what is an archive?

We currently have two postgraduate students from the Institute for Cultural Practices (ICP) at the University of Manchester on a placement with us.  They have been investigating the value of historic documents and how to encourage further deposits from local BAME communities as part of the CIFTC project. Today Naomi Weaver and Yang Li were busy interviewing our long-time friend and trustee, Nigel de Noronha in various locations around Central Library as part of a project to demystify the archive. Nigel was once a member of the Asian Youth Movement (AYM) and also contributed to the Macdonald Inquiry, so features prominently in a number of records we hold. He is now a Teaching Fellow in Sociology at the University of Warwick.

During his interview, Nigel reflected on both the experience of encountering representations of himself as a young activist and on the value of being able to examine such collections as an academic researcher.

By creating a short film with a range of contributors, Naomi and Yang hope to address basic questions about what’s in our collection, how it ended up here and to whom it might be of interest in future years. Watch this space for the final edit, which we hope to share with you soon…

 

 

up and running

 

We are delighted to announce that Phase Two of our project ‘Coming in from the Cold’ is now up and running. Over the next three years members of the CIFTC project team will support the development and delivery of BAME-focused heritage projects across Greater Manchester, with the aim of building a more comprehensive and representative archive collection. Please download our press release for further information.

If you are a community group thinking of undertaking or in the process of delivering a heritage project, please do get in touch. There are lots of ways we might be able to help you.

Telephone Number: 0161 275 2920
Email: rrarchive@manchester.ac.uk

Join us!

We recently received confirmation of a £357,000 grant from the HLF to deliver phase two of our ‘Coming In From the Cold’ project. Everyone at the Trust is delighted!cheering-297419_960_720As a result we are now recruiting for the three following posts:

1. Archivist (0.8) Grade 5
2. Digital Officer (0.6) Grade 4
3. Trainee Archivist (0.6) Grade 2

Job descriptions and application forms are available to download from http://www.racearchive.org.uk/work-with-us/

The deadline for applications is 05/02/2018. We expect interviews to take place during the week beginning 26th February 2018. For further information please telephone Jennifer Vickers or Jacqueline Ould on 0161 275 2920

Applications are particularly welcome from Black and minority ethnic candidates, who are under-represented in work in this sector.

 

 

 

#DCDC 17

Jennie_and_Hannah

Yesterday Collections Access Officer Hannah Niblett and I presented a paper to around 60 delegates from the National Archives conference at The Lowry in Salford. Our paper was called Coming in From the Cold: Narrowing the Gap Between Community Engagement and Collection Development. In it we presented findings from the research phase of this project, together with ideas for a model of working based on our own experience of facilitating and archiving community history projects. Our main concern – and our aim for Phase Two going forward (should we receive the necessary grant funding) – is to address the key issue, that funding for BAME-related community-led heritage projects is increasing but their visibility is not. The content seemed well received by the audience who helped us to ponder issues of authorship, ownership and access during the ensuing discussion.

 

Goodbye and Good Luck

Daniella and Marzuqa Daniella and Marzuqa open their leaving presents at a ‘goodbye’ lunch in Wagamamas

At the end of the summer we said ‘goodbye’ to two much-loved members of the project team. Marzuqa Iffat came to the end of her graduate internship and Daniella Carrington completed her post-graduate studies. Thanks to both of them for all their invaluable contributions; to Marzuqa, for the many hours that you spent on the telephone and computer, contacting organisations and individuals for the audit, then pouring over the resulting data; and to Daniella for establishing and maintaining this blog and for taking so many beautiful photographs along the way. Love and best wishes for the future.

The Results Are In

audit_summary1

We are finally ready to share the results of our audit, which summarises BAME related heritage projects and collections across Greater Manchester. Visit ‘Our Research’ page to access all of the background information for phase one.

We have used the audit results  to develop an activity plan for phase two of the ‘Coming in from the Cold’ project. An application was submitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund at the beginning of September, with a decision on funding expected by December 2017.

In the meantime, many thanks to all of the project team for their input and to all of those who assisted in research for the audit.

Looking Back – My Experience of Data Analysis Work

As today’s my last day working on CiftC project – Phase One, I’ve been reflecting on the work we’ve done. One of my tasks involved analysing and collating the data of Black Ethnic Minority (BME) focused projects identified across Greater Manchester. This so we can report on the findings.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The initial data collecting was quite overwhelming due to the large number of projects that were identified. However, once I started tallying the data, I realised that the actual number of BME focused projects was not as large! I also noticed that the number of BME focused projects increased over the years.

Some examples of the type of information I collated include: number of Heritage Lottery Funded (HLF) projects, number of responses, type of grant scheme, number of projects by year, number of projects by ethnic group and the number of oral history element within projects.

What I learned by collating the data is the patience and concentration that’s required. This is because sometimes the data needed to be updated and modified due to changes that occurred. This meant recounting and amending everything as the information seemed to interlink.

I believe that data collecting is important because it allows you to make sense of information. Moreover, you can create graphs and tables using the data collated. Graphs and tables are a very effective way of reading and drawing conclusions.

sharing learning

The Archive and Records Association (ARA) conference is currently underway at the Hilton Hotel in Manchester. Yesterday my colleague Hannah Niblett and I were invited to give a paper about our experiences of generating and archiving BAME-related heritage project work. It was our first chance to share findings from the CIFTC audit, as well as reflect on the successes and challenges of work on the erstwhile Legacy of Ahmed project. Some of the points we were able to make appeared to resonate with the audience, comprised of 60 professionals from the archive and local studies sector. Questions, claps and nods of agreement centred on discussions around the way that oral histories are collected and valued and the widespread disposal of much project-related material.

araconference
Hannah Niblett and Jennie Vickers attended the ARA conference with their colleague Carly Morel