SOCIETY OF ARCHIVISTS, SCOTLAND
Minutes of the meeting held at 2pm on 1st April, 2003 at Heriot-Watt University,
Edinburgh.
IN ATTENDANCE
Irene O’Brien (Glasgow City Archives), Helen Taylor (Heriot-Watt University), Lyn
Morgan (Glasgow City Archives), Richard Hunter (Edinburgh City Archives), Peter
Anderson (NAS), Alan Borthwick (SCAN), Seonaid McDonald (HBOS Group plc
Archives), Sarah Hepworth (Glasgow School of Art), Sarah Chubb (East
Dunbartonshire Archives), Caroline Brown (Dundee University Archives Services),
Fiona R Watson (Northern Health Services Archives), Iain Gray (Aberdeen City
Archives), Carol Parry (Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow), Alice
Stewart (Strathclyde Police), Laura Mitchell (NAS), Clare Liston (NAS), Claire
Harrington (Glasgow City Archives), Margaret McBryde (NAS), Rosemary Gibson
(NAS, Jo Peattie (Edinburgh City Archives), Athol Murray, Anne Thompson
(University of St Andrews), Ruaraidh Wishart (NAS), Virginia Russell (NAS), Fiona
Flett (Scottish Borders Council), Alan Bell (National Library of Scotland), Jennifer
Tait (West Lothian Council), Hazel Anderson (SCAN), Margaret Fox (SCAN), Pat
Whatley (University of Dundee), Pam Cranston (St Andrews University ), Michael
Bolik (University of Dundee), Lesley Richmond (University of Glasgow), Susan
Graham (University of Edinburgh), Moira Rankin (University of Glasgow), Jenny
McDermott (Lothian Health Services Archive), Caroline Scharfenberg (NAS), Arnott
Wilson (University of Edinburgh), Morag Fyfe (NAS), Cathlin Macaulay (School of
Scottish Studies), Brian Kelvin (Heriot-Watt University), Elspeth Reid (Falkirk
Council Archives), Bob Steward (Highland Council Archives), Ann Jones (HeriotWatt University)
APOLOGIES
Mary McHugh, Marion Stewart, Jane Hill, Iain Flett, Richard Cullen, Fergus Harris,
Siobhan Convery, Clare Johnson, Norman Reid, Patrick Cadell, Rachael Watson,
Andrew Dowsey, Rachael Taylor, David Iredale, John Brims, Gillian Mapstone,
Andrew Broom, Sarah Higgins, Kirsty Forbes, Murdo MacLeod, Frank Rankin, Helen
Redmond-Cooper, Sian Yates, Judith Cripps, Claire Johnson, Jean Crawford, Gillian
Roberts, Pete Wadley, Susan Corrigall, Dagmar Hinz, Linda Ramsay, Hazel van Hof,
Rosie McLure, Alison Gerdiner, Jennifer Birnie, Tristram Clark, Jane Jamieson.
SRM 622 MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING
The minutes of the meeting on 21st November, 2002 were approved by Laura Mitchell
and Moira Rankin.
SRM 623 MATTERS ARISING
1. SRM 606 (2). A joint meeting to discuss Re:source had been arranged with SLIC.
SRM 624 CHAIR’S BUSINESS
Relevant issues would be discussed as they arose.
SRM 625 SECRETARY’S BUSINESS
1. The Specialist Repositories Group was looking for regional representatives. No
nominations had yet been received from Scotland. Anyone interested was asked
to contact the Secretary.
2. The next meeting would be held jointly between Scotland, North-West England
and Ireland in the Isle of Man on 16th August. Topics for discussion would be
single staffed offices and cross-domain training. Accommodation and travel
would be arranged through the Isle of Man Public Service Division and booked
through the North-West Regional Secretary. Booking forms would be issued as
soon as possible. The planned itinerary involved travelling on Friday night and
returning on Sunday afternoon, and included social events.
3. The Society was proposing a new membership category of affiliate members.
Many people associated with archives, such as graduates looking for pre-course
experience, support staff, manager of archives services, members of Regional
Archive Councils and volunteers could not currently join the Society. This meant
they were excluded from finding out about activities and training courses.
The proposed new category would allow such people to join the Society, the main
difference would be that they could not vote. It was agreed to recommend that
affiliate membership should be adopted.
4. The members section of the Society website would soon be up and running. Any
suggestions for items on the website should be sent to Rachael Taylor at Glasgow
City Archives.
SRM 626 COUNCILLOR’S REPORT
It was agreed that Claire Johnson should post any report on Scotarch.
SRM 627 COMMITTEE FOR THE REGIONS REPORT
Laura Mitchell reported on issues recently discussed at the Committee for the
Regions. A consultation exercise on skills was currently ongoing. Further
development on the website was still to be done. More budget information would be
passed to the Regions, and they would be consulted in May for the next year’s budget
which runs from October to September. It was planned to set up separate subaccounts for each Regional budget.
A temporary Training Officer had been found to replace Susan Bradshaw. The
Archives Task Force would be going through a formal consultation in March through
Regional Archive Councils, and work would be completed in September. The results
would be hosted by the Re:source website. The National Archive Network was
looking at post A2A options. A National Archives newsletter had been started and
the NCA was looking at cataloguing and digitisation priorities. It had been agreed
that training should not only be organised by the Regions, as a core of regular events
needed to be co-ordinated from the centre. The consultation exercise on training had
been very useful in assessing future needs.
A consultation paper had been circulated with the Agenda. Any comments should be
sent to the new CFR representatives. The deadline for comments was 5th May.
SRM 628 TRAINING COMMITTEE REPORT
Alice Stewart reported that the main problem at the moment was the absence of a
national Training Officer which was making it difficult to arrange new events.
Locally, briefings on copyright and social exclusion had been held before meetings, as
well as this morning’s event on continuous professional development. The
photography and glass course had been very successful and would be repeated.
There was still approximately £6,000 available in the SCAN budget for IT training for
participating archives. It was noted that this seemed to have been earmarked for
CALM 2000 training. The only problem would be that any training would not
beaccredited, although any training was seen to be a good thing. It was agreed to
discuss this matter with SCAN.
SRM 629 ASLAWG REPORT
Sarah Chubb reported that FOI had been discussed at the most recent meeting. A new
standard questionnaire for local authority statistics was being developed. The
Information Commissioner had been contacted regarding Data Protection but his reply
had been vague. The rules on access to electoral registers also needed to be checked
as they were not clear.
A draft questionnaire was being sent to local authorities on charge and
superintendence. It would be the responsibility of local authority archivists to
research what relevant records were held at the NAS. The issue of archives held in
museums had also been discussed. The Scottish Executive had visited some archives
regarding a possible Scottish Public Records Act. Richard Hunter and Fiona Flett
noted that Edinburgh City Archives and Scottish Borders Council had been inspected.
The visits were partly to do with the change of head of the FOI Inspection Unit, and
they were investigating the situation in Scottish archives. Peter Anderson explained
that the inspections were to find out about archives with a view to revisiting the issue
of legislation. Lesley Richmond raised the point that local authorities were not the
only public body with archives, and Peter Anderson agreed to discuss this with the
inspection team.
Bruce Jackson, Lancashire County Records Officer, had contacted ASLAWG about
the possibility of Scottish local authority archives participating with CIPFA statistics.
SRM 630 SCOTTISH COUNCIL ON ARCHIVES
Pat Whatley reported that a user symposium for Higher Education had been held.
This had been well attended, and a report on this had been sent to Tom Devine who
would pass this on to Re:source. This had been the first event in Scotland funded by
Re:source. It was planned that this would be a pilot for similar events. Once a
concordat with Re:source had been established, Re:source would fund a Development
Officer post.
Richard Hunter raised the issue of recent discussions about archives in the Scottish
parliament. It was noted that when a Parliamentary Question about archives was
raised it was referred to the KRS for comment and the issue of whether he could
answer for all Scottish archives was discussed. It was agreed that PQs relating to
archives in general and not just the NAS would be better answered by the SCA and
that this would be a good forum for raising the profile of the SCA.
SRM 631 NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF SCOTLAND
Peter Anderson reported on developments at the NAS. The E-cat project was
underway, and although there had been initial teething problems with CALM these
seemed to be resolved. Cataloguing guidelines had now been established and the
catalogues for local authority archives participating in SCAN had been put on CALM.
The NAS and SE were developing teacher packs with the help of a seconded teacher.
A new Scottish Family History Service would provide a single web portal for records
Kevin Dunnion, the new Scottish Information Commissioner, was now in post and in
the process of getting his office set up. Health Archives were attempting to establish
new records management guidelines and pressure was being put on the Health
Department to approve these. There would be a meeting of the Archive Task Force
on 25th April.
Irene O’Brien raised the issue of the potential problems in decreasing local access if
Kirk Session records were digitised. Peter Anderson explained that access would be
provided free of charge locally with a charge for copies.
SRM 632 FREEDOM OF INFORMATION AND DATA PROTECTION
Laura Mitchell reported that the Scottish Executive had taken the FOI Implementation
Group’s comments into consideration. It had been accepted that each sector needed
specific guidance on implementing FOI, and these would be endorsed by the Scottish
Information Commissioner. Arnott Wilson noted that it would be difficult to
implement standard records management practice in the HE sector, especially with
research records, and noted that SUSCAG had been officially represented on the
Records Management Sub-Group. Irene O’Brien noted that SCA should take on
lobbying for resources for FOI.
SRM 633 SCAN
Alan Borthwick reported on the final Participating Archives meeting. Once SCAN
was wound up, individual archives would be responsible for any editing or additions
to catalogue entries. A list of questions from this meeting would soon be posted on
scotarch.
The working title of Mac2A was now Search21. An HLF bid for a project officer had
been put together by Frank Rankin.
SRM 634 ARCHIVES AWARENESS MONTH
The theme was “Love and Hate”. £3,000 was available to Scotland from the NCA,
administered by SCA. The theme of the Union of the Crowns was suggested as a
possible theme. It was agreed to post a message on scotarch for suggested topics or
events.
SRM 635 ELECTION OF OFFICERS
The following were elected as new officers. Committee for the Regions – Clare
Liston, NAS proposed by Jane Brown and seconded by Gillian Mapstone; Gillian
Roberts, NAS proposed by Gillian Mapstone and seconded by Peter Anderson.
Secretary – Lyn Morgan, Glasgow City Archives proposed by Irene O’Brien and
seconded by Clare Harrington. Publicity Officer - Morag Fyfe, NAS proposed by
David Brown and seconded by Rosie McLure. Chair – Lesley Richmond, Glasgow
University Archive Service proposed by Irene O’Brien and seconded by Helen
Taylor.
SoA’S thanked the retiring officers for their hard work whilst in office.
SRM 636 AOB
1. Glasgow City Archives
Richard Hunter raised concern over developments at Glasgow City Archives. Irene
O’Brien explained that the search room had been moved and was not longer secure.
Charge and superintendence material was no longer being produced and the service
would now be open in the evenings and on Saturdays. As a result there would be very
little staff time for cataloguing or appraisal as most time would be spent in the search
room.
It was agreed to write to Glasgow City Council about this.
2. Cultural Co-Ordination in Schools Scheme
Margaret McBryde explained this was a SE funded scheme to promote heritage and
arts in schools. The Scottish Arts Council would be hosting 4 training days for these,
which would have a small slot for discussing archives. She would be happy to act as
co-ordinator for any archive involvement.
3. AGM
Members were reminded that the national AGM would be held in Edinburgh on 24th
April.
4. 2004 Conference
This would now be held at a venue in Glasgow. An organising group would need to
be set up.
SRM 637 DATE OF NEXT MEETING
16th August, Isle of Man.