Great to see so many people involved in this community archives group!
I would like to hear what everyone wants from this group? Expectations?
Since starting work in the community sector I have wanted to find others who are doing this kind of work so that we may use each other for a support network. I did make a few contacts, but people move around all the time.
I also want to highlight the diversity of what community archives are or can be. I am not sure how we might go about that, but it would be great to start with the ASA and its members.
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I just had a request for images depicting poverty. Not an index term I've ever used. I haven't had time to really think it through but it's not one I'd use for current images for the risk of offending the subject, though perhaps it would go in the description of some historic photos. Wealth and opulance might be more appropriate terms for some of my local community but I don't think I'll use those either.
How do others indicate the economic attribute of the community groups in their lists / catalogues?
Hi Leisa - I've joined this group without having specific expectations but by way of introduction I am the Curator of Archives at the Hocken Collections in Dunedin, NZ. The Hocken is part of the University of Otago but is also open to any researcher. We have collections of archives (my responsibility), published materials, photographs, art, ephemera, music and maps.
The archives are collected from a wide variety of groups, organisations and individuals from NZ communities. We focus on material that relates to the geographic area of Otago (down south, but not as far south as you can go in NZ!) but we also act as the national repository for the NZ Alpine Club, and the NZ Plunket Society. We are the regional repository for the Anglican Church and Methodist Church for Otago and Southland and collect records from a number of other denominations. We act as the repository for state school records in Otago, and as the archives of the University of Otago.
We have archives from a wide variety of societies, clubs, businesses, unions, sports organisations, social organisations, professional associations etc etc.
We collect the personal papers of many individuals both well known but also just ordinary people who have interesting papers, particulary prominent University academics, writers and artists who have an Otago connection, and from some local politicians. We also have collections of family papers from both prominent and ordinary families.
We have many collections that relate to Maori both locally in Otago and the South Island but also in other parts of NZ. One example is a collection of records of Anglican missionary activity in the Bay of Islands area in the North of NZ.
So we collect and have collected a lot (around 10,000 linear metres) of archives and the archives are housed safely and we appraise, arrange, describe and provide reference services. But the downside is that we have not really had the resources to really reach out to the communities that they relate to and develop more full relationships with them. To be honest not all of these communities want a relationship right now, they just want a safe place to keep their stuff, and many of the communities documented don't exist anymore. But there are probably many communities that would like to have a more "meaningful relationship" with the archives, and the archives could benefit from working with the communities.
So I'm interested to hear about where archives, archivists and communities have developed more dynamic and meaningful relationships.
I think Anna has a great point. "Enhancing meaningful relationships" with the community (or communities) is something that I am certainly wondering how to do, and I am only volunteering in a very small community archives where I basically know everybody anyway. However, despite my (admittedly occasional) efforts, there still seems to be a persistent "blockage" when it comes to understanding archives and how they have value in their community. As Anna has said, "not all of these communities want a relationship right now" and it would be interesting to find out why (that is, is it caused by ignorance or incorrect assumptions of archives, or bad memories of earlier encounters with other archival repositories?).
I would also be really interested in having discussions about how we provide access to the material. I am finding that there is a definite tension between how I currently describe material according to archival principles, and how the users think in terms of finding it. I am not proposing throwing out archival description practices, but perhaps we can look how to "translate" our archival description documents to provide additional finding aids that matches more closely with how our communities think about their information.
Thanks Anna. Your work sounds really exciting! It is great to hear that reaching out to communities is on the agenda. Have you seen the work the National Film and Sound Archive in Australia does in repatriating items? It is very interesting reading and a choice not made lightly I am sure.