The Community Archive blog is back!
After the success of the Living Links project we are maintaining the momentum of community archives work at Hampshire Record Office thanks to funding provided by Hampshire Archives Trust. This is enabling staff time and resources to take this work forward in a creative way and to ensure the legacy of the project.
We have already worked with a variety of groups, from those just starting out to more established ones. The assistance we can offer can take many forms. We can loan out equipment, for example East Meon History Group have asked to borrow exhibition boards for a display of house history research and we recently lent a group from Eversley recording equipment to record oral history interviews with local residents. We can provide useful contacts, for example a number of groups have asked where they can purchase archive packaging materials or get exhibition panels printed. We can offer advice on a variety of archival issues, common ones relate to cataloguing, conservation and preservation, digital archives and film and sound material. We have arranged to visit a number of groups to perform talks and run workshops in order to generate local interest and give those involved the knowledge to get the best out of our collections. These sessions are also useful in tackling any apprehension which might be felt by those who haven’t used archives before.
We are encouraging community groups to create exhibitions based on the research and projects they undertake and then to make them available for display in the Record Office. This has the mutual benefit of helping us to fill our exhibition spaces with diverse and creative works and giving the groups the opportunity to reach a wider audience. We recently provided volunteers at Liphook Heritage Centre with a training session on the design, production and display of exhibitions.
For further information about community archives at Hampshire Record Office contact Mark Pitchforth (mark.pitchforth@hants.gov.uk)
