Archives Discovery Forum 2013 – Thursday 7 March
Speaker biographies and session synopsis
Speaker
Speaker biography
Robert Baxter
Based at Whitehaven, Robert Baxter is
Senior Archivist with particular
responsibilities for electronic access
across the service.
Short summary about the
speaker's organisation
Cumbria Archive Service, a
department of Cumbria
County Council, operates
across one of the largest
counties in England via four
offices at Barrow, Carlisle,
Kendal, and Whitehaven.
Session
Session synopsis
Room B 2pm The challenges in working across sectors in the light of
the JISC Step change Linked Data project
Cumbria Archive Service worked recently with King’s
College London and Axiell in developing Linked Data
functionality for Calm Archive Management software.
This session will introduce and update this project and
Robert will discuss some of the experiences and
challenges of a county record office working with other
sectors.
Ellen BazeleyWhite
Ellen Bazeley-White manages the
service within the BAS Information
Services Group and with her
background in science data
management leads on the deposit and
reuse of scientific data and information
held within the archives collections.
The British Antarctic Survey
(BAS) is a component of the
Natural Environment
Research Council (NERC) and
undertakes the majority of
Britain's scientific research
on and around the Antarctic
continent. The BAS Archives
Service preserves and
provides access to scientific
data, business records, maps
and media collections
created by the organisation
throughout its 70 year
history.
Poster
session 4pm
NB.Joint
session with
Joanna Rae
Cataloguing and data sharing: getting the most out of
archives management software
Archivists at British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and Scott
Polar Research Institute (SPRI) are working with
developers of the collections management software
Modes Complete to provide tailored guidance on how to
get the most out of the software for archival
descriptions.
Modes Complete is an affordable and reliable collections
management system. The underlying database uses XML
making it ideal for exporting data easily. A web server
module can be provided as part of the system or data
can be exported for external web services. There is
already a quick export for transferring data for the
Culture Grid and by March 2013 we hope to have a
similar process for EAD and the Archives Hub.
The customisation has involved developing the
software’s ability to deal with hierarchical descriptions,
matching data elements to ISAD (G), ISO and other
standards and the development of templates to aid
archives users.
At the BAS Archives, we find Modes Complete
particularly attractive because of its excellent multimedia
functions enabling users to view film clips, audio files,
pdfs and digital photos alongside the metadata
descriptions.
BAS has used the Modes suite of software since 1987
and has over 50, 000 catalogue entries which are
currently being migrated.
Jenny Bunn
Jenny Bunn is a Lecturer on the archives
and records management programme
at University College London and sits on
the committee of the Archives and
Records Association Section for
Archives and Technology.
Room A
12noon
Developing Descriptive Interoperability: A Call to Action
In 1987 the Bureau of Canadian Archivists Planning
Committee on Descriptive Standards published a short
volume entitled ‘Developing Descriptive Standards: A Call
to Action’, which made the case for the development of
standards for archival description. Although not the
opening move in the game (the US National Information
Systems Task Force had been established as far back as
1977 and, in the UK, the first edition of MAD – A Manual
of Archival Description – had been published in 1986), it
signalled the start of a flurry of activity, which has since
led to the development of a multiplicity of standards,
including ISAD(G), ISAAR(CPF), ISDF, ISDIAH, EAD, EAC,
EAG and so on.
The world today is of course a completely different place
to the world of 1987 and we no longer seek to develop
standards, but to develop the interoperability that they
facilitate. By reviewing how we got here, I hope to
highlight certain tensions, which have always been there
and which we will need to address more directly if we
are to achieve our goal.
Clare Button
Clare Button, Project Archivist, ‘Towards
Dolly: Edinburgh, Roslin and the Birth of
Modern Genetics’, Edinburgh University
Library Special Collections
Following an undergraduate degree in
English and a Masters in Archives and
Records Management, Clare has
worked at Oxford University Archives
and Edinburgh City Archives. She joined
Edinburgh University Library Special
Collections in 2011, following a brief
stint with information management in
the oil and gas sector. In her current
post, Clare is enjoying the challenges
and rewards of working with sciencefocused records, specifically, innovative
use of EAD and authorities indexing, as
well as what the records can reveal
about the social history of genetics.
Poster 4pm
NB. Joint
session with
Louise
Williams
Controlled Departures from Orthodoxy: Opening up
History of Science Records
Funded through the Wellcome Trust Research Resources
in Medical History grant scheme, two cataloguing
projects based in the Centre for Research Collections,
University of Edinburgh, are working to make modern
history of science records accessible to wider publics.
The ‘Towards Dolly’ project is cataloguing and preserving
records relating to animal genetics in Edinburgh,
including the archival records of the Roslin Institute,
which famously cloned Dolly the sheep in 1996. Another
project run by Lothian Health Services Archive will
produce an item level catalogue for the twentieth
century case notes of pioneering neurosurgeon Norman
McOmish Dott (1897-1973), credited with the creation of
the first neurosurgery department in Scotland.
This poster will showcase the work of both projects in
making extremely specialised history of science records
accessible through cataloguing using the Encoded
Archival Description standard. It will focus upon the
manner in which both projects have worked within
existing cataloguing and indexing orthodoxies whilst
remaining faithful to the specific ontologies of their
subject records and responsive to the research needs of
their potential users. The poster will outline the
challenges of working with history of science records,
explain barriers to their cataloguing in the past, and will
put forward methodologies for making such collections
accessible in the future.
Andrew Gray
Simon McKeon
Andrew Gray is the Wikipedian in
Residence at the British Library, an
AHRC-supported program to help
academics and specialists engage with
Wikipedia and similar collaborative
volunteer projects. As part of the
program, he has organised workshops
for three hundred researchers,
librarians, archivists and students from
a wide range of institutions throughout
the UK. Andrew studied at the
University of Durham and the Robert
Gordon University, and lives in
Cambridge. He has worked as a
volunteer with Wikipedia since 2004,
and as a professional librarian since
2006, primarily in school libraries.
After managing Bexley Local Studies and
Archive Centre since 2002, Simon also
took on responsibility for the
management of Bromley's Local Studies
and Archives, as part of the two London
Boroughs shared Library services
agreement in 2012. He has both led and
taken part in a number of digitisation
initiatives, from creating community
history websites, to managing the largescale digitisation of images and
architectural plans.
PLENARY 2
Panel
Discussion
3.20pm
Poster 4pm
'Bexley.boroughphotos.org: A Case Study in Increasing
Access and Income.'
The poster will describe how Bexley Local Studies and
Archive worked with a local digitisation firm, Max
Communications, to create a unique map based website
that enables visitors to access and order prints of historic
images on demand. It will also outline how we selected
the image collections for publication; discuss issues
relating the selection and preparation of the metadata;
give an overview of marketing, summarise income and
visitor data and describe some future plans for the
development of the site.
Judith Phillips
Judith Phillips had worked in local
government record offices for nearly 30
years before being appointed to a twoyear HLF project at The Bowes Museum,
to arrange and catalogue the records of
the Museum and its founders and to
make them accessible to the public.
Work as a Monument Trust Fellow
subsequently allowed her to train and
support curatorial staff and volunteers
to maintain the public service. Judith is
currently engaged on a two-year parttime project to catalogue to item level
the founders’ letters and bills.
Working in a museum context has
highlighted similarities and differences
between archivist s and museum
curators in theoretical and practical
matters, ranging from acquisition and
cataloguing terminology to research
use and public access. It has challenged
her and her colleagues to examine,
evaluate and explain our theories and
procedures and to work together
providing a useful and worthwhile
service internally and externally.
The Bowes Museum in
County Durham was built in
the 1870s-1880s by John
Bowes, a local landowner
and businessman, and his
French wife Joséphine to
house their collection of
European fine arts, including
the 18th century Silver Swan
automaton, over 700
paintings including works by
Goya and El Greco (the
largest collection of Spanish
paintings in England outside
London), ceramics,
metalwork, furniture and
textiles. The Founders’ core
collection of about 15,000
objects has been expanded
over the decades to about
45,000 objects.
Room C
2.30pm
An archive in a museum setting
In the presentation Judith will look at areas where
museum and archive personnel meet and/or converge,
understand and/or misinterpret each other; some
methods of overcoming the obstacles; and the benefits
from working together to enhance each other’s
contribution.
Nick Poole
Nick Poole is CEO of the Collections
Trust, a not-for-profit organisation that
works with museums, libraries and
archives in the UK & internationally to
unlock the potential of their Collections
for the public.
Prior to joining the Collections Trust,
Nick was a Policy Adviser at the
Museums, Libraries and Archives
Council, where he focussed on digital
policy and regionalisation. He has also
worked in the corporate finance sector.
Nick represents the UK within the EU
Member States Expert Group on
Digitisation and is the Chair of the
Europeana Network, a cross-industry
platform connecting Europe’s
museums, archives, libraries, publishers
and broadcasters. He also leads on
€15m-worth of digital programmes
funded by the European Commission.
Nick studied languages at Sydney Sussex
College, Cambridge and holds
postgraduate diplomas in Historical
Linguistics from Cambridge University
and the History & Philosophy of Science
from Birkbeck College, London. He also
took a Foundation in Fine Art &
Illustration at Central St Martins College
of Art. He lives in Kingston.
PLENARY 2
Panel
Discussion
3.20pm
Joanna Rae
Joanna Rae is the organisation’s
archivist and leads work on cataloguing,
business records and oral history. She is
currently leading the project to migrate
the archives database from Modes for
Windows software to Modes Complete.
The British Antarctic Survey
(BAS) is a component of the
Natural Environment
Research Council (NERC) and
undertakes the majority of
Britain's scientific research
on and around the Antarctic
continent. The BAS Archives
Service preserves and
provides access to scientific
data, business records, maps
and media collections
created by the organisation
throughout its 70 year
history.
Poster 4pm
NB. Joint
session with
Ellen
BazeleyWhite
Cataloguing and data sharing: getting the most out of
archives management software
Archivists at British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and Scott
Polar Research Institute (SPRI) are working with
developers of the collections management software
Modes Complete to provide tailored guidance on how to
get the most out of the software for archival
descriptions.
Modes Complete is an affordable and reliable collections
management system. The underlying database uses XML
making it ideal for exporting data easily. A web server
module can be provided as part of the system or data
can be exported for external web services. There is
already a quick export for transferring data for the
Culture Grid and by March 2013 we hope to have a
similar process for EAD and the Archives Hub.
The customisation has involved developing the
software’s ability to deal with hierarchical descriptions,
matching data elements to ISAD (G), ISO and other
standards and the development of templates to aid
archives users.
At the BAS Archives, we find Modes Complete
particularly attractive because of its excellent multimedia
functions enabling users to view film clips, audio files,
pdfs and digital photos alongside the metadata
descriptions.
BAS has used the Modes suite of software since 1987
and has over 50, 000 catalogue entries which are
currently being migrated.
Bethan Ruddock
Lianne Smith
Bethan is Content Development Officer
for the Archives Hub and Copac, and
handles large amounts of bibliographic
and archival data.
Lianne Smith, Archives Services
Manager (User services) has been at
King’s for four years and was project
manager for ‘Trenches to Triples’.
The Archives Hub, Mimas,
The University of
Manchester. Based at
Mimas, a national data
centre and centre of
excellence, the Archives Hub
provides an online gateway
to descriptions of archive
collections from over 220
contributors from across the
UK.
King’s College London
Archives holds the
institutional records of King’s
College London and
organisations which it has
founded or with which it has
merged. It is also home to
the Liddell Hart Centre for
Military Archives, a leading
repository for research into
modern defence policy in
Britain, which was awarded
Designated Status by the
MLA in 2005.
Room B
2.30pm
Interoperability and data sharing: how to get archival
data out of your system, and what to do with it when
you have
Bethan will be running a short workshop and will
encourage participants to share their own needs and
experiences, as well as giving practical advice.
Room A
2pm
Trenches to Triples: Linked Data markup to archive
descriptions relating to the First World War
Trenches to Triples was a project funded by JISC to
develop and pilot test Alicat (Archival Linked-data
Cataloguing), a tool that enables archivists to create
Linked Data either from existing catalogue content or
during the cataloguing process, to provide Linked Data
mark-up to catalogue entries relating to the First World
War from the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
and to develop a World War One controlled vocabulary
for AIM25-UKAT, which is being made available in Linked
Data format as part of the project.
Bill Thompson
Tracy Wilkinson
Bill is a well-known journalist,
technology critic, lecturer and
commentator on digital culture. A
pioneer of new media in the UK, he
founded The Guardian’s New Media
Lab, setting up and editing the first
Guardian website. He has worked as a
freelance journalist, author, public
speaker, web developer, consultant and
policy advisor. For many years he wrote
a weekly column, Billboard, on the BBC
News website, and he still appears
regularly as a studio expert on the BBC
World Service radio programme ‘Click.
He is currently working in the Archive
Development group at the BBC on plans
to make the BBC Archive more
available.
Bill is a member of the board of Writers'
Centre, Norwich and a Visiting Fellow in
the Journalism Department at City
University.
Tracy Wilkinson will share her
experience of increasing access through
new media. Tracy is the Archivist at St
John’s College, Cambridge. She has
worked at King’s College, Cambridge,
the Rothschild Archive, London and the
Glasgow School of Art.
Whether working as part of a multidisciplinary team on a major HLF funded
exhibition or solo on a reading room
display, Tracy enjoys seeing others
excited and surprised by history - each
PLENARY 2
Panel
Discussion
3.20pm
Room C
12.30pm
A brave new world: Archives on the web
A fundamental challenge facing archives and special
collections today is how to bring manuscripts to life in
such a way as to capture the imagination and enthusiasm
of a new, and wider audience. Digital media offers a
solution to this problem.
In St John’s College parchment, wax and paper have
been transformed into virtual works of art by focussing
on the object rather than its content. St John’s Top 5,
and Archives on the Move are online exhibitions and
applications which allow visitors to personally engage
and every convert is special.
with artefacts and archival material as never before.
Louise Williams
Louise Williams, Project Archivist,
‘Cataloguing Norman Dott’s
Neurosurgical Case Notes (1920-1950)’,
Lothian Health Services Archive, CRC,
UoE
After an undergraduate degree in
English Literature and History and
postgraduate taught and PhD
qualifications in Chinese Studies, Louise
worked in the academic, media and
voluntary sectors. She completed an
MSc in Information Management and
Preservation (Digital) from the
University of Glasgow in 2011, and has
held posts in the National Records of
Scotland and the Centre for the Study of
World Christianity (School of Divinity,
University of Edinburgh) before joining
Lothian Health Services Archive in
September 2012. Louise is the
Communications Officer for the
Archives and Records Association
Section for New Professionals, and her
professional interests include the use of
Encoded Archival Description to meet
cataloguing challenges, archives as
material culture, and strategies for the
care of mixed-media collections.
Poster 4pm
Controlled Departures from Orthodoxy: Opening up
NB.Joint
History of Science Records
session with
Clare Button Funded through the Wellcome Trust Research Resources
in Medical History grant scheme, two cataloguing
projects based in the Centre for Research Collections,
University of Edinburgh, are working to make modern
history of science records accessible to wider publics.
The ‘Towards Dolly’ project is cataloguing and preserving
records relating to animal genetics in Edinburgh,
including the archival records of the Roslin Institute,
which famously cloned Dolly the sheep in 1996. Another
project run by Lothian Health Services Archive will
produce an item level catalogue for the twentieth
century case notes of pioneering neurosurgeon Norman
McOmish Dott (1897-1973), credited with the creation of
the first neurosurgery department in Scotland.
This poster will showcase the work of both projects in
making extremely specialised history of science records
accessible through cataloguing using the Encoded
Archival Description standard. It will focus upon the
manner in which both projects have worked within
existing cataloguing and indexing orthodoxies whilst
remaining faithful to the specific ontologies of their
subject records and responsive to the research needs of
their potential users. The poster will outline the
challenges of working with history of science records,
explain barriers to their cataloguing in the past, and will
put forward methodologies for making such collections
accessible in the future.
Christopher Fryer
Christopher Fryer is Digital Curator and
Assistant Records Manager for
Northumberland Estates.
After completing an MSc in Information
Management and Preservation (Digital)
from the University of Glasgow in 2011,
Christopher worked as a Project Officer
on the Museum Galleries Scotland
funded Enhancing Access project before
joining Northumberland Estates in
October 2012. He has a particular
professional interest in Digital
Preservation and the strategies which
will ensure current and future access.
The assets of The
Northumberland Estates are
privately owned. The
majority are held in Trust,
the rest under a corporate
company structure. As an
organisation the Estates have
recently evolved from a
more traditional
management system to a
corporate business model,
reflecting the diverse nature
of the many business
holdings under our control.
The Collections and Archives
department maintains the
historical records of the
Percy family estates, as well
as looking after decorative
and archaeological artefacts
and thousands of books held
in the collections and library
of the Duke of
Northumberland.
Room C
12.00pm
The development of a digital repository and EDRM for
the organisation, as well as helping to administer the
Records Management programme
Northumberland Estates are currently in the early stages
of implementing an EDRMS and digital repository. Like
many organisations we are increasingly aware of the
strategic need to manage current digital records whilst
also ensuring their long term future. The aim of this talk
is to share the challenges and experiences faced by this
project so far.
Alexandra
Eveleigh and
Jenny Bunn
Alexandra and Jenny are both members
of the Archives and Records
Association’s Section for Archives and
Technology.
SAT is concerned with
building a community of
practice and research around
the intersection of archives,
records and technology.
PLENARY 3
16:30pm
Standards Roundtable: The future of archival standards
in the UK
ARA Section for Archives & Technology and UKAD debate
In September last year there was some activity on the
JISC archives-nra list about a possible revision of the NCA
Rules. This was only the latest instance of the way in
which the issue of standards periodically rises to the
surface in professional discourse.
The ARA Section for Archives and Technology (SAT)
wishes to gauge opinion as to whether this issue needs
to be addressed more purposefully and formally as a
community effort. Is there a problem with the standards
we use? If so, what is it and what (if anything) do we
need to do about it? SAT members Alexandra Eveleigh
and Jenny Bunn will seek, in this session, to initiate the
discussion and to start to ascertain wider professional
feelings on this matter.
Parveen Betab
Parveen Betab has been the Equality
and Diversity Manager at The National
Archives since 2008.
During this period she has delivered a
strategy and action plan to mainstream
and embed equality and diversity across
the organisation. She develops
initiatives, campaigns and training to
improve access and inclusion and open
up holdings to non-mainstream
customers, including LGBT history by
supporting the work of Archus (the
LGBT staff network at The National
Archives) and The LGBT History Project.
Parveen previously worked for ten years
on a grassroots level, developing
mechanisms for consultation and
representation and leading on
campaigns to mobilise local
communities.
The National Archives is a
government department and
an executive agency of the
Ministry of Justice. It is the
official archive and publisher
for the UK government, and
for England and Wales.
Our collection is selected by
government departments
and whilst this can present
limitations in terms of LGBTI
history as we do not select
our material, it also presents
great opportunities in terms
of what we hold.
12pm.
NB.Joint
session with
Beth Brook
Indecently tagging Wilde: LGBT history and archives
Beth Brook
Beth Brook is Business and Policy
Manager and Co-Chair of Archus (the
LGBT staff network), The National
Archives.
After an undergraduate degree in
English and German and an M.Litt in
Mediaeval English at the University of St
Andrews, Beth worked with the special
collections in St Andrews University
Library and as a graduate trainee in the
Wren Library and Trinity College Library
in Cambridge. She moved to work in
information policy in the Cabinet Office
and then to The National Archives in
2006. Outside of her office role, Beth
helped to create the voluntary LGBT
History Project with Chris Park and
Louise Chambers. The group searches
archival collections for resources
relevant to LGBT history and surfacing
those discoveries online and through a
yearly magazine, Past2Present, for LGBT
History Month.
The National Archives is a
government department and
an executive agency of the
Ministry of Justice. It is the
official archive and publisher
for the UK government, and
for England and Wales.
Our collection is selected by
government departments
and whilst this can present
limitations in terms of LGBTI
history as we do not select
our material, it also presents
great opportunities in terms
of what we hold.
12pm.
NB.Joint
session with
Parveen
Betab
Indecently tagging Wilde: LGBT history and archives
Aleks Drozdov
Aleks Drozdov is an Enterprise
Architect, Consultant, Software
Engineer with over 20 years of
experience. His background is in
information and integration
architecture, system design and
development, data analysis and
processing.
His last project is design and
implementation of Discovery system at
The National Archives. This system gives
access to more than 20 million
government public records and utilizes
technologies as NoSQL data, Service
Oriented Architecture, and Application
Programming Interface.
Aleks is a member of advisory board for
Manuscripts Online project and a
speaker at events such as MongoUK
2011 conference; London Big Data
Forum 2012; Manuscripts Online 1000
to 1500 Exploring Early Written Culture
in the Digital Age conference.
The National Archives is a
government department and
an executive agency of the
Ministry of Justice. It is the
official archive and publisher
for the UK government, and
for England and Wales.
Room A
12.30pm
What is an API and what might the Discovery API mean
for services contributing data to Discovery?
This session will explore the past and future of connected
systems; role and place of Application Programming
Interface in providing easy access to shared data; role of
the user participation in collecting and improving data.
Keith Harcourt
Keith holds a Masters in Education
Management from the University of
Sussex and an M.Phil. from the
University of
Derby. He has had a varied career in
education and industry. For ten years
Keith taught a section of the Masters in
Heritage Education and Interpretation
at the International Centre for Cultural
& Heritage Studies, University of
Newcastle upon Tyne. He is member of
the Historical Model Railway Society
(HMRS), a past Editor of the Society's
Journal and an Independent Scholar.
Room C
14.00pm
NB.Joint
session with
Dr Roy
Edwards
Archives and Artefacts Study Network (A2SN) / The
Historic Model Railway Society
Dr Roy Edwards
Roy holds a BSc (Econ) and Phd from
the London School of Economics, both
in Economic History, and is at present
a lecturer in Accounting and Finance at
the University of Southampton. He has
published on the history of
management on the railways and on
the Railway Clearing House in the interwar period. He is also a trustee of the
Business Archives Council for England
and Wales, and has an interest in
uniting the study of archives AND
artefacts
in an attempt to understand business
history.
Room C
14.00pm
NB.Joint
session with
Keith
Harcourt
Archives and Artefacts Study Network (A2SN) / The
Historic Model Railway Society
Professor Patrick
Hanks
Professor Patrick Hanks is senior
Research Fellow on the Family Names
of the United Kingdom project at the
University of the West of England.
Professor Hanks is a lexicographer and
onomastician, and is an international
expert on the origin, history and
geographic distribution of personal
names. He was previously chief editor
for current English dictionaries at
Oxford University Press.
Room B
An open oldmodern surname index for digitized
12.30pm
archives
NB.Joint
session with
Sean
Cunningham
Dr Sean
Cunningham
Dr Sean Cunningham is Head of the
Medieval and Early Modern Records
team at the National Archives. He has
published widely on late medieval and
early Tudor government and politics.
The National Archives is a
government department and
an executive agency of the
Ministry of Justice. It is the
official archive and publisher
for the UK government, and
for England and Wales.
Room B
12.30pm
NB.Joint
session with
Professor
Patrick
Hanks
An open oldmodern surname index for digitized
archives