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Archives and Records Association

Archives and Records Association

3 Projects, page 1 of 1
  • Funder: UK Research and Innovation Project Code: AH/R004595/1
    Funder Contribution: 67,015 GBP

    Knowledge of climate change has tended to remain in the scientific realm. Yet it is not only advances in science but local observations and experiences in nature and oral histories that can prove useful in helping to conceptualise and understand how weather and its variations affect and have affected people at the local level. Local, lay or 'experiential' weather is assuming new importance as a legitimate source of knowledge, and communication of climate change risk is thought to be more effective and appropriately targeted if it takes into account these relevant personal and vicarious experiences in the form of narrative, memories and anecdotes. One way to achieve a (re)engagement of people with climate is by inviting them to reflect on their local weather (past and present). Our proposed follow-on activity will be organised around the theme of weather memory and will capitalise on opportunities that have emerged from the original Care for the Future funded project. We will use the research material now gathered in the TEMPEST database (c. 18,000 event records) i) to develop the design of user interface on TEMPEST and produce a short tutorial/demonstration video, ii) to write a series of place-specific historical weather stories and collate these in the form of a research guide, iii) to support the development of a 'tour ready' version of 'The Storm Officer'. Each output is public-facing and will be widely circulated in print/ on line using existing project communication channels, those of the Archives and Records Association, and at the public events that lie at the heart of this follow-on activity. The overall aim is to demonstrate TEMPEST's utility among a range of users and to engage people with local weather memory and heritage. Through a formal partnership with the Archives and Records Association and return visits to a number of the Local Government Record Offices (LGROs) and National Collections from which we have drawn both materials and research advice, we hope to inform staff and archive users of our findings and to highlight the utility of their collections for weather history, identifying possible actions for future cataloguing and collecting practice and volunteer-led projects. The place-specific story guide will be available for the LGROs to use and will be designed to enable and encourage each archival repository to identify new connections with other collections and archival repositories within and across regions. The research team will also work alongside poet and writer Matt Black and his creative team to develop a 'tour ready' version of 'The Storm Officer'. Matt's first play was inspired by the contents of the TEMPEST database and previewed in March 2017. Five new performances (all free to attend) will be staged during the period of the follow-on. The locations for the performances have been chosen to match those where rich documentary weather heritages have already been explored by the project team. Each will involve direct engagement with weather histories specific to the place of performance, drawing on the research material already collected by the researchers and now held in the TEMPEST database. Live performances will be enriched through researcher led pre-show workshops that will focus on the archival materials available for weather history in that particular place (using the place-specific weather stories and video as starting points), as well as recent experiences of extreme weather. Connections will also be made between the performance and the relevant LGRO and their resources, with staff and volunteers from the LGRO invited to participate in the workshop and attend the performance. Each element of the Follow-on activity involves creative engagement with non-academic audiences and user communities to stimulate new pathways to impact for the original research, and will expand the utility of research output for a range of new audiences, adding significant value to previous activity.

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  • Funder: UK Research and Innovation Project Code: AH/X003132/1
    Funder Contribution: 80,647 GBP

    More and more government data are created in digital form. Emails have replaced letters, PDFs and Word documents have replaced paper memos, and audio/visual files are stored in governmental internal archives and in various systems. Yet just a small proportion of these data is transferred to The National Archives and other archival repositories for long-term preservation, access and use. The LUSTRE project aims to unlock these data by connecting government professionals with Computer Scientists, Digital Humanists and archivists in cultural heritage organisations. It will focus on the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to digital archival records in order to make them more accessible. Indeed, AI can be used for sensitivity review (i.e., to identify sensitive documents in a mass of data), making it possible to release records that are not confidential. AI can also be used to search vast amounts of data. But it is crucial to avoid biases in the selection and processing of data, which could discriminate against certain groups and even impact the collective memory. This requires policy makers to engage with algorithms rather than treating AI as a "black box." The problem of inaccessible governmental records has become particularly acute following the digital revolution. Rigorous filing systems used to organise paper records. However, these systems are not well adapted to the digital age. In 2017, the report Better Information for Better Government (co-authored by the Cabinet Office and The National Archives) identified issues with the management of born-digital records within government - including poorly organised records, scattered across different systems and almost impossible to search effectively. This lack of organisation leads to difficulties in finding information and giving access to records that users need. The scale of born-digital records also makes it extremely complicated to search for information, particularly when data are scattered on multiple devices and systems. These data could contain confidential and sensitive materials, including materials that could potentially be useful to terrorists and other adversaries. In order to limit risk, data is often locked away and inaccessible to users - including historians, social scientists, journalists and third sector professionals. Archives are meant to be used, not locked away. Inaccessible government records lead to a lack of accountability in the short term, and risk impacting the cultural memory in the long term. How can we improve access to government archival records in digital form? The LUSTRE project aims to unlock these data by delivering the following outputs: _4 lunchtime talks at the Cabinet Office; _a total of 4 face-to-face workshops, including three workshops in London (Cabinet Office and Science Museum) and one workshop in Belfast (hosted by Public Records Office of Northern Ireland); _online survey and 50 semi-structured interviews; _open-access report and journal special issue, including one article co-authored by the PI and postdoc; _cross-sector network on born-digital archives, connecting government professionals with academics and GLAM professionals. A website, associated social media, and a dedicated LUSTRE list-serv will help us connect with interested parties - in government, academia, archival institutions and beyond.

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  • Funder: UK Research and Innovation Project Code: AH/W003457/1
    Funder Contribution: 2,839,370 GBP

    How can museums, libraries, archives and galleries (GLAMs) use digital technology to link their collections together in ways that make it easier for different people, both specialists and interested publics, to find the information they want? How can digital technology help us tell new stories about what can be rediscovered, and reimagined, by linking collections? How can we make specialist users and members of the public more aware of the contested nature and histories of museum collections? What is the role of digital tools in foregrounding overlooked or hidden processes, like imperialism, colonialism, the slave trade, loss and destruction, that have shaped the national collection? Who gets to contribute to, and shape, research on how memory institutions can reach across their institutional boundaries, subject-specialities and even countries so as to better engage their varied audiences? And how can heritage institutions select the most useful technologies from the many that are available for digitizing, releasing and interlinking their collections? The founding collection of the British Museum is a rich area to explore these challenges, which are ones that many organizations face. This is because the Museum's original 1753 founding collection of Sir Hans Sloane is now split across three different institutions (the British Museum (BM), Natural History Museum (NHM) and the British Library (BL)) and the digital information that describes this founding collections sits in the different institutions in a range of different systems that are not currently set up to talk to one another. By focusing on catalogue records, and the vast, remaining collections of Sir Hans Sloane, this project will work with interested communities and heritage organisations to link the present with the past so as to allow the currently broken links between Sloane's collections and catalogues to be re-established across the NHM, BL, BM (plus others that have relevant material). The main outcome of our project will be a freely available, online digital lab (the Sloane Lab) that will offer researchers, curators and interested publics new opportunities to search, explore, and critically and creatively use and reuse digital cultural heritage. Crucially, we will involve a broad community of interested users in our future-making research on the national collection. We will invite expert and interested publics to contribute to all stages of the planning, research and implementation of our project through e.g. questionnaires, focus groups and interviews. One of the most exciting aspects of our participatory approach will be the 10 Community Fellows we will appoint through an open call. They will be given the funds and technical assistance they require to undertake a creative, research-led or practice-based project on the national collection using the Sloane Lab. Along with a dedicated traveling exhibition, and changes to the British Museum's Enlightenment Gallery, we will also support other memory institutions in the UK and internationally by releasing our code, tools and recommendations. Following ongoing consultation with them we will develop tailored demonstrators and recommendations that can facilitate their participation in the digital national collection. This project has the potential to allow the currently disjointed national collection to be interlinked, searched and researched in new ways that do not seek to hide or omit the contested nature of these collections. In doing so it will show that all "curious and interested persons", and not just curators, computer scientists and digital humanists, have important contributions to make to the future national collection.

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