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March 2005 Edition |
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Policy
Day on Irish Archives |
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The impetus for a policy day on Irish archives arose out of a series of discussions between the Society of Archivists, Ireland [SoA,I] and the Heritage Council’s museum and archives sub-committee on the future development of archive services in Ireland. The focus of the day was to discuss the need for a central policy, or vision for the sector, and also to address concerns raised in the Heritage Council’s A Survey of Irish Archives Collections (copies may be obtained from the council offices at Rothe House, Kilkenny, Co. Kilkenny or to download as a pdf from the Heritage Council website). This survey, a milestone document, was launched on 1 September 2005 by Heritage Council Chief Executive, Michael Starrett, at a function in Dublin to mark the beginning of SoA,I’s annual Archives Awareness Campaign. In providing an overview of archives services in Ireland, the report provided grim statistics such as: 50%
of archive services in Ireland operate on an annual budget of
less than €10K. The policy day, held on 20 September 2005, hoped to address some of the issues raised in the report and begin the process of planning a way forward for the sector. Delegates attending included archivists, records managers, representatives of local and central government, business people, genealogists and other users of archives. Speakers included Dr Deborah Jenkins, London Metropolitan Archives, who stressed the need for strategic thinking within the sector, and spoke on “The archive of the future: a dream and a forecast”. Mr Joe Kennelly, Director of Services, Recreation, Amenity & Culture, Cork City Council, who along with Brian McGee, Archivist, Cork Archives Institute, gave an overview of their the plans for a new purpose built, stand alone archival repository, which is due to open in 2006. Dr Niamh Brennan, Donegal County Archives in a presentation entitled “Saol agus Saoithiulacht: a Strategy for Donegal’s Cultural Services” gave a detailed account of how the shared initiative for the county had come about to encompass the broad spectrum of cultural services, archives being one of them. Ms Kate Manning, UCD Archives, speaking on “The future of archives: Archives in Society” examined two areas in her presentation, that of archival appraisal and electronic records. The idea of archival macro-appraisal was examined, with the social responsibility of the archivist’s role highlighted. A framework of cultural value was detailed with areas of identity, memory, treasure and heritage highlighted. She gave an overview of the crisis in electronic records touching on issues of storage, migration, born digital material versus digitised material. Cautioning that applying “Paper minds to electronic problems” would not provide the solutions required, she warned that this is an issue which needs to be addressed rapidly by local and central government. Dr Hugh Maguire, Heritage Council, Museums & Archives Officer, speaking on “The Role of the Heritage Council” gave an overview of his role and detailed the extent of archival needs in Ireland. He noted there is a realisation that a strategy is required to meet the need for development of the archive sector. Pointing out that the welfare and care of collections remained the Heritage Council’s number one priority, Dr Maguire called for more supportive partnerships to facilitate the limited resources of the Council. Mary Rafferty, journalist with the Irish Times addressed the topic “Archives--The Keys to Understanding”. She gave an insight into how archives can be used to demolish the “myths of living in Ireland” by giving a detailed account of how physical, contemporary evidence was used to interpret a “living archive” of evidence that supported the documentary series States of Fear. Her description of the chain of events that led her to the Department of Education’s archives and the subsequent denial of access to these records since 1998, served as a reminder of the “fraughtness” of records. Her account of how parliamentary questions were used to highlight archival issues was of particular note. In the afternoon, Dr Raymond Refaussé, Librarian and Archivist, Representative Church Body Library, provided a response to the conclusions of the Heritage Council Survey. After a lively introduction, highlighting the archivist’s daily dilemma of “important” versus “urgent”, Dr Refaussé, while acknowledging and commenting upon the grim picture presented by the survey, underlined the positives within it, which found that archives are a young, dynamic growing sector, with evidence of high levels of personal commitment. He called for an “Irish solution for an Irish archival problem”, with a clearly defined archival network, which had collection policies of maximum clarity. These would aid in the development of a seamless archival inheritance. The afternoon consisted of a series of break out sessions where workshops led by facilitators from SoA,I addressed different aspects of the sector, namely
At the final plenary session the following points were agreed:
Arising out of the day a series of meetings, facilitated by Dr Hugh Maguire, are now in progress with the aim of identifying workable short, medium and long term goals to achieve the objectives stated above. Carol
Quinn |
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