Minutes of the meeting of the United Kingdom Parliament and
Political Parties Archive Group held at the National
Library of Scotland
on Thursday October 16th.
Those present: Emily Tarrant (Bodleian Library), Stephen
Scarth (PRONI), Sue Donnelly (London School of Economics),
Iain MacIver (National Library of Scotland), Stephen
Ellison (House of Lords), Alan Bell (National Library of
Scotland), Stephen Bird (Labour History & Archive Study
Centre) (Secretary, pro-tem).
Apologies: Graham Jones, Janette Martin.
1.
Minutes of May 1st 2003
a) It was agreed that Stephen Bird would send these
minutes electronically for corrections.
b) Emily Tarrant had replaced Jill Spellman as
Conservative Party archivist.
c) SPICE
(i)
Steve Ellison said he would contact someone in
the Welsh Assembly to join.
(ii) He asked Stephen Scarth if there could be
somebody to represent the Northern Ireland
Assembly. Stephen Scarth said this would be
difficult.
d) Data Protection Act
(i)
Steve Ellison said he was preparing
Parliament for the Freedom of Information
Act. The updating of the office survey
had been delayed. By 2005 when the
Freedom of Information Act had been
implemented Parliament should have been
brought under the Data Protection Act.
(ii) Alan Bell spoke about Christine
Woodland’s problems mentioned at the
Archives & Resources Committee of the
Society for the Study of Labour History.
She was attempting to implement the
disclaimer policy. The Information
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Commission had been asked if a disclaimer
was enough. Under the Data Protection
Act, every file should be checked and a
decision on it recorded. A disclaimer
policy would cover this and leave it on
the reader’s head. Christine had had
problems with disciplinary cases in trade
union files.
(iii) Steve Ellison asked about acquisition
policies. Alan Bell said that
negotiations had changed, although policy
of general acquisition remained the same.
(iv) Sue Donnelly spoke on the problems of
depositing trade union papers, which
should remain in the hands of the owners.
Alan Bell said there should be diplomacy
in negotiations, but this could not
guarantee success.
2.
Home Page
a) Emily Terrant said she was happy to take it on. She
had validated the colour contrast. It was ready on
the point to be data valid. She asked if there was
anything needed to be updated. Sue Donnelly said all
PPAG members should look at it and submit their
additions by 15th November.
b) There was the section linking local records offices.
This was divided into three sections, England,
Scotland and Wales. Alan Bell suggested she go
straight on to ARCHON.
c) Emily said she had given the page a more professional
look. There would be a series of pages instead of one
long page. This meant there would be easier means of
navigation. Sue Donnelly said she would put these
changes past PPAG members to comment.
d) Emily had an idea for getting statistics. There was a
site called Extreme Tracking, which was free.
3.
Conferences
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a) International Association of Labour History
Institutions (Alan Bell and Stephen Bird.
(i)
At the 2003 IALHI conference in Dublin there
were four projects worth mentioning. The first
one organised by the International Institute of
Social History in Amsterdam was a pilot
cataloguing project, involving having finding
aids for all IALHI member institutions.
Details of collections were being collected
with the view of putting in a bid for some
financial support.
(ii) The Socialist International Bibliography had
been put on line by the Friedrich Ebert
Stiftung in Bonn. This meant that additions
could be implemented.
(iii)
The IISH was also setting up a labour
history periodicals index.
(iv) The Feltrinelli Institute in Milan was looking
into setting up an international site on the
Spanish Civil War.
b) Anglo-Australian Labour History Conference
Manchester.
Alan Bell, Janette Martin and Sigrid McCausland of the
Australian National University had spoken at a stand
on labour archives at the Anglo-Australian Conference
held under the auspices of the Society for the Study
of Labour History and the Australian Labour History
Society at the Manchester Metropolitan University.
c)
International Council on Archives (Steve Ellison)
(i)
Steve Ellison is now on the Steering
Committee of the Parliaments & Political
Parties Group of the ICA. It does not
meet because its chair prefers to contact
its member by email.
(ii) The Annual Meeting of the PPAG ICA was
held in Madrid. It was dominated by
parliamentary archivists. This was not
considered to be good. Neither section
should be dominated. The separation of
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the two sections was discussed but
dismissed. The possibilities of having
equal nominations from the parliaments
and political parties and having a
rotating chair were also discussed.
(iii) The main topic of the conference was
the selection of documents.
(iv) Sue Donnelly asked if there were any
other cross-party organisations like PPAG
UK. Steve Ellison did not know of any
other one, but Stephen Bird said SPD and
the CDU archivists worked closely
together in Germany.
4.
Reports from Institutions
a)
Bird)
Labour History Archive & Study Centre (Stephen
(i)
LHASC had received the papers of John
Atfield, the Secretary of the CPGB
Cultural Committee and the Parliamentary
Labour Party papers 1976-92. They were
about to receive the papers of the
Communist Party activist, Monty Johnson.
(ii) The long term plan to move to one site is
now becoming more positive. However it
was still long term.
(iii) Stephen Bird would be going to London
on 27th October to assess papers of Tom
Sawyer, the former Labour Party General
Secretary. He will also speak to members
of Party headquarters staff to assure
preservation of archival material.
b)
National Library of Scotland (Alan Bell)
(i)
New acquisitions were the papers of
Scottish Nationalist George Dott; 7/45
Leith branch Dockers Union minutes; Ian
Wood’s research papers on his biography
of John Wheatley. ASH Scotland papers
(grim photographs); Dunbartonshire
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Conservative & Unionist Association
papers.
(ii) They were awaiting the list of the David
Steel archives. Alan would co-ordinate
with Sue Donnelly on this.
(iii) There were big changes afoot in the
National Library of Scotland, Iain
MacIver was taking early retirement.
c)
House of Lords Record Office (Steve Ellison)
(i)
New improvements to bring archives into
line with BS5454 were being met. This
did however mean less space.
(ii) The cataloguing project was going well.
Online cataloguing would be complete by
2005. It had Speaker’s approval.
(iii) The records management policy had been
implemented. The staff were being given
guidance about what should be disposed of
and when.
(iv) There was a new acquisitions policy.
Selection would be based on core themes,
such as women in Parliament and House of
Lords reform. They were no longer
collecting personal papers, apart from
office holders related to the running of
parliament, such as the Speak or the
Leader of the House.
d)
London School of Economics
(i)
There was not much material, apart from
some new Fabian Society papers. They
were awaiting some Social Credit papers,
which were currently in Moidart.
(ii) They were cataloguing Peter Shore’s
papers. The file description should be
completed next year.
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(iii) They were continuing to download
catalogues. These would be put out to
tender next month.
(iv) The Liberal Democrat History Group was
setting up an election Ephemera database.
(v)
e)
Chris Cook was updating his Sources of
British Political History.
The Conservative Party Archives (Emily Tarrant)
(i)
There had been a deposit of 24 boxes and
two flat packages of Conservative
Research Department publications. They
had also received 10 boxes of Centre for
Policy Studies papers, as well as some
Brent East election material.
(ii) There was a major project in converting
their catalogue to EAD.
f) The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
(Stephen Scarth)
(i)
They were channelling their catalogues on
to CALM.
(ii) There was a digitalisation project on the
Covenant of 1912. People could search
for a name on it.
5.
Any Other Business.
a) Sue Donnelly now sat on the Specialist Repositories
Group committee. They planned to do a special edition
in ARC July 2004. She intended to write something on
the PPAG. Other members’ contributions were very
welcome.
b) Alan Bell said that the Scottish political parties
were surprisingly more open in their access policies.
Steve Ellison moved a vote of recognition of the
contribution Iain MacIver made to the committee and
everybody wished him a happy retirement.
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c) The next meeting would be on Thursday April 22 in the
London School of Economics.
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