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TWELFTH MEETING OF THE
COUNCIL
Lancashire Record Office, Monday 4 February 2002 at 1.30pm
Present: Jim Grisenthwaite, (ACALG), Chairman
Nigel Hardman (BAC),
Bruce Jackson (Society of Archivists, NW Region), Secretary
Kevin Mulley (Greater Manchester Archivists Group)
Peter McNiven (SCONUL)
Jonathan Pepler (NW County Archivists Group), Treasurer
Colin Phillips (co-opted)
Fergus Read (NW Museums Service)
Catherine Redfern (PRO)
Dawn Routledge (NCA Archive Development Officer)
Brenda Smith (Federation of Family History Societies)
Janice Taylor (NW Regional Archives Development Officer)
Frances Thomson (CURL and NW Regional Library System)
1 Apologies for absence
Alan Crosby (BALH), John Gurney (HMC), Marian Hewitt (Film
Archive Forum) ; Richard Hoyle (Royal Historical Society); Chris Lewis (BRA);
David Stoker (Merseyside Archivists Group), Ian Taylor (NW Museums Service);
Caroline Williams (LUCAS).
The chairman (JG) announced that he understood that this would be
the last meeting attended by Peter McNiven and Nigel Hardman, and he thanked
both of them for their contributions to the work of the RAC. The new
representative of BAC would be Lesley Owen-Edwards, the Senior Archivist at
Unilever Historical Archives. The name of the future representative of SCONUL
is not yet known.
The chairman also welcomed Catherine Redfern and Fergus Read, who were
attending for the first time.
2 Minutes and Matters arising
The minutes of the meeting of 27 November were agreed and signed as a
correct record, with the proviso that the correct title on item 5 should be
Regional Learning and Access Support Unit.
Item 2 (6.3) The national launch would take place at the Houses of
Parliament on 22 April, hosted by the all-party Heritage Committee.
Item 4 The post of Director of Libraries NW had now been advertised.
Interviews would be held on 21 February, with the post holder should be in
place by 1 April. . All NWRLS staff had now been re-deployed and the
Inter-library Lending Service was out to tender.
Item 5 All RLASU reports had been submitted to Resource, and decisions
on funding should be known by late March.
Item 8 Geoff Warren (from West Midland RLS) had been appointed as the
Resource Regional Library Development Officer. Implementation of the Museums
report, Renaissance of the Regions, would be clearer after the autumn
when funding proposals would be agreed by Resource. The criteria for regional
hubs were being prepared, and the identity of the successful bidders would be
known over the summer.
Item 10.1 It was hoped that the PSQG Performance Indicators would be
circularised in the near future.
Item 10.3 Nigel Rudyard had now taken up a post on the ‘Spinning the
Web’ project.
3 Regional Archives
Strategy
JG reported that the Strategy was
launched at the Edge Hill Conference on 25 January. The initial print
run was already almost exhausted, and Janice Taylor (JT) is
investigating reprint costs. A general press release for modifying for
local use had been prepared by JT. The strategy should be on the NWRAC
website by the end of the week.
A national summary of the various regional strategies had been prepared by
Dawn Routledge (DR) which gives a useful overview. It gives an
indicative figure of £2m to "kick-start" the sector. This figure is
based on the few costed items in the regional strategies, and does not
represent a costing for implementing the strategies.
The NW strategy had recognised the need for a range of seminars and the
first of these was now arranged for 27 February on Collections Development.
Libraries, museums and archives in the NW had been circularised. JG
asked for responses on the content of future seminars. The funding was in
place for the Collections Mapping Project (£4000), and there was discussion
as to how this should proceed. It would be led by JT possibly using a
consultant. There was some discussion about how detailed such a project could
be within the resource constraints.
4 Single Regional Agency for the North West (SRANW)
JG circulated Ian Taylor’s paper on the SRA Business Plan (copy
appended to minutes). A response is expected from Resource by the end of
February. JG introduced the key points of the Business Plan, and took
questions. Colin Philips (CP) asked about the domain representation
on the board, and whether this would include user representation.
Representation had been kept at 2 – 3 for each domain, to allow the Board
to include other partners as full members, as it was felt that this was
necessary to secure their engagement. User representation would certainly
continue on the RAC, and it is quite probable that at some point some of the
domain representatives on the SRA would be users.
All regions had bid to Resource for funds in excess of the indicative
figures given by Resource last autumn, so it is highly likely that Resource
would be looking to trim the budgets. CP asked about the nature of the
"sub-regional" representatives. It was stated that the idea was that
these would be openly advertised, to seek individuals who were keen to support
the sector. It was agreed that it would be necessary for the SRA to review its
structure at some point (say after 18 – 24 months) to ensure that the Agency
was operating as intended.
Several actions relating to archives and the RAC strategic plan in
particular had been identified in the proposed Business Plan for NWMS for
2002/3, to be funded from additional funding requested (above the indicative
£1.044 million). A list of these was circulated (copy appended to minutes).
Funding outcomes are awaited.
5 A2A progress, and second round bids
A progress report on "Our Mutual Friends in the North" was
circulated (copy appended). All marking up had now been completed, and there are
16319 pages covering 5000 collections. The staff have now completed their
employment. Some catalogues are already up on the A2A website. It was proposed
to have a formal launch, possibly tied in with other related projects, in May,
and there is funding in the project budget. The aim is to involve the RCC and
Government Office NW.
JT reported on work to prepare the second round bid. Questionnaires were sent
out in December, seeking information on family and estate, business, and
collection level descriptions. On the basis of responses, it is proposed to
prepare a bid for retro-conversion of about 50000 pages from 23 offices on both
family and estate and business collections. The aim is to get the bid to the
Archive Lottery advisor by the end of February. A project team has been formed.
6 Regional Issues
6.1 Edgehill Conference. The annual conference involving archivists
and academic users had taken place at Edge Hill on 25 January with over 60
attending. The event had gone well, and much of the content was very useful.
It was suggested that future events might be held at a different time of
year as changes to semester patterns had now made late January more
difficult in many institutions. It was also suggested that the event be more
widely advertised – to include, for example, university and academic
libraries. Wider involvement and participation form academics was to be
encouraged.
6.2 PSQG User Survey. 10 NW offices had taken part in the last survey
(conducted in Feb 2001). JG said that the two clearest messages about
the region were "good services from poor facilities" and also the
evidence that staff are regarded as more friendly than the national average.
JT will contact participating offices to secure their agreement to their
detailed individual figures being released by IPF in an regional report, for
use by the RAC and the Regional Archive Development Officer. Formal consent
will be required.
- Resource
7.1 The Review of the current Designation scheme had now been published in
detailed form on the Resource website. It is proposed to widen the scheme to
archives and museums in 2004, after a period of consultation.
7.2 Resource is looking nationally at the question of data collection in
the sector. The aim is to identify gaps, and also determine what role the SRAs
should play in collection.
7.3 Neville Mackay has resigned as Chief Executive. Chris Batt will act as
CE on a temporary basis.
7.4 A proposal is due to go to DCMS shortly about the conduct of the
"root and branch" review of archives.
7.5 Resource is funding an in-depth study of archive education and training
provision. There will be a need for regional input.
- Budget report
JP reported that the RAC had £3571 cash in hand. This will have to cover
operations until at least April 2003. There will be costs arising form the
additional print run of the Regional Strategy document.
- Any Other Business
- Bruce Jackson (BJ) would respond on behalf of the RAC to the draft
Heritage Plan for Bury, which had been sent for comment.
- The White Paper on English Regional government is due to appear by the end
of February.
- JP
commented on the recent White Paper on the Registration service.
This could have substantial impact on local authority archive services.
- Mention was made of the recent ruling on the copying of Electoral
registers for commercial purposes. Further information is available on the
Library Association website.
- The Lord Chancellor had now agreed to a timetable for internal government
consultation on the National Archive Bill.
- Kevin Mulley (KM) reported on progress of the Greater Manchester
A2A project.
- JT
has arranged a meeting on 22 February at the North West Sound
Archive at Clitheroe, to hold initial discussions on issues around the
extension of the operation to cover the entire NW region.
- As this is technically the AGM of the RAC, Nigel Hardman (NH)
proposed, and KM seconded that the existing officers be re-elected.
This was agreed nem con.
Date and time of next meeting
The next meeting will be held at Lancashire Record Office on Monday 18
March at 1.30pm
BJ/11/02/02
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