As promised, here is an introduction to the work of the City Making History Project volunteers – processing the civic archive at item level whilst I catalogue it at series level. A while back I hosted a training and induction day for the volunteers to meet each other and me, find out about the project, and have … Continue reading Many hands make light work
Tag: Archival theory
Speading the Word: The City Making History project goes to Liverpool
A while ago I was invited to speak at a Liverpool University Centre for Archive Studies (LUCAS) event entitled “New Directions in Cataloguing”. The organisers were putting together a programme of speakers from new initiatives to explain what they were doing, and give an opportunity for archivists and archive students to discuss strengths, weaknesses and … Continue reading Speading the Word: The City Making History project goes to Liverpool
Taking Stock of ‘A City Making History’
It’s now week 33 of this project, and I thought it would be a good time to take a step back and look at what I’ve done so far. I’m going to give a recap of Phases 2-4 of the project and then talk about what I’m doing for Phase 5 over the next four weeks. … Continue reading Taking Stock of ‘A City Making History’
How authority files can make archive catalogues more like IMDB
The replacement of paper catalogues like Giles’ with digital databases has allowed archivists to cram ever more information into them, and made them more flexible for researchers to use. The digital elements I'm working on up until Christmas are called “authority files”. When we catalogue a record, one of the things we record is its creator. This … Continue reading How authority files can make archive catalogues more like IMDB
Functional vs structural (or organisational) arrangement
So, version 1.0 of my structure is now thoroughly tested and ready to go. I worked on it in a visual mind-map format, but have now distilled it into a simplified and accessible two-level text based catalogue structure. The final thing I need to do before showing it here is to provide some context by discussing … Continue reading Functional vs structural (or organisational) arrangement
The subtle art of cataloguing
I had a steady week testing and refining my structure, which should be ready to show you soon. I’ll give a run down of how it works when you can see it, but today I’m going talk about how archival theory underpins and influences what I am doing. First comes motivation. Simply put, archives are kept … Continue reading The subtle art of cataloguing
The story so far: methods and sources
There are two weeks left in my research phase, so here's what I’ve been up to. I started out by exploring the history of York and local government, and then researched the changing structure of the council departments and committees using printed minute books. I now have a good idea of the workings of the council and … Continue reading The story so far: methods and sources
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