Life Lines Opening Up the Archives workshops
Learn how to explore, share and care for your family history
These workshops are a unique opportunity to share your own WWI documents with the team, if you
have them, and we can provide examples from the University of Nottingham’s archives for you to
explore.
All workshops are from 1.30-4.30pm.
Details are currently being finalised and will be confirmed shortly. For more information, please
email lifelineslakeside@gmail.com or call Ruth Lewis-Jones on 0115 823 2218.
To book your free place on the workshops, please call the Box Office on 0115 846 7777.
Workshop 1a: Opening up the Archives
Thursday 5th June
Meet at Lakeside Arts Centre to visit the archives together
In this behind-the-scenes tour of Manuscripts and Special Collections’ archive at the University of
Nottingham, you will get to meet the archives staff and learn how they care for and manage the vast
collection of historical material. The Life Lines team will also demonstrate how the Life Lines project
can support you in sharing and exploring your WWI family history further.
Workshop 1b: Opening up the Archives
Friday 13th June
Meet at Lakeside Arts Centre to visit the archives together
In this behind-the-scenes tour of Manuscripts and Special Collections’ archive at the University of
Nottingham, you will get to meet the archives staff and learn how they care for and manage the vast
collection of historical material. The Life Lines team will also demonstrate how the Life Lines project
can support you in sharing and exploring your WWI family history further.
Workshop 2: Curation at the Weston Gallery
Friday 20th June (TBC)
Weston Gallery, Lakeside Arts Centre
Meet Hayley Cotterill, the curator of All Quiet in the Weston Gallery, who will give you a fascinating
insight into how she selected and researched material from the huge archives available to her...and
how sometimes the hardest bit is deciding what to leave out!
Workshop 3: Insights through palaeography
Thursday 26th June (TBC)
Lakeside Arts Centre (TBC)
What can your ancestor’s handwriting tell you about their experiences during WWI? Palaeography is
the study of writing and dating of manuscripts to reveal hidden knowledge about the people who
wrote them.
Workshop 4: Digging Deeper: researching, resources and catalogues
Thursday 3rd July
Nottinghamshire County Archives
This behind the scenes look at Nottinghamshire County Archives will enable you to research your
WWI family history and draw out the intriguing stories behind photographs, documents and
manuscripts.
Workshop 5: Digitising and sharing your documents
Friday 18th July (TBC)
Venue TBC
Whether you run a mile from anything digital or use “hashtag” in daily conversation, this workshop
will show you how to preserve your WWI documents and photographs by scanning and
photographing them. It will introduce you to the possibilities of sharing: to send to distant relatives,
to gain information from other researchers, with local archives…the options are limitless!
Workshop 6: Archiving your documents
Friday 25th July (TBC)
Nottinghamshire County Archives
Learn how to find your WWI documents a home in local archives such as the Nottinghamshire
County Archives. The Archivist will show you the vital processes of collecting and preserving
information on your documents, and how your documents themselves (or digital copies) can be kept
for future generations and archive users.
Workshop 7: Conservation at home & in archives
Friday 1st August (TBC)
The University of Nottingham Archives
The Manuscripts & Special Collections Conservator will give you an insight into conservation
techniques used at the archives, and how you can look after your WWI documents at home: vital for
anyone who wants to stop their documents getting bleached by the sun, eaten by pests or going
mouldy in the attic.
Workshop 8: Taking it to the next stage
Fri 8th August (TBC)
Lakeside Arts Centre
The final workshop in the series is a chance to talk more with archives staff and see how you can
take Life Lines a step further. If you have ambitions to capture relatives’ stories on film, curate an
exhibition on your family history, set up a research group to investigate the next Weston Gallery
theme then we want to help you. Using the vast resources of the University of Nottingham’s archives
and Nottinghamshire County Archives staff, the creativity of the Life Lines team and your ideas, we
hope this will be the beginning of exciting things!