically

Theft and unauthorised access

• Word documents
• Spreadsheets
• Audio files
• Music
• Images (JPEGs, TIFFs)
• PDF's

Delving into Digital

Storage Solutions

Naming your files

Storage Solutions

Environmental risk

Fire risk

Flood Risk

Create a logical file structure

Keep file titles short

Make your titles easy to identify

Examples:

minutes240214.pdf

historyevent120414.jpeg

Delving into Digital

How are you storing your records?

External storage

PC hard drive

Cloud storage

• Easy to manage and use

• No additional purchase or uploading required

• Data can easily get corrupted

• Fixed location and limited access by other users

• Relatively cheap and easy to buy

• Portable and can be used on anything with a USB or CD drive

• Can store large amounts of data.

• Lots of free to access options

• Password protected

• Accessible from anywhere you have an internet connection

• Can be accessed by assigned additional users

• Limited free storage space

• Reliant on internet connection

• Potential security and preservation risk as relying on an online provider

• Technology can become out of date and obsolete in the space of a few years

• Data can easily get corrupted on these types of media and devices are subject to physical damage

• Low level of security protection

Delving into Digital

Who has access to your digital records?

Storage of working documents and access copies of your archives

A short term solution to back up storage when an internet connection is not available

A back up to your hard drive files – remember this will need to be kept up to date.

What file formats are you storing your records in?

Activity 3: Creating a catalogue

Using the collection we've given you, create a hierarchical catalogue

Break for lunch

YMS

Remember

YMS/3

YMS/2

YMS/1

YMS/1/1

YMS/1/2

YMS/3/2

YMS/3/1

YMS/2/1

Data Protection Act

Confidential waste

Cataloguing: Where to start

YMS/3/1/1

YMS/3/2/1

What to keep: A summary

Choose a group to work together

Find your collection and space to process it

What is your collecting policy?

Create a boxlist

Decide what to keep and what to throw away

Low level financial information such as invoices and receipts (when no longer required to be kept);

Photocopies of existing records in your collection or those of archive material held in other archives;

More than 3 identical copies of the same item

Meeting minutes

Correspondence

High level financial information

Publicity (i.e. event leaflets and materials)

Photographic and film material

Activity 2: To keep or not to keep?

For the following items, vote yes or no as to whether you should keep them as part of your archive collection

Correspondence

Minutes of meetings

Photocopies of items in your archive

Photocopies of items held in other archive collections

Photographic and audio-visual material

High level financial information

Publicity

(leaflets, posters, press releases)

Low level financial information (receipts/invoices)

Multiple copies of the same item

What's the point?

Use

Access

Preservation

What is an Archive?

“In the course of business lots of organisations and people accumulate archives. These include government agencies, local authorities, universities, hospitals, museums, businesses, charities, professional organisations, families and individuals.

Archives may be books or papers, maps or plans, photographs or prints, films, tapes or videos, or computer generated records. Archives are intended to be kept permanently, to preserve the past and allow others to discover it.”

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/what-are-archives.htm

Tour of York Explore Archives and Local History

Activity 1: What should York remember?

Write down what you think we should remember about York for future generations

I

Welcome

Learning objectives

• Know how the archives and local history service works at York Explore;

• Be aware and able to communicate why community archives are important;

• Know how to create a box list and hierarchical catalogue for your collection;

• Feel confident in making appraisal decisions;

• Understand the opportunities and challenges around keeping or depositing your collection;

• Feel in control of your digital archives and able to store them appropriately;

• Be aware of the risks to your archives and how to implement affordable storage solutions;

• Be inspired to develop local projects and share your history with the local community.

What group do you represent?

What attracted you to this workshop?

Sarah Tester

(Community Collections & Outreach Archivist)

Jenny McGarvey

(Community Collections Assistant)

@YorkArchivesuk

#gatewaytohistory

Facebook.com/Exploreyorklibrariesandarchives