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Sheffield Cathedral Archive: A study
in Archival Management and
Practice.
A study submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts in Librarianship
at
THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD
By
JANINE WILLIAMSON
September 2010
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
2
ABSTRACT
Background: The archive at Sheffield cathedral is currently undergoing the first
stages of improvement, after a long period without an archivist. The cathedral
archive is currently in a significant state of disrepair and needs to develop a strategy
and plan in order to move forward.
Aims: This research study aimed to examine and determine a model of best
practice to enable Sheffield cathedral archive to effectively and efficiently manage
its archive collection within the cathedral’s remit for storing information.
Methods: A variety of methods were used throughout the course of this study, with
a survey of people working on the cathedral archive development project
conducted, with a 62.5% response rate from those surveyed. An interview was
conducted with the Reverend Canon of Sheffield cathedral, and reflective reports,
alongside document analysis were also utilised.
Findings: The strengths and weaknesses of Sheffield cathedral were identified, and
a gap analysis of Sheffield cathedral and Durham cathedral archive found that
Sheffield archive performs significantly under the standards of an ‘ideal’ archive.
Best practice was explored, and recommendations for improvements to the service
were given, with storage, staffing and policy identified as key areas needing
improvement, and the idea of exhibition and display was highlighted as a way to
effectively develop the service.
Conclusions: Sheffield cathedral archive has significant amount of work ahead
before the service is improved. Much of the proposed changes require funding,
which the cathedral does not currently have, so opportunities for fundraising must
be sought out if the service is to advance, and the cathedral should utilise resources
such as volunteers in order to progress with the improvements to the archive at
Sheffield cathedral.
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Reverend Canon Simon Cowling and all those at Sheffield
Cathedral for the data and the time they gave to this research project. Likewise, I
would like to thank Alastair Fraser at Durham Cathedral archive for his generosity
and help. I would also like to thank Barbara Sen, my supervisor for her time and
support throughout the course of this project.
I would also like to thank my friends and family for their continued help and words
of encouragement.
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
4
Contents
1. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES.............................................................................08
1.1 Introduction............................................................................................08
1.2 Rationale for study................................................................................. 09
1.3 Aims....................................................................................................... 10
1.4 Objectives.............................................................................................. 11
2. LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................... 14
2.1 Introduction........................................................................................... 14
2.2 Archival Policy and Strategy................................................................... 15
2.3 The Archive as a Service......................................................................... 16
2.4 Funding...................................................................................................16
2.5 Volunteers and Staffing.......................................................................... 18
2.6 Inspection Criteria and Storage..............................................................19
2.7 Collections or Acquisitions Management...............................................20
2.8 Access to Archives.................................................................................. 21
2.9 Conclusions............................................................................................ 22
3. METHODOLOGY...................................................................................... 23
3.1 Introduction........................................................................................... 23
3.2 Qualitative Methods.............................................................................. 23
3.3 INTERVIEWS...................................................................................... 24
3.3.1 Process and Data Analysis............................................................ 25
3.3.2 Interview design and sample........................................................ 26
3.3.3 Reliability of Interviews................................................................ 26
3.3.4 Limitations of Interviews.............................................................. 27
3.4 QUESTIONNAIRES............................................................................ 28
3.4.1 Questionnaire Design................................................................... 28
3.4.2 Reliability of Questionnaires........................................................ 30
3.4.3 Limitations of Questionnaires...................................................... 30
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
5
3.5 DOCUMENT ANALYSIS....................................................................... 31
3.5.1 Process and Data Analysis.............................................................31
3.5.2 Limitations of Document Analysis................................................ 32
3.6 RESEARCH VISITS FOR ANALYSIS PURPOSES..................................... 32
3.6.1 Process and Data Analysis............................................................32
3.6.2 Reflective Research Reports......................................................... 33
3.6.3 Limitations of Reflective Research Reports.................................. 34
3.7 ETHICS...............................................................................................35
3.8 OVERALL LIMITATIONS OF RESEARCH.............................................. .35
4. RESEARCH ANALYSIS............................................................................... 37
4.1 Introduction........................................................................................... 37
4.2 OBJECTIVE I: TO EVALUATE THE CURRENT SITUATION AT SHEFFIELD
CATHEDRAL ARCHIVE........................................................................ 37
4.2.1 SWOT Analysis .............................................................................. 39
4.3 OBJECTIVE II: TO IDENTIFY ANY EXISTING BEST PRACTICE ESTABLISHED
WITHIN UK CATHEDRALS AND OTHER HERITAGE SITES...................... 47
4.3.1 Introduction.................................................................................. 47
4.3.2 Identifying Best Practice............................................................... 47
4.3.3 Storage......................................................................................... 48
4.3.4 Staffing......................................................................................... 49
4.3.5 Acquisitions and Collection Management...................................50
4.3.6 Access........................................................................................... 51
4.4 OBJECTIVE III: EVALUATING THE GAP BETWEEN CURRENT PRACTICE
AND THE DESIRED STATE.................................................................. 53
4.4.1 Introduction ................................................................................. 53
4.4.2 Gap Analysis................................................................................. 53
4.5 OBJECTIVE IV: TO RECOMMEND A BEST PRACTICE STANDARD FOR
SHEFFIELD CATHEDRAL ARCHIVE ...................................................... 58
4.5.1 Introduction.................................................................................. 58
4.5.2 Creating an Archive Policy Sheffield Cathedral Archive............... 58
4.5.3 Using volunteers and utilising the link with Sheffield University. 62
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
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4.5.4 Creating preliminary access through exhibitions......................... 65
5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.............................................. 67
5.1 CONCLUSIONS........................................................................................ 67
5.2 FURTHER RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................. 69
6. REFERENCES............................................................................................ 70
7. Appendix I - Reflective Research Report: Visiting Durham Cathedral
Archives.................................................................................................. 76
8. Appendix II - Reflective Research Report: Visiting Sheffield Cathedral
Archive.................................................................................................... 80
9. Appendix III - Survey Responses - Cathedral Archive Project....................83
10. Appendix IV - Interview Transcript: Sheffield Cathedral.......................... 91
11. Appendix V – Archive Policy Template.................................................... 99
12. Appendix VI: Cathedral Archive Policy................................................... 100
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
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List of Tables
Table 1 Williams’ Rationale for Analysing Archive Performance ...............37
Table 2 SWOT Analysis of Sheffield Cathedral Archive ..............................39
Table 3 Williams’ Definitions of Access in Archives....................................51
Table 4 Gap Analysis of Sheffield Cathedral Archive .................................57
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
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1. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
1.1 INTRODUCTION
The need for a well functioning archive is perhaps, to some, a non essential
portion of a business or organisation, an irritant which diverts money away from
other seemingly more important aspects of the business. Archives and records
however, are an indispensible and central tool for the effective management of
organisations and are often underrated and misunderstood (Williams, 2006). To
most people, including some information professionals, the term ‘archives’
connotes the image of musty, dirty files of loose papers in varying states of decay
which are of little apparent use, but vaguely believed to be valuable because
historians keep placing value upon these items (Mitchell, 1975). The real function of
an archive and an archivist however, is that of a custodian, who organises and
manages legal records of an organisation or institution, where the destruction of
these records could potentially seriously inconvenience the organisation. These
records help influence how the business runs effectively, by providing examples of
how the institution was run in the past, and collecting examples of how the
business is currently run, which in turn contributes to the effective management of
the business in the future as well as keeping a record of how the organisation has
grown and progressed over time.
Archives not only preserve the culture and history of people, or an
organisation, but also create an infrastructure for both the public and personal
activity of an organisation (Williams, 2006). However, for archives and records
management systems to be fully operational and fulfilling their fullest potential,
they need to be effectively organised and managed. This is reinforced in the
Church of England’s Keep or Bin...? The Care of Your Parish Records, which states,
“Good record keeping, particularly in these areas, demonstrates the
Church’s wider accountability to Society in relation to its activities
and reflects the true complexity and diversity of the Church’s
activities.” (CofE, 2009, 3).
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
9
Therefore it is in the best interests of these institutions to keep their archives up to
date and managed effectively, regardless of the size and scope of the archive in
question. Cathedral archives are not a popular area of study throughout archival
literature, and there is a distinct lack of research on cathedral and religious
archives, possibly as Anglican cathedral archives are governed, and have additional
policy dictated, by the Church of England, which ensures that they operate slightly
differently to other archival holdings. However, cathedral archives share most of
the same operational standards as other institutional archives, some are large, and
others are small, such as the archive at Sheffield cathedral, but regardless of size,
or type of archive, one thing remains the same, archives, should be a priority to
any organisation, and should be treated with care.
1.2 RATIONALE FOR STUDY
This research project is a continuation of a larger university run project based at the
Sheffield cathedral archive. Headed by Barbara Sen, MA Librarianship students,
including myself, have been sorting through and cataloguing the cathedral’s
collections, as it is currently in a state of disarray and the archive has not been
looked after correctly since before the year 2000, as the archive currently has no
formally trained librarian or archivist due to lack of finances. The cathedral did have
the benefit of an archivist from the period of 1975-1991 (Appendix II), based on
correspondence from the cathedral’s own archive from the archivist at the time,
but since that point has had no formal archivist in residence. Because of this, the
archive has suffered from neglect, leaving the archive in a state of disrepair, with
damaged items in the collection, with no clear and comprehensive inventory of
what is contained within the archive, and no policies or strategies with which to
progress. During this time it became apparent that there was a real need for a
tailored management strategy for the cathedral archives, as nothing was currently
in place, in order to create a fully useable and working archive.
The cathedral has a legal obligation to organise and manage its records, as certain
areas of parish activity is subject to regulation from external bodies, such as child
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
10
protection, finance and the preservation and maintenance of ecclesiastical
buildings (CofE, 2009). Therefore it is imperative that the cathedral has an
organised records management system and archive, especially as the cathedral
archive has architect drawings and plans for modifications to the cathedral, as part
of its collection. If the archive is not managed and cared for effectively, the parish
may not have the information that it requires in order to deal with any issues that
may arise with the cathedral.
All these issues and more, help form the basis of this research project, which will
analyse and determine a model of best practice to manage the cathedral’s
collection and archives, while assessing the current issues and practice currently in
operation at the cathedral archives, and attempt to suggest a strategy in which the
cathedral archive can improve and eventually become a fully working archive which
will meet the standards of professional standards bodies such as The National
Archive. It is the aim of this dissertation to explore the current situation at Sheffield
cathedral archive, and suggest a model of best practice in order to ensure that the
archive can progress into a fully operational archive in the future.
1.3 AIMS
The main aim of this research study is to examine and determine a model of
best practice to enable Sheffield cathedral archive to effectively and efficiently
manage its archive collection within the cathedral’s remit for storing
information. This includes research into archival management in general,
followed by archival procedures used by other heritage and cathedral
institutions within the UK and standards implemented by the Church of England
and The National Archives. An analysis of current cathedral policies are then
required, and a comparison between Sheffield cathedral’s policies and policies
in use by other organisations will be integral.
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
11
The research primarily focuses on one cathedral archive principally that of
Sheffield cathedral, as a case study. It will investigate the current state of the
cathedral archive, and compare this state with standards in implementation
both on a national level (Church of England and The National Archives) and best
practice at other cathedrals in the UK, and comparing the current state at
Sheffield cathedral and another cathedral archive which will help to form a
complete picture, before attempting to propose recommendations for
improvements to the service.
1.4 OBJECTIVES
1. To evaluate the current situation at Sheffield cathedral archives.
It is already known that the cathedral archive is in a state of disrepair and neglect;
therefore it is essential to evaluate the current state of the cathedral archive, from
the current organisation of the archive, such as storage, current policies and
inventory lists. It is also important to evaluate the attitudes of the staff in relation
to the archive; as the attitude of the staff is integral, with the lack of a qualified
archivist, to ensure that the archive will not fall into the same disrepair in the
future.
This objective has been fulfilled through a variety of methods. Firstly, an analysis of
physical archives is needed. This has been accomplished by conducting research
visits to two different cathedral archives to analyse and evaluate physical cathedral
archives in order to determine what state the archive is at present, which is
necessary in order to establish how to proceed with organising the archive and
what standards and policy need to be implemented. A questionnaire has been
distributed to members of the University of Sheffield cathedral archive project to
offer an added perspective on the organisation, storage facilities and access to the
archives. The objective will also be implemented through an interview with
Reverend Canon Simon Cowling in order to evaluate the cathedral from the
perspectives of those involved directly with the archive.
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
12
2. To identify any existing best practice established within UK cathedrals and
relevant heritage sites.
As the archive at Sheffield cathedral is not an operational or successful working
archive, it is important that best practice models from successful archives are
considered in order to determine the scale of the problem at Sheffield cathedral
archive. This objective will be implemented mainly through document analysis of
standards and policy from national archival organisations such as the Church of
England and the National Archives, such as Keep or Bin...? The Care of Your Parish
Records, and universal standards from the National Archive. This, alongside a visit
to Durham cathedral, which is a well functioning and long established cathedral
archive, will serve as the tools for analysis of best practice in cathedral archives. It is
important, when considering archival best practice, to gain an initial overview of
the management of archives, which address the main issues and practice currently
in use. Therefore, it is essential that texts on archival management as a whole, and
general management texts are also considered and analysed for their wider insight
into the management of both an archive and an organisation in general. There is
much within these texts that can be transferrable and implemented on cathedral
archives, and serve as a useful starting point when determining best practice.
3. To evaluate the gap that exists between current practice and the desire
state.
After analysing and evaluating the data from the previous objectives, it is then a
priority to compare the current state of the cathedral archive with best practice
models and practice in operation at other cathedral sites. This comparison will then
provide the basis for a gap analysis, a tool used in more traditional organisational
management, which will highlight the cathedral’s actual performance in relation to
its potential performance, and therefore identify areas that can be improved.
Conducting a gap analysis will provide insight into areas of improvement, and will
help create and identify a workable archival strategy in order for the archive to
progress and develop in the future. By using a gap analysis it will become apparent
exactly where the main problems with the operation of the archive lie, which in
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
13
turn will make it easier to provide recommendations for improvements to the
service.
4. To recommend a best practice standard for Sheffield cathedral archives.
The final step is to then recommend a standard for best practice will Sheffield
cathedral archives can then utilise in order to ensure that their archive does not fall
into the same neglect as previously. This objective will be implemented by
considering all the data previously compiled from document analysis of other
archive policy and strategy, analysis of the actual physical cathedral archive, the gap
analysis of where the cathedral is, and where it would like to be, as well as
qualitative data from the interviews and questionnaires conducted in order to offer
a potential solution, or steps for improvement for the cathedral archive. The
recommendations will need to take into consideration the cathedral’s budget
restraints, as well as practicalities of staffing, space and organisation.
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
14
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
Compiling literature on archive management is a long and drawn out process,
simply because there is a mass of information on many different sections of archival
management. Acquisitions and appraisal management strategies are a vastly
popular topic of academic interest, with academics such as Schellenberg (1956),
Cook (1999), Craig (2001) and Duranti (2000), each with their own unique
perspective on archive appraisal and acquisition management. Access to archives
and how managers facilitate this is also a key topic of discussion in archival
literature, and organisations such as The National Council of Archives (2001) and
The Archives Task Force (2004) have placed major emphasis on social inclusion and
access to archives, especially due to the technological growth and digitisation of
archive documents which allow for significantly more digital archives and digital
content to become available for the general public to view and to access, thus
creating a more inclusive and more ‘open’ archive. Although it is important to
consider these points of view when assessing an archive, it is more important to
first assess more practical methods of archive analysis, especially when relating
material directly to an existing, ill-functioning archive.
Due to the sheer amount of literature on archival management, and a large amount
of literature in the aforementioned areas, it is important, when considering archival
best practice, to gain an initial overview of the management of archives, which
address the main issues and practice currently in use. Ramos and Ortega (2006) and
Williams (2006) are key clear and practical initial texts which clearly outline
important matter-of-fact concerns in archival management, such as working with a
limited budget, arrangement, processing and writing archival policies, which give
the reader important background knowledge on the subject. Literature on working
with limited funds is essential for the focus of this research project, as Sheffield
cathedral archive has very limited funds available for the development of their
archive service. Williams (2006) highlights the dangers of working without a
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
15
sustainable source of income, and states that an archive “cannot deliver a good
service if you cannot rely on year-on-year funding” (Williams, 2006, 216) and Ramos
and Ortega (2006) outlines the ideal archival setting, and contrasts this with a
scenario using just the basic essentials, for those will a small budget, or those with
no budget at all. Also both these texts include comprehensive analysis of policy,
and these sections highlight the importance of gaining a basic understanding of
how archival policy and strategy is developed, before attempting to manage and
create policies, strategies and implement best practice in an archive. Archival
strategies and policies can be difficult to comprehend without basic working
knowledge, which is a point that both Stout (2008) and Carlisle (2008) affirm.
2.2 Archival Policy and Strategy
However, there are a considerable number of archival standards, policy and
strategy available on the management of archives. Although not specifically related
to the management of cathedral archives, where there is a severe lack of specific
literature, the ideas and points raised in these general archival strategies and
policies can be to some extent implemented in the management of cathedral
archives. There are clear guidelines on what cathedral and religious archives need
to keep, and what they can destroy or move elsewhere, with guides such as the
CofE’s Keep or Bin...? The Care of your Parish Records (2009) and Save or Delete...?
The Care of Diocesan Records (2008), which alongside generic archival standards,
policy and strategy, such as The National Archive’s Standard for Record Repositories
(2004b), can be a huge help in determining how to move forward in the
management of specific cathedral archives. Not only do these CofE policies specify
what to keep, but they also specify how they should be kept and also how they
should be repaired, which can be used alongside the National Archives Standard for
Record Repositories (2004b) to create a comprehensive strategy for the collection
and storage of archival material and can contribute to an inclusive acquisitions
policy.
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
16
2.3 The Archive as a Service
Another important point to consider is the idea of the archive as a service. Although
archives are considerably more separate from the general public than a library,
especially in the case of cathedral archives, they are still considered a point of
service to the community and should be treated as such (Shackley, 2005), In fact,
displays from the cathedral archives could help increase visitor rates to the
cathedral, and provide an additional provision to the services they already provide.
HISTOQUAL (Frochot and Hughes, 2000), provides a set of guidelines and quality
measures in which historical houses and heritage sites can measure their service
quality. Although again, not strictly related to Cathedral archives, this scale can be
adapted to measure how the cathedral, and in turn, the archive, through the use of
any displays or exhibitions, perform in terms of service quality, and also develop
other non service related performance indicators based on the HISTOQUAL
measures. The EFQM excellence model (Wongrassamee et al., 2003) is another
model of performance that can be utilised for effective performance management
analysis, which analyses leadership and people management as well as analysing
the actual policies and strategies in place in the organisation, and the processes it
uses to organise the business. The EFQM excellence model and the HISTOQUAL
measure will be an excellent preliminary analysis tool to determine current practice
of the cathedral archive. Archives are increasingly under threat, underfunded and
underappreciated (Ramos and Ortega, 2006), and measuring the quality of the
archival service, as well as the performance of the individuals that maintain that
archive could help justify further funding opportunities and could help prevent
future budget cuts, so it is vital that this form of analysis is carried out.
2.4 Funding
An overview of the funding situation in publicly funded archives is also important
when forming a basis for any management strategy. The National Archives Archives
for the 21st Century (2009) addresses some of the concerns, and addresses the
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
17
inequalities of funding in the archive sector and comments on the future potential
of public funded archives. Cathedral archives are subject to limited funding and it is
often the case that they simply do not have the funds, unless they are a large
institution such as Durham cathedral, which is allied with Durham university
(Durham Cathedral, 2010), to employ people full time to effectively manage and
take care of their archive. This gap in funding is definitely a point that needs to be
explored, and possible solutions need to be identified, as lack of funding is one the
major factors when considering the management of cathedral archives (Ramos and
Ortega, 2006). Williams (2006) identifies the role of volunteers as an effective way
of managing archives on a limited budget, and Ramos and Ortega (2006)
recommend hiring staff through subsidised government grants, both of which are
practical advice to consider for managing archives, and is especially useful with
regard to the cathedral, which has an extremely limited budget.
Funding is an essential part of an archive service and can be a daunting process, as
funding opportunities are highly competitive. There are two main options to gain
more funding, the first is applying for funding or grants from external sources, and
the second is to fundraise as an organisation. Each method is as time consuming as
the other. Parker et al.’s (2001) study on bidding culture and its effects on the
development of institutions such as archives, museums and libraries offers an
interesting perspective on the funding process and highlights the necessity of
funding for these institutions, stating that 73% of these institutions bid for funding
over the three year study period (Parker et al. 2001), and with only 32% of archives
during this same period, not applying for grants for projects needing £10,000 and
up. Parker et al. likens archives as the ‘Cinderella’s ‘of funding, stating that they are
slow to acquaint themselves with the funding process and offers insight into the
ways in which archives can utilise the funding opportunities available to them more
successfully. Therefore, this study is considerably useful when attempting to
understand how external funding operates, and how archives can benefit from this,
especially with regards to high profile funding organisations such as the Heritage
Lottery Fund, which the cathedral is attempting to gain funding from (Appendix IV).
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
18
Fundraising is another option available to archives, but there is little archive-specific
literature available on the subject that offers practical advice. Ramos and Ortega
(2006) offer personal accounts of their own experiences fundraising, offering tips
and ideas on how to fundraise for archives. Cassarchis (1999), in The National
Council for Archives paper entitled An Introduction to Fundraising for Archives,
states that many of those working in archives have little understanding of the
broader context of fundraising, and attempts to outline the many different
methods in which one can fundraise and general principles with which people can
apply those methods. Cassarchis maintains that in order to fundraise effectively, an
archive must first identify which fundraising opportunities best suit the
organisations needs, and take a strategic view on the best options for success
(Cassarchis, 1999). This approach is echoed in management literature such as
Simon (1997) who identifies meticulous planning as a key aspect of successful
fundraising, and Bray (2008) who states, “what people really want to hear is who
and what your organization is, what you’re all about and where you’re heading”
(Bray, 2008, 32). Therefore, for effective fundraising, a clear knowledge of the
organisation, its mission, and a precise vision of what the organisation wishes to
achieve with its funding is essential.
2.5 Volunteers and Staffing
It is also useful to understand the role of the volunteer in the archive, and especially
useful to see how many archival institutions employ volunteers within their archive
service, and if this is a feasible method of staffing an archive, especially in times of
limited budget and funding. Howlett et al. (2005) in Volunteering in Museums,
Libraries and Archives, offers important statistical information on the take up of
volunteers in the heritage sector, and offers case studies on volunteers in two
separate archives. Howlett et al. (2005) states that volunteers are aware that they
are doing work that “would not get done by the staff” (Howlett et al., 2005, 78),
therefore highlighting that volunteers are an important tool to an archive, in order
to keep an archive running smoothly. Sheffield Archives also uses volunteers to
extend its service, highlighting that volunteers add value to the service, and assist
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
19
on non-core projects. The archives acknowledge that there is a two-way benefit for
both the volunteer and the archive stating:
“The service benefits through the development of non-core (mainly
access enhancing) projects whilst the volunteer benefits through
gaining experience of the work undertaken by the archives, local
studies, conservation and records management services, as well as
improving skills and confidence, experiencing social interaction and
developing interests. “(Sheffield Archives and Local Studies Group,
2004, 2)
However, Sheffield Archives are keen to express that volunteers are not used
instead of paid members of staff, but instead to complement and support paid
staff. The issue of whether services exploit volunteers is a large one, and something
that must be taken into account when considering using volunteers within an
archive facility. This idea of using volunteers to extend a service is also explored in
Howlett (2002), where the virtues of employing volunteers in archives is extolled,
although Howlett states also that volunteers in archives are not as common as in
other heritage sectors, such as museums and libraries, and that more should be
done to both support, and recruit volunteers in the archive sector. This then, is an
interesting tool for understanding how volunteers can have impact on a cathedral
archive, and is something that could potentially be utilised by Sheffield cathedral
archive.
2.6 Inspection Criteria and Storage
All of the above points are areas which require much consideration in order to
comprehensively understand the current issues in archives, and to identify the
areas which need improvement at the cathedral, and in order to generate policies
and strategy based on the cathedrals specific needs. The National Archive (2005)
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
20
details their inspection criteria for a fully working and comprehensive archive, and
it is the eventual aim of this research project to create a strategy which will in time,
help ensure that Sheffield cathedral archive will in time, meet this criteria, or at
least give them a focus to work towards. It is also important to understand the
correct storage and environment of a fully operational and successful archive. The
British Standard BS 5454:2000, the standard for Recommendations for the Storage
and Exhibition of Archival Documents, is the benchmark standard for assessing the
environment of an archive storage, and suggests a set of ideal conditions within
which the perfect archive would operate. This standard offers a comparison
between the ideal and what is in practice at the archive in question.
2.7 Collections or Acquisitions Management
Collection management and policy is also a vital tool for an archive, an archive must
be aware of what it should collect and what it should not, and have policy to ensure
that the archival collections support the aims and objectives of the organisation.
Collection policy brings continuity and helps focus resources in particular areas, and
also defines the scope and content of the collection, ensuring that the archive does
not collect too little or too much. Essentially, collections or acquisitions policy lays
out the rationale, and gives guidelines and particulars of why an archive focuses on
a specific area of expertise. Ramos and Ortega (2006) state that funding agencies
are more receptive to potential applicants who can show, through a successful
collections policy, that they are in control of their archives and can demonstrate
that they have a particular mission, to which the funding agency can give their
support. The Sheffield Archives and Local Studies Library collection policy (2006) is
useful when considering collections policy as it outlines clearly its collection
strategy, their role as an archive, their principles and also includes a deaccessioning
guide. This policy guide is particularly useful when considering the cathedral, which
currently has no collections policy in operation. This policy, coupled with The
National Archives standard for record repositories (2004b), give important insight
into how one should create a collections policy, and how important they are to the
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
21
creation of a well functioning archive. These guides, and especially in the case of
The National Archives records repository standard, outlines good archival practice.
2.8 Access to Archival Material
Access to archives is another fundamental segment of archival literature, of which a
large portion of academic work is devoted. Williams (2006) devotes an entire
chapter to the study of archival access, where a solid grounding in access
legislation, policy, outreach and the impact of access to archives is explored,
forming a comprehensive guide to the issue of access in archives, which is useful for
understanding the basics and the general issues surrounding the concept. The issue
of access to archives is a complicated issue; the ICA Code of Ethics (1996) states that
archives should promote their archival collections and offer the widest possible
access to their archival material (ICA, 1996), but for certain archives such as that of
Sheffield cathedral it is difficult to offer access to their collections due to both
budget and space constraints. While the cathedral does not currently offer access
to their archives, due to the archive lack of functionality, this something that the
archive should be striving for in the future. Ramos and Ortega (2006) states that
access to archival collections is one of the fundamental goals of all archives, but
acknowledge that there are limitations to access of archives, as access must be
determined by certain restrictions, either those places on the donors of the archival
items, or those based on solid archival principles such as the condition of the
archival material, or limitations due to staffing. The ICA Code of Ethics (1996) again
confirms these limitations by stating that although access is important and
something that each archive should offer, it is important to remember that “ the
primary duty of archivists is to maintain the integrity of the records in their care and
custody” (ICA, 1996, 1). Therefore, access should not be offered if the archive is not
fully functioning, as in the case of the cathedral, as ensuring that the records are
well stored, preserved and maintained is more important than creating space for
access.
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
22
2.9 Conclusions
While this literature review is a fairly comprehensive account of the important
aspects of maintaining and running an archive service, it is not an exhaustive study,
and instead focuses on the aspects of archival literature that are themselves most
appropriate to the case of Sheffield cathedral archive. Because of this, there are
certain aspects of archival management that are noticeably absent from this
literature review, namely that of archival arrangement and description, which while
extremely important, has no immediate bearing on Sheffield cathedral archive, as
the archive has many other more pressing considerations before the concept of
arrangement and proper description are considered. Similarly, disaster and
emergency planning literature is also noticeably absent from this literature review,
for the same reasons. Ideally, all aspects of archival management should be given
equal consideration, but due to the time constraints of this research project, it has
become essential to narrow down the key areas of focus, such as funding and
budget constraints, staffing and volunteers, issues of storage and limitations of
access, as well as the study of collection and acquisitions policy and the idea of an
archive as a service, all of which are deemed essential to the main focus of this
project, which is to determine a model of best practice for Sheffield cathedral
archives. Therefore, because of these restraints, regrettably certain aspects of
archival management will not be part of the focus of this research project.
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
23
3. METHODOLOGY
3.1 INTRODUCTION
This research project will be a sequential multi-method explorative qualitative
study to determine a model of best practice and develop a set of workable
standards for Sheffield Cathedral archive. This research will involve three main
types of analysis, including document analysis, content analysis and interviews with
staff at various archival institutions. For this research it is felt that qualitative
methods would be more appropriate than quantitative methods. With a qualitative
approach to data analysis, the researcher has greater flexibility in both collecting
and analysing data, whereas a quantitative approach involves a much stricter
schedule and analysis field. While a qualitative approach can be more subjective in
nature (Silverman, 2007) than a quantitative method it is beneficial as a research
method, as it seeks to make sense of personal accounts and stories in order to
understand social and human activities and behaviour.
3.2 QUALITATIVE METHODS
Qualitative research takes an interpretive and more natural approach to its subject
matter; qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, and attempt to
interpret, or make sense of data and phenomena in terms of the meanings that
people bring to them. For example:
“Qualitative research begins by accepting that there is a range of
different ways of making sense of the world and is concerned with
discovering the meanings seen by those who are being researched and
with understanding their view of the world rather than that of the
researchers.” (Jones, 1995, 2).
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
24
The qualitative method used within this research project is that of the interview and
the survey. This is mostly because a large portion of expansive and contextual data
and information can be obtained quickly and simply, and uses naturally occurring
data to locate the interactional sequences in which meaning is deployed (Silverman,
2007). This is of vital importance to this research project, as this qualitative data
provides important background context and facilitates follow up data collection
using content and document analysis, for the rationalisation and clarification of the
opinions and attitude used within both the interview and the surveys in order to
fully explore the research question and topic.
This research project will also be approached using a case study methodology, as
this is the model that best suits both the question and the forms of analysis and
data that will be collected. The distinguishing characteristic of the case-study as a
research strategy is that it attempts to examine a particular phenomenon using a
real life context (Yin, 1986), such as in the case of this research project, where the
phenomenon of a poorly performing archive is examined through the use of
Sheffield cathedral archive as a case in point. Sheffield cathedral archive is them
compared with Durham cathedral archive, a well run cathedral archive. The two
separate archives are compared and contrasted, using a variety of research
techniques, such as document analysis, reflective research reports, content analysis
and interviews and questionnaires in order to collect the required data required for
analysis. Recommendations will then be sought out, based on the data analysis, and
best practice on how the archive can proceed will be identified.
3.3 INTERVIEWS
3.3.1 Process and Data Analysis
An interview has been conducted with Reverend Canon Simon Cowling of Sheffield
cathedral, who is indirectly responsible for the archive. As the archive as no formal
or qualified archivist, Simon Cowling has been identified as the key figure with
regard to looking after the archive. The interview has been conducted in person,
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
25
performed one on one with the interviewee. The interview was semi structured
with the interview asking questions that allowed the respondent unrestricted
freedom to answer as they wished and to give their honest opinion. Rather than a
formal questionnaire schema, the ‘instrument’ (Kvale and Brinkmann, 2009) there
was a checklist of topics relevant to the archive in which the interviewee was asked
questions from. An empathetic and positive demeanour was maintained
throughout by the researcher so not to influence the interviewee’s answers in any
way. For example, when the researcher asked the interviewee if they thought the
archive had value (Appendix IV) the interviewee was free to interpret and explain
the concept of value as they understood the term to mean, without correction or
interference from the researcher. To prevent the interview from using up a large
amount of time, and inconveniencing the interviewee, the discussion was limited to
forty minutes and questions were focused on specific areas of the archive, such as
electronic media, storage, organisation and future plans for the archive service. This
ensured that the appropriate topics were covered in the allotted time.
The interview was recorded with a digital tape recorder so that the researcher
could concentrate on the flow of the interview and ensure that the interview stayed
on task, ensuring that the interview process was conducted as planned, and to
ensure that crucial interview data would not be omitted or forgotten about.
Recording interviews is a positive as appropriate attention could be focused on the
interviewee, such as maintaining eye contact which is crucial for ensuring that the
interviewee feels comfortable and that the researcher is interested and engaged
with the interview (Kvale and Brinkmann, 2009).
The data was fully transcribed, despite this being a very time consuming process,
with the transcribing process taking an estimated four hours to complete to ensure
that the information was copied correctly and as accurately as possible and the
interview transcript is included in the appendices of this paper (Appendix IV) Later
in the analysis process, the data collected from the interview was divided and
analysed according to each specific objective, selecting the data appropriate for
each objective from the bulk of the text. Kvale and Brinkmann (2009) states that
the method of interview analysis should be collated in a coherent and cohesive
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
26
way, and dividing the interview data into data that fulfilled the objectives of this
research paper seemed the most logical approach to analysing the information.
3.3.2 Interview Sample and Design
For the purpose of this research project, one interview was conducted, Ideally,
more interviews would have been conducted, but due to certain constraints such as
time, and other practicalities such as a limited interview field; it was in fact difficult
to find people within the cathedral archive service who were willing to be
interviewed and who would be suitable for the purposes of this research project. It
would of course have been beneficial to have more interviewees, but sadly this was
not an option.
The interview was designed to be semi structured, with questions split into several
different related areas, such as barriers, the future of the archive, using digital
media, access, storage and organisation of the archive. The interview followed a
clear, consistent format and progressed logically, for example, the interview
questioning began with exploring the potential barriers to having a successful
archive in general, before moving on to more specific questions pertaining to the
archive such as access to collections (Appendix IV).
3.3.3 Reliability of Interviews
The impartiality of interviews is another important point to consider, especially
when these interviews are recorded. Kvale and Brinkmann (2009) states that
interviews, and the meaning and interpretation of these interviews, depends
entirely on the context of the interview. Therefore, the recorded element of the
interview can directly influence the outcome of the interview, as the subject of the
interview may feel pressured by the presence of the recording equipment and
therefore not give as honest an answer as they would if the equipment was not
present. The interviewee might also feel uncomfortable about giving negative
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
27
answers about their service or organisation, and instead give a more favourable
answer than what they actually feel.
It has also be claimed that the qualitative interview, which is the type of interview
that is being conducted throughout the course of this research project, is flawed,
due to the human interaction present with the interview situation (Kvale and
Brinkmann, 2009). Objectivity is a large portion of this potential flaw, as both the
interview questions themselves, and the interpretation of data are difficult to keep
free from bias, as the interviewer and researcher has their own expectations from
the interview. Quantitative research could be perceived as being a more objective
form of analysis, as the data is mathematical and more ‘scientific’, whereas the
interpretation of qualitative interview data and compiling of interview questions
can never be fully objective and impartial due to the fact that the researcher is not
analysing scientific data, but is instead analysing opinions and thoughts that either
correspond with the researcher’s own views, or go against them.
Another issue of reliability is ensuring that in a semi-structured interview, the
interviewee both understands the questions and is aware why these questions are
necessary to the interview. To ensure that this was the case, the interviewer tried
to express themselves clearly in order to make sure the interviewee understand
what was being asked of them, and made sure to state that clarification would be
provided if necessary. For example, the interviewer was willing to explain what they
meant by value of an archive service (Appendix IV) if the interviewee required,
although this was not necessary.
3.3.4 Limitations of Interviews
As stated in the reliability portion of the interview methodology, the interviewee
may have certain expectations of what the interviewer is attempting to find out
through the interview and may try to give information which they deem to be
‘correct’, rather than their actual opinion. This is not only a question of reliability
but also a limitation of the interview process. Certain precautions can be taken in
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
28
order to limit potential bias such as asking a question in a very open way, and
asking the interviewee to explain their answers. For the purpose of this research
project, the interviewee was very open to the archive’s weaknesses and very
honest about the problems the archives faced, making it easier to elicit an unbiased
and honest response.
Another point of contention is the amount of interviews conducted, which for the
purpose of this research project is only one interview. It would be more beneficial
to have a wide range of interviews with people, but time constraints, coupled with
the specificity of this research project, meant that the opportunity for more
interviews were not readily available. Unfortunately it was not possible to conduct
interviews with more cathedral archivists, due to staff holidays or lack of response
from other cathedral archives in the UK. Conducting such a small amount of
interviews is not ideal, and initially three interviews were planned, but
unfortunately the arrangements fell through and in the time constraints of this
research project, one interview was the only option available. Because of the lack
of interview candidates and interview data, it was necessary to supplement this
data with other forms of data analysis. To supplement this interview data, it was
then decided that a small survey would be conducted, alongside reflective research
reports of visits to both Durham and Sheffield cathedral, in order to contrast
Sheffield cathedral archive with a better functioning cathedral archive, therefore
providing a wider and greater range of material and data for analysis than what
would have been produced by extra interviews.
3.4 QUESTIONNAIRES
3.4.1 Questionnaire Design
The research questionnaire offers an objective means of collecting information on
people’s knowledge, beliefs, opinions, attitudes and behaviour. Surveys can be
wide ranging and ambitious, or they can be small and specific, so good survey
design is of the utmost importance in order to get the specific data that is required
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
29
for the research project in question. Oppenheim (1992) states that the term
‘research design’ refers to the basic plan or strategy of proposed research, and the
logic behind these proposals, and that research design is concerned with making
the research problem researchable by creating the study, or in this case the survey,
in such a way that it will produce specific answers to specific questions. Therefore,
the research design of a survey deals with manipulating the survey in order to fully
gain the information and the answers that will be the most beneficial to the
research study.
The survey was designed to be a brief survey, to take into account the time
constraints of the individuals responding to the survey, with open questions in
order to provoke a freedom of response from the survey participants. The survey
was designed to record the observations of individuals working on the Sheffield
university cathedral archives project in which students catalogued items from the
cathedral archive in order to form a comprehensive and up to date inventory of the
archive’s collections. This survey was designed to gauge the observations, attitudes
and opinions of those surveyed in relation to certain aspects of the archive; such as
how the archive is organised, the storage of items within the archive and access to
the cathedral’s collections. Those individuals who worked on the project are ideal
candidates for the survey as their opinions are formed from having worked
extensively in the cathedral archives over a number of months. Each individual on
the project has a sophisticated understanding of how the archive is organised, as
well as their own personal opinions on how the archive operates, and therefore are
ideal for the purpose of this research project, which is to analyse the state of
Sheffield cathedral archives, and determine a model of best practice for the
cathedral to improve its archival service. Free response or open questions however,
can be difficult to analyse (Silverman, 2007), as there is a large range of potential
answers, something that the closed-questioning form of questionnaire does not
facilitate. However, free response was necessary for the purposes of this research
project, as individual opinion was more important than quantifiable information,
and unique perspectives were preferred over statistical data.
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
30
3.4.2 Reliability of Questionnaires
The survey used in this research project has relied specifically on the perceptions
and memory of those surveyed, which can often lead to inaccuracies, as it is easy
for personal bias to cloud the responses to the survey. This particular survey has
tried to limit the amount of personal bias by asking survey respondents to explain
their answer fully, using questions such as ‘What evidence do you have to support
your answer?” (Appendix III). By asking the respondent to explain their answer fully,
and to use specific instances from their experience of the archive, this forces the
respondent to consider why they are making the response they are making, and the
more the survey group has to explain and justify their answers, the less likely it is
that they will provide a completely biased response.
Reliability is a major concern with questionnaire design, as questions can easily
contain errors which result in misinterpretation from the end user (Hussey, 1997).
The researcher can try and predict potential misunderstandings or confusions of
those surveyed, but unlike the face to face interview, cannot be clarified in person if
those surveyed are confused by the wording or the meaning of the questions. One
way of preventing this misunderstanding is to attempt to display and lay out the
questions in a logical structure, ensuring that there is a natural ‘flow’ from question
to question so that those surveyed are not confused by jumping from one topic to
the next, which increases understanding. The survey conducted for this research
project was split into three sections of questioning, namely access, organisation and
storage and arrangement of the archive (Appendix III). The survey ends with a
question asking for recommendations for the archive service (Appendix III), thus
providing a good concluding point in which those surveyed can reflect on their
previous answers and conclude in a logical manner.
3.4.3 Limitations of the Questionnaire
For the purpose of this research project, the specific limitations were that of the
sample group. Because the survey questionnaire focused on a very specific area of
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
31
individuals, i.e. those individuals that had worked on the Sheffield University
cathedral archive project, it was almost impossible for me to pilot and sample my
survey, as the same people who would have been the intended pilot audience,
were the very same people who the survey was intended for, and it was not
possible, due to such a small group of potential survey respondents, to remove any
of these from the survey pool in order to pilot the survey. Instead, the survey was
analysed by Barbara Sen, the project manager of the cathedral archive initiative,
who suggested changes and potential conflicts in the survey. The survey itself was
compiled to be taken by just eight individuals, as these were the individuals working
on the cathedral archive project. Out of these eight individuals there was a 62.5%
response rate. The small amount of people involved in the survey is itself a
limitation, but is however a necessary one, as for the purpose of my questionnaire
it was only possible to survey people who had worked extensively on Sheffield
cathedral archive, this limiting my field of possible respondents significantly.
However, these limitations ensured that the answers I received were by people
with good knowledge of the cathedral archive, whose opinions and answers could
be trusted as being knowledgeable and informed.
3.5 DOCUMENT ANALYSIS
3.5.1 Process and Data Analysis
Document analysis is the systematic examination and evaluation of instructional
documents, which for the purpose of this research are documents such as archival
strategy, policy and guidelines on service operation. The focus of this analysis is not
mere overview or description of what the documents contain, but instead should
offer critical examination and analysis of the content of the documents (IAR, 2010).
Document analysis is best utilised when attempting to gain insight from an
instructional activity or approach, as it can help provide a basis for preliminary
observations and to support additional data from other sources of data such as
interviews and questionnaires (IAR, 2010). This research project uses document
analysis as a tool for examining trends in archival practice, and also to gain insight
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
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into current best practice in archives. Document analysis findings have also been
used to inform survey questions and interview questions, and have been used to
support this data in the research analysis portion of this research project.
3.5.2 Limitations of Document Analysis
There are however limitations to document analysis, as there is with all methods of
data analysis. The biggest limitation is that document analysis is obviously limited to
what is freely available, or what the researcher can find. There may be more
suitable documents to analyse but through either expense or searching skills, they
have not been utilised. There is also no guarantee that the documents are of the
highest calibre of information. There has been an attempt to avert this limitation
however, through the course of this research project, by using documents from
reputable source such as The National Archive and The International Council on
Archives, both reputable bodies who produce guidelines and standards on a
national and international level and are trusted and recognised by archivists in the
profession as being a reliable source of information. In one instance, documents
from the collection at Sheffield cathedral archives have been analysed, namely,
letters from the previous archivist at the cathedral archive (Appendix II). While
using archival material from the archive being analysed is important, there is no
guarantee, especially with the current state of the archive, that the researcher has
a complete set of documents available in order to give them a complete picture
(IAR, 2010). Documents can be incomplete, and this is something that needs to be
taken into consideration when examining and evaluating source material from an
archive which is currently in disrepair.
3.6 RESEARCH VISITS FOR ANALYSIS PURPOSES
3.6.1 Process and Data Analysis
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
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An analysis of the physical cathedral archives has been conducted (See Appendix
II) in order to determine the current physical condition of the archive material and
the current situation of the cathedral archive as a whole. This method of analysis
and evaluation is essential in order to determine how to proceed with organising
the archive and exactly what standards and policy need to be implemented. This
has already been conducted partially by the MA Librarianship students during the
cathedral archive project, of which this researcher was a part, but further
investigation has been necessary in order to gain a complete evaluation of the
service. Analysis of the physical archives is integral in order to provide a direct
comparison between the policy and strategies analysed previously, and to
determine how the cathedral is operating based on the best practice standards
offered by institutions such as The National Archives and The International Council
on Archives.
Both the Sheffield cathedral archives and the archives at Durham cathedral have
been evaluated in order to provide a direct comparison between a strong well-
functioning archive (that of Durham) and one with a great deal of faults and
weaknesses such as that of Sheffield. This provides the basis of the gap analysis
used to fulfil the third research objective, which aims to analyse the gap between
the current state at Sheffield cathedral archive and the desired state.
3.6.2 Reflective Research Reports
When conducting the necessary research visits to both Durham and Sheffield
cathedral archive, it became apparent that the best way to evaluate the experience
and the information obtained from both cathedral archives would be to create two
reflective research reports; one for both cathedral archives. Reflective reporting
allows the researcher to evaluate their experience thoughtfully, intelligently and
carefully, and allows the researcher to consider how they know what they know,
and how the acquired this knowledge, (Clarke et al. 1996). Reflective reportage is
key to understanding and documenting the research visits conducted and forms a
primary evidentiary tool for analysing and examining the experience. This research
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
34
project utilises the “reflection-on-action” conception of reflective practice
illustrated by Morrison (1996) in which the person reflecting “clarify, understand
and interpret meanings, intentions, actions through engaging the theoretical
underpinnings of the practices” (Morrison, 1996, 318). By reflecting on
experiences, it helps put the events into perspective and allows the person
reflecting to draw out the most relevant and significant information out of the
experience and draw insight from it. The use of reflective reports can improve and
enhance a case study (Rosier, 2002) as it allows the researcher to draw on a variety
of different methods to analyse the case in question. Nesbit and Watt (1984) state
that, “The basic principle in data collection for case study is to check your data
across a variety of methods and a variety of sources” thus highlighting that
reflective reportage, along with more traditional methods such as interviewing and
document analysis can provide an extra slant, or perspective which can in turn can
greatly inform the research analysis. This research will use reflective reporting for
the reasons above, and to report and examine the findings of these visits within the
data analysis section of this research project.
3.6.3 Limitations of Reflective Reporting
Reflective practice and creating reflective reports is a time consuming process, as
each sentence should be carefully considered to ensure that the reports are truly
reflective, rather than a retelling of the experience. The reflective reports included
in this research project (Appendices I and II) took several hours to write, as it was
crucial that each reflection was examined and considered carefully to ensure that it
was a true representation of both the experience and what was learned through
the visits. A further limitation is the ability to reflect critically, as not everyone is
well versed in the characteristics of reflective writing. Fortunately, this researcher
has had experience, throughout the course of the Librarianship Masters degree, of
reflective reporting and analysis, as keeping a reflective journal, as well as creating
reflective reports has been one of the key techniques taught throughout the
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
35
Librarianship course, which has proved immensely useful during this research
project.
3.7 ETHICS
The ethics proposal for this research project has been submitted and this project
has been classified as low risk. An information sheet has been created and designed
and has been given to everyone who has taken part in interviews or has been
surveyed. All those interviewed and surveyed will remain anonymous. The
interviews have been recorded, and all participants are aware of this as these
particulars have been included in both the information sheet and the ethical
consent form which they were required to sign before the interview took place. .
The information sheet outlines exactly how the interviews were conducted and the
type of questions the interviewee would expect. Upon arriving at the interview, the
consent form was signed by both the interviewer and the interviewee, and verbal
consent was asked again to reiterate that both the transcript of the interview would
be used as an appendix in the final research project, and that the interview was
going to be recorded. Throughout the interview there were no personal or non
business or archive related questions asked to the interviewee, so not to cause any
offence or discomfort during the interview process. Both the interviews and the
surveys conducted for the purpose of this research assignment were conducted
under the strictest ethical guidelines.
3.8 OVERALL LIMITATIONS OF RESEARCH
A significant overall limitation of this research was the small field of interviewees
and surveyed individuals. Although in the case of those surveyed, this was a
necessary limitation, due to the necessity of surveying only people who had worked
within the cathedral archive on the Sheffield university cathedral archive project.
However, the lack of other interviews was certainly not a necessary or planned
limitation, and it would have been highly beneficial to have a larger interview
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
36
group. Ideally it would have been preferable to interview someone from Sheffield
Cathedral, and at least two archivists from other cathedral or religious archives.
Unfortunately this was impossible, as York cathedral archive were unable to find
the time to be interviewed, and Durham cathedral archive, whose archivist was
newly in post, preferred an information visit and chat to a formal interview as they
felt they did not currently have the knowledge of the service needed for an in-
depth and formal interview. Therefore it was necessary to make do with the
research opportunities available, and despite the limitations placed upon this
research project, the current research can still provide some very important results
and findings about the cathedral archive service.
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
37
4. RESEARCH ANALYSIS
4.1 INTRODUCTION
Despite the limitations of this research project, many important elements can be
inferred from the research, which will be discussed during the following chapter.
The way that the results of this research have been analysed is by answering each
objective in turn; using these objectives as headings which inform the research
analysis. This method is the most logical approach to analysing the information, as
each objective links together, forming a coherent path of analysis.
4.2 OBJECTIVE I: TO EVALUATE THE CURRENT SITUATION AT SHEFFIELD CATHEDRAL
ARCHIVE
This objective is best answered through the use of formal management techniques,
as these offer a technical overview of the situation at Sheffield cathedral archive
and allows the user to appraise and take a systematic approach to evaluating the
current status at the cathedral archive. There are many reasons why it is important
for an archive to measure its progress and examine the quality of a service.
Williams (2006) identifies the following rationale for measuring the performance of
an archive:
• improves the quality of your services
• assists with the decisions that have to be made on a daily basis.
• shows you are accountable to your stakeholders in your actions
• enables you to plan realistically, based on past performance
• and involves measuring, evaluating and monitoring your progress systematically.
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
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Table 1 (Williams, 2006, 226).
All of these reasons are of importance to this research project. Evaluating the
current service quality of the cathedral archive will help identify the areas that are
the weakest and need the most improvement, allowing for a realistic plan of action
in order to improve.
Initially, it was expected, for the purpose of this project that the HISTOQUAL scale
(Frochot and Hughes, 2000) and the EFQM performance management scale would
be best utilised for this particular objective. However, through careful study of both
of these scales, it was determined that while these scales are useful at measuring
the performance and service quality of an organisation, and can in fact be modified
for use within an archive service (Williams, 2006), they are perhaps best suited for
archives that are significantly better functioning archives than the standards
currently in operation at Sheffield cathedral archive. HISTOQUAL focuses mainly on
a customer facing service, and purports to analyse the effectiveness of many
different features of the service, such as staff responsiveness, tangibles such as
appearance and cleanliness, communication and empathy for visitors (Frochot and
Hughes 2000), all of which is immeasurable in the current cathedral archive set up,
with the exception of the tangibles section of the analysis criteria.
The EFQM performance management scale was also deemed unsuitable. The EFQM
excellence model aims to give institutions a guideline for achieving and measuring
success and offers a somewhat holistic approach to analysing organisations. The
EFQM excellence model focuses predominantly on cyclical improvement but
unfortunately is based on rigid hierarchical concepts on how organisations operate
(Temple, 2005), which are not suitable for comparison with the cathedral archive,
which lacks the traditional staffing procedures found at many other archives. While
the EFQM model is a successful method of analysing a structured organisation, it is
not suitable for the specific organisational methods, or in fact, lack of organisation,
present at the cathedral archive. Another omission of the EFQM excellence model
is that the ‘excellence’ of an organisation is a somewhat nonaligned figure, and
asserts that the EFQM standard of ‘excellence’ is equally applicable across many
different types of organisation or institution (Temple, 2005), for example that the
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
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same approaches to leadership are appropriate for every type of institution. Again,
this approach is not suitable for the cathedral archive, as it does not operate in the
same way as a traditional business or organisation, and is bound instead by its own
unique issues and constraints that the EFQM model does not take into account.
As a result, it was then decided that a SWOT analysis would be the most useful
method of analysis, due to its simplicity of design, use and ease of understanding,
as well as its ability to be tailored completely to a particular organisation. The
SWOT analysis is useful as long as the user honestly assesses and recognises the
weak points of the organisation. By using the SWOT analysis is easy to identify areas
needing improvement as well as clearly demonstrating the organisations present
and potential future situations (Ramos and Ortega, 2006).
4.2.1 SWOT ANALYSIS
Table 2 - SWOT analysis
As stated previously, it has been determined that this objective is best answered
through the use of a SWOT analysis. Conducting a SWOT analysis to determine an
organisations strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities is a useful way to
identify the areas that are working well in an organisation and those areas that
need improvement. SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool, but can be useful in
STRENGTHS
Recognition of archive problems
Willingness to implement change
Archive storage is at least safe.
WEAKNESSES
Lack of clean storage facilities
No qualified archivist
No recent inventory or catalogue of archival material
THREATS
Lack ofadequate storage could irreparably damage archival material.
Lack of archival professional means collections are uncared for - in turn
damaging future records of the cathedral.
OPPORTUNITIES
Future development of archive
Funding
Creating links with university
SWOT ANALYSIS
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
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understanding more about an organisation or situation. A SWOT analysis allows a
deeper look into the core structure of an organisation and allows insight into how
the institution operates, and is highly effective due to the simplicity of its design
and the ease in which it can be used and understood as a tool of analysis. The
SWOT analysis technique is useful for assessing the effectiveness of an archive
simply by bringing to attention the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation.
What is interesting about the SWOT analysis is that it calls into question both
external and internal issues. The strengths and weaknesses portion of the SWOT
analysis focus on internal issues, elements that can be controlled and managed by
the organisation, whereas the threats portion of the SWOT analysis identifies areas
beyond the organisations control; external factors which could place the
organisation at risk. The opportunities portion however, offers external positive and
attractive factors that both provide and offer the organisation a way to continue to
exist and develop (CIPD, 2010)
Using data collected from frequent research visits to the archive (as outlined in
Appendix II) and through a small survey conducted by members of the Sheffield
university cathedral archives project, it has been possible to identify key issues for
this SWOT analysis.
STRENGTHS
The cathedral archive does not currently have a lot of obvious strengths. It is
underperforming as an archive, and has been neglected for a long period. However,
the current cathedral staff have recognised that there are problems with their
archive, and have reached out to Sheffield university in order to rectify this
situation (Appendix II). The cathedral is showing a willingness to change the current
state of the cathedral archive, which can only be an organisational strength. This
willingness to implement change needs to be maintained and built upon, as good
morale of staff is vital when attempting to better or change an archive. A proactive
approach is important when fixing problems within an organisation, and the fact
that the cathedral has recognised that the archive needs improvement can only be
seen as a positive, therefore is a strength of the archive. The archive storage facility,
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although containing many weaknesses and faults, is at least a fireproof
environment. While the facilities may damage the archives over time due to their
impracticality, the archives are contained within a cathedral vault, behind fireproof
doors; therefore keeping them in such an environment is akin to storing them in a
safe.
WEAKNESSES
The weaknesses present within the archive are considerably more pronounced than
the strengths. The main weaknesses identified are a lack of clean storage facilities
and correct storage boxes, a lack of trained archival staff, and no clear knowledge
of what is contained within the archive due to an outdated inventory list. The
British Standard BS 5454:2000, the standard for Recommendations for the Storage
and Exhibition of Archival Documents, states that unsuitable storage environments
damage documents more extensively than any other factor present within an
archive (BS 5454:2000). This standard is the benchmark used when assessing the
storage facilities and environment of an archive, and how successful this
environment is. Dampness and poor ventilation may cause mould to develop,
whereas too dry an environment can cause documents to become brittle, high
temperatures and humidity can cause rapid deterioration of documents (BS
5454:2000). Essentially, humidity, temperature, light and airborne pollutants all
contribute to the deterioration of archival material. Within a storage area these factors
can be controlled and monitored to ensure optimum conditions.
Sheffield cathedral archive is contained within a basement vault, which is dusty, dirty
and unclean. The room is small, and the larger items in storage have to be placed on
the floor as there is not room for them on the shelves. The room is not temperature or
humidity controlled or monitored in any way (Appendix II). Therefore currently, the
storage facilities within the archive are a serious weakness, and the lack of adequate
storage could potentially damage the archival collections further. The current storage
facilities need to be cleaned thoroughly to avoid further damage to the material, if no
other space can be found to house the materials, and the collection needs to be
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repackaged in acid free paper and boxes, rather than the non archive standard boxes
and cases in which they are currently stored.
The lack of a trained archivist is a significant weakness also, as there is no one
currently employed by the cathedral that has the knowledge and the skills to
properly care for the archive, thus contributing to the neglect and disrepair of the
archive. Currently, the archive does not have the budget or the funds to employ an
archivist in either a full time or part time position, and without proper continuous
care and attention the archive is weak, and the collections are likely to continue to
deteriorate. Lack of funding for the archive is a serious weakness, without money
the archive is unlikely to be able to improve. Money is needed for improved storage
facilities, for the correct archive boxes and shelving, as well as for members of staff.
While the archive is currently using volunteers from Sheffield University, there is no
substitute for a trained employee, who has the necessary time and skills needed to
dedicate to the archive. The National Archives Standard for Record Repositories
(2004b) states that if an archive repository has no appropriately qualified staff,
they “should formally seek regular advice on such matters as acquisition, storage,
conservation and cataloguing from a professionally qualified archivist in another
repository or from The National Archives” (The National Archives, 2005b, 9). This is
also something that has not previously been undertaken by the cathedral, but could
be utilised in the present in order to improve the cathedral archive, and allow for
some degree of support from a qualified archivist in lieu of adequate funding for
the cathedral’s own qualified archivist.
There is currently also a lack of knowledge about what is contained within the
cathedral archive, by the staff at the cathedral. The cathedral archive lacks an up-
to-date inventory and catalogue, which in turn prevents the cathedral staff from
placing value on their archive, therefore making it more likely that staff will neglect
the collection as they are unaware of the importance of their archives. A lack of
knowledge about the cathedral’s collections is definitely a weakness in the archive.
Schwartz and Cook (2002) identify archives as having ‘power’, stating that archives
are created as an opportunity to protect or enhance an organisation or institutions
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position in society, and that archives have tremendous power over the identity and
collective memory of an institution. Therefore according to Schwartz and Cook; if
an organisation does not place value upon its archives, or has no knowledge of
what is present in their archive stores, they are also neglecting to place value or
importance on the organisation or institution as a whole. If records are lost due to
neglect, an important part of the cathedral’s identity is lost also. Therefore, it is in
the cathedral’s best interests to maintain an accurate record of their collections, to
manage their collections fully, as these collections help shape the identity of their
cathedral, both now and in the future.
OPPORTUNITIES
The opportunities for the cathedral archive have been narrowed down to three
distinct categories. Firstly, the cathedral has an important link with Sheffield
University Information Studies department, one that could be utilised further for
maximum impact. Secondly, there is the opportunity for funding, and lastly, the
cathedral’s large amount of weaknesses can be turned into a positive; that there is
ample room for development, even if progress is slow. The links with Sheffield
University are an important opportunity for Sheffield cathedral archive. The
cathedral already has links with the university through various events, such as the
Sheffield Arts Festival (Appendix IV), and has in the past year cultivated a link with
Sheffield university Information Studies department. Through Barbara Sen,
Sheffield cathedral archives and the information studies department at the
university have formed something of an alliance together in order to create the
cathedral archive project currently in operation at the archive. As stated within the
interview conducted for the purposes of this research project;
“I consulted another colleague on, who was the chaplain of the
university, and he said it would be the department of information
studies at Sheffield, and I just contacted, actually I think I contacted
Barbara direct, I just flew a kite, and it was great. So far it’s been
really, really helpful.” (Appendix IV)
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The link between the university and the cathedral is an important link that is ripe for
development and opportunity. While the archive project has only been in operation
for a year at Sheffield, it would be an excellent idea to continue with the project,
something that the cathedral has identified previously; “this project isn’t a yearlong
project, there is much more to do than that” (Appendix IV). Currently, the archive is
only half completed (Appendix II), with much work still needed before the collection
is fully inventoried and catalogued. Therefore, there is plenty of opportunity for a
further project partnership between the university and the cathedral archive.
Although the cathedral has previously been concerned that they are taking
advantage of the free labour (Appendix IV), the project is mutually beneficial, with
both the cathedral and the students undertaking the Archives and Records
Management course benefitting from the project. The cathedral benefits by having
additional help in cataloguing and inventorying its collections, while the students
gain valuable practical experience of working in an archive and experiencing first-
hand the challenges that archives face.
Gaining funding is also an obvious opportunity for the cathedral. There are several
opportunities for funding but most notable is HLF (Heritage Lottery Fund) funding,
which has given over eighty million pounds in funding to UK archives (National
Council of Archives, 2010), which has recently granted £50,000 to the
Cambridgeshire Community Archives Network in order to give their archives an
online presence (Heritage Lottery Fund 2010). While the cathedral archive has
already submitted a bid for HLF funding, of which they will find out the outcome in
September (Appendix IV), if they are not successful with their bid there is much that
they can do to ensure success at a later date. As stated previously in the literature
review, it is important that the person applying for funding truly understands and
knows their archive well, as “what people really want to hear is who and what your
organization is, what you’re all about and where you’re heading” (Bray, 2008,
32).Therefore, developing the archive alongside the university, will enable the
cathedral to pinpoint exactly the areas of the cathedral archive most needing
development, and target their funding bids accordingly.
THREATS
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The two biggest threats to the cathedral archive are that of storage, and the lack of
a professional archivist. These two threats could ostensibly and irrevocably damage
the cathedral’s archival collections if solutions are not found As stated previously, it
is oft believed that unsuitable storage environments damage documents more
extensively than any other factor present within an archive (British Standard
5454:2000). Therefore, by neglecting to improve the storage facilities there is a
significant risk of further damage to the archival collection, through dirt, damp,
mould and age. Certain members of the cathedral staff have highlighted their
concerns at the current storage at the archive stating;
“...there is no light, it’s dusty, dirty, and storage is a problem as
there are no boxes for anything. The ‘tank’ as we call it, in the
undercroft, is damp, and full of dust, again not very adequate
lighting, there is no space to move around.” (Appendix IV).
Therefore, the current storage facilities are a serious concern, and the biggest
current threat to the archival collections. It is much easier to take preventative
steps than to repair damage. Therefore, although the cathedral does not have the
space to move the current collections out of their current environment (Appendix
IV), it is integral that the collections are protected as much as possible so that
damage from their current environment is at least slowed down, if not altogether
prevented. This means that the biggest priority of the cathedral is to generate some
funding in order to buy archive standard boxes and acid free paper, and to clean
the current storage facilities.
Another major threat on the cathedral archive’s future is the lack of a trained and
qualified archivist. Not only does an archivist physically cares for the collections, but
also creates archive policy to inform the decisions about the archive and its
collections and allows for a clear path of progression and development for the
archive. The decline of Sheffield cathedral archive in a sense is directly related to its
lack of an archivist. The staff at the cathedral have identified that the staff at the
cathedral are unaware of whose role it is to look after the archive (Appendix IV).
The current staff at the cathedral feels that this is not their role to manage the
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archive collections, and therefore the archive has been left to decline. The lack of
an archivist at the cathedral has led to uncertainty and little awareness of the
archive and the value that it has for the cathedral.
Having an archivist immediately means that more value is placed on the archive.
An archivist would manage the collections effectively, as well as managing the team
of volunteers from the university, and using them to develop the archive in the
most suitable way. An archivist would also continue to monitor the archive to
ensure that the archive is not left to decline again. However, as with most of the
improvements needed at the cathedral, employing an archivist requires money,
money in which the cathedral does not currently have. Sheffield cathedral are
currently bidding for funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and if successful, one
of the most important ways the money should be spent is by hiring a trained
professional, even on a part time basis.
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4.3 OBJECTIVE II: TO IDENTIFY ANY EXISTING BEST PRACTICE ESTABLISHED WITHIN
UK CATHEDRALS AND OTHER HERITAGE SITES
4.3.1 Introduction
Establishing best practice in archives is more than a matter of simply critically
appraising, evaluating and implementing research findings, but instead involves
combining this judgement with professional experience and judgement (Davies,
1999). Much professional practice in archives is performed on the basis that many
of the processes and actions that form best practice have been formed from an
archival tradition; that things have always been done this way, and therefore carry
the authority of many trained archivists over a long period of time. Therefore, the
opinions and experiences of these archivists, and established archival bodies such
as The National Archive and The Council on Archives, can be more important than
research alone (Davies, 1999). For example, The National Archives aims is to
support the records management community, and are the lead body in the UK in
developing guidance and practice for information management professionals and
archivists (The National Archives, 2010). The standards and policies created by
these archival bodies are then of vital importance when establishing and identifying
a method of best practice, as they have been formed by many archivists to be
workable practical standards.
4.3.2 Identifying Best Practice
Business Link (2010) identifies best practice as “finding - and using - the best ways
of working to achieve your business objectives” and involves learning from, and
through the experience of others in the field. Implementing best practice can
improve the service of the organisation and work to make the best of an
organisation. Any organisation involved in the provision and access to archives
needs to operate within a structured framework of standards (Williams, 2006), and
if the organisation does not operate to these prescribed standards, it will be
difficult for it to function correctly. Therefore, it is important to identify the
standards which are most useful to the particular archive or organisation, and
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understand what constitutes best practice for the archive. While many standards
offer an ideal of how an archive should operate, there are limitations for the
ordinary archive, through funding, staffing and facilities, so it may not be possible
to accommodate all the advice present within the standards themselves. Instead, it
is important to examine the advice and strategies present within the standards, and
determine what aspects are realistically possible for the archive to implement
within their service. The National Archive’s Standard for Record Repositories
(2004b) is the benchmark standard for assessing and exacting a model of best
practice for archives, and contains a significant amount of useful information for
managing, developing, and making the most of an archive.
4.3.3 Storage
Best practice for archival storage involves a number of different factors; such as the
building the archives are housed in, and the equipment and materials used to keep
the archive safe. Good storage is vastly important to an archive; without it, it is
almost impossible to keep an archive in good condition. The Council of Museum,
Libraries and Archives offers a checklist for self assessment of archives in which to
assess the storage facilities and the standard of these facilities (Council of Museum,
Libraries and Archives, 2002), which will help inform whether the storage facilities
within the archive are adequate. The British Standard BS 5454:2000 documents the
best practice for storing archival collections. While some of the advice, such as
automatic fire- suppression systems and secondary lighting systems (BS 5454:2000)
are way above the reach of most archive services due to lack of funding, but there
is much practical advice that should be considered when establishing an archive
that is detailed within this standard. For example when considering shelving, BS
5454:2000 states that all shelving should be made from carbon steel and the
dimensions should be specified to accommodate the archive material fully. Lighting
and air are also important factors, and the storage facilities should be well
ventilated, lighting should be energy efficient and of a low exposure to prevent
damage to the archive material. Storage facilities should be above ground, and
there should be no abrupt temperature fluctuations. The storage facility should be
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large enough to cope with the amount of archival material within the archive and
provide reasonable excess space for future acquisitions.
Standard BS 5454:2000 also states that packaging for storage should fit the
document properly, without the document being adapted or folded in order to fit
the container, and be made up of un-dyed, acid-free materials which will have no
adverse effects on the documents. Loose sheets should be stored flat in
appropriate custom folders, and outsize documents should be either rolled or
stored flat on archival boards. Boxes should be marked clearly and permanently to
ensure correct replacement within the archive, so the collection items can be found
easily. The National Archives Standard for Record Repositories (2004b) also offer
useful guides for best practice when storing archival material, all of which conform
to the British Standard BS 5454:2000. The National Archives standard states that
the archive building must be made of a robust material such as concrete or brick
and must be able to support the weight of the materials, and be away from drains
or plumbing to avoid any potential water damage (The National Archives, 2004b).
Archive storages should contain smoke detectors, and the archive should contain
fire resistant doors. Following this practice and the advice given in BS 5454:2000
and The National Archive’s Standard for Record Repositories will ensure that the
archival collections have longevity, and are protected fully.
4.3.4 Staffing
The National Archive’s Standard for Record Repositories (2004) states that an
archive should employ at least one trained archivist with relevant experience in the
subject of the archive, a qualified conservator, either in direct employ, or a contact
at a nearby archive, and one or more non-professional archivists. Currently, the
archive at Sheffield cathedral is unable to employ a trained archivist due to lack of
funding, but The National Archives also offers guidelines to those institutions
without a qualified archivist in their employ, which will prove useful to the
cathedral archive. The standard states;
“The governing body should formally seek regular advice on such
matters as acquisition, storage, conservation and cataloguing from a
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professionally qualified archivist in another repository or from The
National Archives” (The National Archives, 2004b, 9).
This is a best practice standard that should be utilised by the cathedral, either by
consulting an archivist at nearby Sheffield city archives service, or at a
neighbouring cathedral. Staffing is a large issue for religious archives, and Durham
cathedral archives, with its collection spanning over one thousand years, still
operates with a limited amount of staff, namely two archivists to attend to the
cathedral archive collections.
4.3.5 Acquisitions and Collection Management
Sheffield cathedral archive is currently without an acquisitions or collections
policy, leaving the cathedral without clear guidelines on what they should and
should not collect (Appendix IV). There is much standards and policy on the subject
of acquisitions management, but for the purpose of this research project, and to
fulfil this objective, standards from The National Archive and from Sheffield city
archive have been utilised in order to document best practice in acquisitions
management. Firstly, The National Archive’s Standard for Record Repositories
(2004b) states that every effort should be made to avoid duplication of material
collected within other archives and each archive should have a defined collection
policy which indicates the scope of the archive, both the geographic focus and the
subject area which the archive will collect from. The Church of England provides a
guide on what religious archives should keep and what they should discard or
destroy (Church of England, 2009a), but this is not an exhaustive list, and a
collection policy is still necessary.
If the archive is not able to care properly for the archive material, another archive
may be approached for the suitable storage of the item, as proper care for the
item is more important than where the item is held. The National Archive’s Archive
Collection Policy Statements (2004a) provides a brief summary of the type of
statements and wording needed for an acquisitions policy, and should be
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consulted when creating an acquisitions policy. Highlighted areas of collection
include geographical area, subject area, chronological period or genre/media of the
records, a deaccessioning policy, as well as details of any items that are held
elsewhere. All these elements are integral to an inclusive collections policy, a copy of
which when completed should be sent to The National Archives (The National
Archives, 2009a). A solid collections policy is a vital document, which helps an archive
deal with funding agencies, donors, administrators and archive users alike (Ramos and
Ortega, 2006). If the motives of an archive are questioned, the collections policy can
help defend the archives methods and procedures. It is an essential tool of any
archive, and The National Archive’s guidelines on how to complete this policy
successfully, are integral to the best practice procedures of any archive.
4.3.6 Access
As with acquisitions, there is much literature and strategy on access to archives.
However, much of this policy and strategy is unhelpful for the cathedral’s current
situation, which does not have the facilities or the standard of archive needed to
allow access to its collections. Access to archives is defined by Williams (2006), as
applying the following four key principles;
Table 3 – Williams’ Definitions of Access in Archives
Equity: to serve all users in a community, without discrimination.
Communication and Openness: to offer open, two-way communication
with your community and policies which are available for scrutiny and
comment.
Responsiveness: to respond effectively to comments and complaints;
review performance and make improvements; reflect views and interests
of stakeholders.
Effectiveness and efficiency: provide best value for money; seek innovation;
actively manage risk.
Williams (2006, p.131)
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These statements are an important aspect of access to archives, and are something
in which the archive at Sheffield cathedral should eventually aim to include within
its service. As stated previously however, the cathedral archive is currently in no
state to offer any kind of access to its service and collections, so for the purpose of
this objective, these methods of best practice are hypothetical for the moment, and
contingencies for the future, after the archive has developed enough to allow
access to its collections.
The National Archives Standard for Record Repositories (2004b) states that an
archive should provide a study area or reading room in which users can peruse the
archival collections. Regulations for access to the archives should be made public,
and details of opening hours should be readily available, with the archive service
accounting and considering the needs of the users of the service. Users should be
able to produce proof of identity before being allowed to view collections, with no
coats bags or pens allowed near the archive material in order to prevent damage or
potential theft of archival material (The National Archive, 2004b). Any reading room
should be supervised by a member of staff. All records available to the public
should be clearly catalogued and described, with finding aids in place and
compatible with international and national guidelines. Ideally facilities should be
available for photocopying with regard for copyright. Providing access to archival
collections is one of the fundamental goals of any archive (Ramos and Ortega,
2006), one which should be approached with caution. Above all, archival access, in
contrast with libraries, is not a right but a privilege, and protecting the collection is
more important than providing access. Therefore, in the case of Sheffield cathedral
archive, it is more important to ensure that the collection is well cared for, well
stored and maintained, than to allow users to view and use the collections, and
while it is a elemental aspect of an archival service to offer access, it is not a
priority, and should not be developed above other aspects of the archive service.
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4.4 OBJECTIVE III: EVALUATING THE GAP BETWEEN CURRENT PRACTICE AND THE
DESIRED STATE
4.4.1 Introduction
Benchmarking is an important part of evaluating an organisation and comparing the
organisation against the best competition available for analysis (Balm, 1996). Balm
(1996) sums up benchmarking as;
“...the ongoing activity of comparing one’s own process, practice,
product, or service against the best known similar activity so that
challenging but attainable goals can be set and a realistic course of
action implemented to efficiently become and remain best of the
best in a reasonable time.” (Balm, 1996).
Benchmarking is an excellent tool for gaining new ideas and also for trying to
ascertain exactly where an organisation is lacking, and attempt to find a way in
which to improve. This research project will attempt to use benchmarking methods
such as gap analysis in order to determine how far Sheffield cathedral archive is
from its desire state, as a well functioning archive.
4.4.2 Gap Analysis
Gap analysis is conventionally used for management purposes, in conjunction with
service quality analysis in order to assess how a user finds the service, and how this
service measures up against the ideal (Brown and Schwartz, 1998). This version of a
gap analysis takes a decidedly different approach, and instead uses a model devised
by Chambers and Wakley, 2006). This particular model asks two key questions, the
first being “Where are we now?” and the second, “Where do you want to be?”
(Chambers and Wakley, 2006, 2), and while this approach was initially devised for
the NHS for implementing self-care for patients, the same techniques can be used
for assessing the current situation at the cathedral archive. Instead of focusing on
the service, which as stated before, is the main goal of much of the management
related literature on gap analysis (Headley and Choi, 1992), which offers a statistical
analytical approach. This model however, serves as an action plan, in which the
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current performance of the physical archive is assessed against the desired future
position, as opposed to the service it provides, and details the actions needed to
reach the desired position (Chambers and Wakley, 2006). The gap analysis (Table 4)
then, alongside reflective research reports on both Sheffield cathedral archive and
Durham cathedral archive, which is itself a well-performing cathedral archive
service, can be used to assess and evaluate the current gap between what is
actually in place at the archive, and the desired future of the archive.
Based on the gap analysis diagram (Table 4) conducted for the purpose of this
research project, it can be assumed that Sheffield cathedral archive has a huge gap
to overcome before it can reach the ‘ideal’ archive service, outlined within Figure 3.
Sheffield cathedral archive also has a large path of progress necessary before it
reaches the level of Durham cathedral archive service, which for the purpose of this
research, has been outlined as a ‘good’ working archive model. Therefore, it can
clearly be identified that there is enormous progress needed before Sheffield
cathedral archive resembles in any way a ‘proper’ working archive. The main areas
identified within the gap analysis are the same as those identified earlier in the
SWOT analysis (Table 3), namely a lack of proper storage and containment for the
archive material, lack of an archivist and non-existent funding.
Durham cathedral archive has currently two archivists in place at the cathedral
(Appendix I) and the ideal archive has at least one qualified archivist in place
(Ramos and Ortega, 2006). Sheffield cathedral archive, as stated previously, has no
trained archivist and no money with which to employ one. This is an enormous gap
to close, as funding is needed in order for this to occur. There are steps that the
cathedral can take to partially close this gap, which will be explored more
thoroughly in the recommendations portion of this research project, as it is
important to devise a cohesive action plan, in order to close all gaps in the service
and show a commitment to the development of the service (Martensen and
Dahlgaard, 1999). However, volunteers can be utilised, through the cathedral’s
archive project in conjunction with the university to at least bring some sense of
order into the archive and its collections until more permanent measures can be
introduced.
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
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There is also a large gap concerning storage, both in the building and facilities used
to house the collection and with the materials used to package and contain the
archival collection itself. Sheffield cathedral archive storage is wholly unsatisfactory
for its purpose, with many failings, as previously identified within the SWOT analysis
conducted. The storage conditions are cramped, dirty, and damp in places, and
without proper ventilation. The facilities have been identified by members of the
university cathedral archive project as being unsuitable. A student states; “there are
no lights. It’s too small. Access is precarious. The environment is not conducive to
conservation” (Appendix III). Compared with the storage facilities at Durham
cathedral, which houses its archives in controlled and monitored environments,
with documents stored in archive quality boxes and folders, and on archive quality
shelving (Appendix I), which follows the ‘ideal’ standards of an archive, for example,
low temperatures with air movement, metal shelving, and low lighting (BS
5454:2000), Sheffield cathedral archive has a large gap to fill. Proper archival
storage is incredibly important to an archive store, and this is something that must
be rectified, or an attempt must be made to resolve this, as soon as possible.
Sheffield cathedral archive also has no displays or exhibition of its archive material.
Although this is not a necessary function of an archive, it is a successful way of
introducing the archive to the community, and promoting the archive material.
Durham cathedral archive displays items of the collection to visitors of the
cathedral in the cathedral library, which is left partially open at one side so that
visitors can view both the library and the archival material (Appendix I). Exhibiting
various items of the archival collection promotes awareness of the archive and
seeks to ‘inform, educate and entertain’ (Appendix III), others about the archive.
Sheffield cathedral archive also offers no access to its archive, due to the disrepair
of the archive and the lack of structure of the collections, as well as being unable to
find the space needed for a reading room for users of the archive.
The National Council on Archives Standard on Access to Archives (2008) states that
archives have a duty to provide access to their collection and should offer the public
a reading area, conform to health and safety measures, include proper finding aids
and be catalogued following archival standards. Durham cathedral offers all of
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these things as well as access to its collections both on site and remotely through
email enquiries and photocopies (Appendix I), with both a reading room and a
library for its users. Sheffield cathedral archive is presently unable to offer any of
these services, and therefore the gap between the ideal standards of access and
what Sheffield cathedral can offer is vast. The cathedral does not have the space to
offer these facilities, and the archive is in no state to offer access to users in its
current condition.
Rectifying these gaps will involve a long and drawn out process. Currently, Sheffield
cathedral archive is operating greatly below the ‘ideal’ archival practice, and
resolving these issues will involve both money and time. If the archive can gain
funding, it will give the archive an important monetary injection which could mean
that the archive could fix the storage facilities and employ an archivist, which would
benefit the cathedral archive immensely. Significant progress at Sheffield cathedral
archive is needed before it can provide access to its collections and before it can
fully adhere to standards set by archival bodies. However, no cathedral archive is
perfect, and even successful cathedral archives such as the archive at Durham have
their problems; Durham still has difficulties with finding funds to complete projects
and to employ staff (Appendix I). Essentially, an archive is a continuous work in
progress, and will need constant improvement to both the archive service and the
physical archive space. Identifying the gaps between the current archive, and where
the archive wishes to be is a useful process, as it gives the archive the knowledge of
how exactly to improve its service, and create action plans for future initiatives.
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
57
WHERE DOES THE CATHEDRAL ARCHIVE WANT TO BE?
The ideal archive, which Sheffield cathedral archive is striving for contains the following:
Staff: A trained archivist.
Storage facilities: Ample storage space, with documents and archival items stored in acid-free paper and boxes.
Free from direct sunlight, clean and free from dust, dry – with no less than 45-55% humidity (Ramos and Ortega, 2006).
Storage supplies should include: metal shelving, plastic clips, acid free: boxes, wrapping paper, folders and envelopes.
Exhibition Space: Display cabinets to exhibit parts of the collection.
Access to the Public: Space for a small reading room.
Collection fully inventoried and catalogued, with finding aids.
Equipment: Copying facilities, a workbench, brush or vacuum cleaner, fire extinguishers and detectors.
WHERE IS THE CATHEDRAL ARCHIVE NOW?
The current state of the cathedral archive is vastly different from the ideal situation. Which is as follows:
Staff: No trained archivist or information professional.
Storage Facilities: Severe lack of space, items placed on floor and are not contained within archive safe boxes or paper.
Current storage facility is dark, but with no way to let pass through. It is dirty, dusty and in places – damp. Temperature and humidity are not controlled or measured in any way.
Exhibition Space: The archive has no current exhibition space, and the material is in no fit state to be exhibited.
Access to the Public: There is no current access available to the public as the cathedral does not have a record of what is, and what is not, in the archive due to a lack of complete inventory.
There is no space for a reading room.
There is no equipment specifically for the archive.
Actions
1. Funding is critical in order to progress with
the development and the repair of the
archive.
2. The single most important item on the list
of improvements is for the storage facilities
to be cleaned, and for the items to be
placed within archive recommended
storage material.
3. A trained member of staff is needed, but
this will not be possible unless funding is
required; in the immediate future,
volunteers can be utilised in order to
continue with improvements to the service
THE GAP THAT NEEDS TO BE CLOSED
Table 4 – Gap Analysis. Model taken from: http://www.selfcareconnect.co.uk/uploads/self_care_toolkit/sc4pc_tools/Tool5.pdf
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
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4.5 OBJECTIVE IV: TO RECOMMEND A BEST PRACTICE STANDARD FOR
SHEFFIELD CATHEDRAL ARCHIVE
4.5.1 Introduction
The issues present at the Sheffield cathedral archive have been discussed in detail
throughout the course of this research project, and analysed through the use of
SWOT analysis and gap analysis, as well as identifying best practice present in
various archive policy and strategy. While these methods are an excellent starting
point for analysis, what methods such as the SWOT analysis and gap analysis do not
offer is a course of recommendation that can be implemented in order to improve
and develop the existing archive. Certain recommendations for the improvement
of the archive have a number of conditions attached, and the biggest condition is
that of funding. However, improvements to the service are also considered and
examined, which do not need funding in which to be executed. It is important to
establish ways in which the cathedral can progress with a small budget, as the harsh
reality of the archive sector is that many organisations and institutions are forced to
operate with a small budget, or experience regular budget cuts (Cassarchis, 1999).
4.5.2 Creating an Archive Policy for the Archive at Sheffield
Cathedral.
As stated previously in the best practice section of this research project, the archive
at Sheffield cathedral is currently without a clear and unified archival policy. The
cathedral has a basic archive policy (Appendix VI), but this policy is in no way
detailed or specific enough to act as a cohesive policy which can inform the archive
and the cathedral staff on the proper care of the collections, and the aims of the
archive. The current cathedral policy (Appendix VI) instead focuses on what archival
material should be kept and for how long, and what should be disposed of. While
this is useful, it should form only part of the completed policy, not be the focus of it.
The main archive policy, which is itself a strategic document (Williams, 2006),
should not be too detailed, and more comprehensive and thorough policies should
be developed for various aspects of an archival service, such as collections, access
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
59
and deaccessioning policies. However, the cathedral staff have identified that the
lack of a cohesive policy has a serious effect on the archives themselves. The
Reverend Canon Simon Cowling states;
“...there has been no policy, that’s what it amounts to. If you have a
policy, you have something to help you take care of it. If there is no
policy, there is no procedure as to what to do; they don’t know
what they have to do. They bundle it up until eventually it finds its
way into the tank downstairs. If you don’t have a policy, then you
have no idea how to care, and it is very difficult to find a way
forward. If the service doesn’t run on a Sunday morning, then I take
the hit, that is my role, but the archives have not been anybody’s
role, so have been left. There is no one to take accountability.”
(Appendix IV).
Lack of policy has left the archive at Sheffield cathedral at a distinct disadvantage.
It is of the utmost importance that the archive creates and develops a complete
archive policy, a template of which is included in Appendix V. This archive policy
outlines the archives goals, visions and mission statement, as well as including a
collection, access and deaccessioning policy. The archive needs this in order to
understand exactly what the role of the cathedral archive is, and the role in which
the cathedral staff play in the development and maintenance of the archive.
Therefore, it is highly recommended that new policy be developed.
It is advised, that the cathedral archive calls upon the expertise of both the
Information Studies department at Sheffield University, of which it has links with,
and also expertise from trained archivists at The National Archives, or Sheffield city
archives. As stated previously, The National Archive’s Standard for Record
Repositories notes that if an archive has no trained archivist in place it should
formally seek regular advice from a professionally qualified archivist in another
repository or from The National Archives (The National Archives, 2004b). This will
aid the cathedral in the creation of a solid archive policy which will not only
document the vision, the mission and the objectives of the cathedral and its
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
60
archive, but also qualify whose role within the cathedral it is to be responsible for
various aspects of the archive service. Unfortunately, without the aid of a trained
archivist, and without the funding to employ a qualified individual, the
responsibility falls on cathedral staff to ensure that the collections are maintained.
The original cathedral archive policy lists specific individuals in the employ of the
cathedral to take responsibility for ensuring that relevant material is retained within
the archive (Appendix VI), but while these individuals are held responsible for
ensuring this material is kept at the cathedral, they are not currently responsible for
ensuring that the material is cared for and preserved according to archival
standards. Therefore, it is recommended that an inspection takes place at regular
intervals, to ensure that the collections are being managed accordingly, which will
motivate the cathedral staff to ensure that the archival collections are not left to
fall into disrepair, which has been the case previously. The National Archive offers
an inspection service in which an inspection is carried out by a member of the
National Advisory Service staff (The National Archives, 2005), or the cathedral could
call upon an archivist or conservator at Sheffield city archives to inspect the archive.
For example, Durham cathedral archive undergoes regular inspections from one of
the universities conservators, to ensure that the collections in the cathedral archive
are being maintained to standard (Appendix I), which ensures that the collections
do not fall into disrepair through lack of care. While a complete inspection is not
recommended at this early stage, it would be useful at a later date to monitor the
progress and development of the archive, and to ensure that after the long process
of re-creating order to the archive and its collections, the collection is maintained,
and that the current state of the cathedral archives, which is one of disrepair, is not
allowed to return.
These inspections or visits from a trained professional, if implemented, should be
documented within the cathedral’s archival policy in order to ensure that the
commitment to development and maintenance of the collections is recognised and
acknowledged. A mission statement and core values of the archive should also be
developed in order to articulate the organisations purpose, business and value
(Williams, 2006). Having a clear mission statement and a core set of values,
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
61
alongside a strategic and structured archive policy can aid the archive in its pursuit
of funding. Funding agencies feel more secure in handing out funding to individuals
and organisations with identifiable aims and goals, all of which can be determined
from a strong archive policy, and additional policy documents (Cassarchis, 1999).
As mentioned previously, the archive policy is not the only policy document needed
for the archive. The archive policy should include a brief summary of its collections,
access and deaccessioning policy, but separate and more thorough policy
documents are needed (Williams, 2006). For the purpose of the current cathedral
archive, an access policy is perhaps not crucial at the moment, as the archive has no
means of offering access to its collections, and instead a collections and
deaccessioning policy are more relevant for the cathedral’s current needs,
especially with regards to the current inventorying of the cathedral collections
which is being conducted by the university archive. The lack of knowledge on what
to collect has been a problem of Sheffield cathedral archive, and has been
acknowledged by staff at the cathedral, who recognise the lack of collection aims
(Appendix IV). Appendix V details a template of the information needed for a
comprehensive collections policy which will allow for the cathedral archive to be
evaluated and ensure that it includes the materials best suited to the archive. A
collections policy or strategy is a practical and systematic plan for enhancing
collections (Williams, 2006). It is important to evaluate archives collections against
the acquisitions or collections policy in order to determine whether the current
collections adhere with the strategy or should be moved on to another archive or
disposed of completely. Collections policy gives a structure to an archive; it informs
what the archive collects and also why they collect. Although most small archives
and non-profit organisations acquire their collections more by accident than design
(Ramos and Ortega, 2006) through donations from the public, it is still important to
evaluate and be clear about the collection aims of an archive.
A deaccessioning policy is also recommended, as through the development of the
cathedral archive it will be necessary to remove certain items from the archive, and
it is important to have a clear rationale of why materials should be deaccessioned.
Deaccessioning can be a controversial practice (Ramos and Ortega, 2006), so it is
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
62
vital that the archive holds policy stating who is responsible for the decision to
remove items from the archive, and list criteria on why archival stock is being
removed from the archive, such as physical condition, collection development, or
the item not fitting with the archive’s collections policy (The National Archives,
2004b). All the above practices and policy implementations will ensure that the
cathedral archive is clearer on why it exists, and why it is important, and therefore
is a necessary procedure. Having clear policies in place will not only aid the
cathedral in maintaining and improving its collections, but will help inform future
staff at the cathedral archive, or any future archivist, if funding is achieved.
4.5.3 Using volunteers and utilising the link with Sheffield University
The archive does not currently have the funding to allow a trained archivist to work,
even on a part time basis at Sheffield cathedral archive. One possible option could
be that Sheffield cathedral share an archivist with another cathedral archive in the
area, in a similar financial position to Sheffield cathedral. There are many cathedral
archives within the Yorkshire region, such as in Bradford and Manchester, and this
could prove a successful way of gaining the employ of a qualified archivist, while
sharing the cost. Another method, identified by Reverend Canon Simon Cowling
was that an archivist could be employed part time to work in the archive, and
contribute to another aspect of the running of the cathedral for the rest of the time
(Appendix IV). However, all these options require additional funding, and if this
funding does not materialise, they are not viable options. Therefore, it is important
to establish other means of ensuring that the archive is developed and improved as
it should be. One way of doing this is for the cathedral to fully utilise the volunteers
from the University of Sheffield MA Librarianship archive project.
Volunteering has been used within heritage organisations for a considerable
amount of time. While volunteers are more common in museums, which have the
funds to organise and manage volunteers more effectively (Howlett et al., 2005),
there has been a steady increase in the use of volunteers in archives. Archives like
volunteers because it allows them to do things with their archives that they would
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
63
otherwise be unable to do (Howlett et al., 2005). In the case of Durham cathedral
archive, these are specific projects. The archive at Durham cathedral recently
underwent a cataloguing project in which the majority of the work was undertaken
by volunteers, under the guidance of a librarian (Appendix I). Volunteers help add
depth to the service, and also help the archive forge links with the community in
which it resides (Howlett, et al.2005). Although in the case of the cathedral, it is a
very specific aspect of the community, that of university students, but this
willingness to let people work on the collections is a positive step which can help
with creating access to the archive from the general public at a much later date.
However, the cathedral has voiced some concerns over the use of volunteers.
Reverend Canon Simon Cowling was keen to insist that;
“...there has to be a direct benefit for both the department of
information studies, for the particular cohort of students and for
the cathedral. That they aren’t seen to be doing jobs for the
cathedral simply because the cathedral doesn’t have the money to
do it themselves.” (Appendix IV, p.5)
This is a legitimate concern on behalf of the cathedral, as they do not wish to take
advantage of the volunteers or exploit them. This is a concern echoed by many
other archive services. For example, Sheffield city archive states firmly that
volunteers “that volunteers “...are used to develop added value services,
complementing and supporting the work undertaken by paid staff. “ (Sheffield Archives
and Local Studies Group, 2004, 2). However, volunteers taken from the MA
Librarianship course at the university and the cathedral archive benefit equally. The
Librarianship students gain useful and important experience of working with real
archive material and within a real archive (Appendix II), as well as gaining a practical
understanding of many of the issues within archives documented within textbooks.
Working within the archives provides the students with a working knowledge of
archives and the processes involved. The cathedral in return, gains the manpower,
under the guide of a trained information professional, Barbara Sen, project manager of
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
64
the cathedral project, needed in order to inventory its collections. Therefore, both the
cathedral and the volunteers receive equal payback.
However, these individuals could do more. And while the cathedral is concerned with
exploiting or taking advantage of these volunteers, there is much that could be
achieved through the use of them. It is difficult to take advantage of volunteers, as they
are under their own agency. Volunteers, through being unpaid, are free to turn down
tasks they find unpleasing, or volunteer less if they either do not wish to participate, or
lack the time (Howlett, 2002). This is a trend that has been found at Durham cathedral
archive. On a visit to the cathedral it was noted that,
“Alastair himself had reservations about using volunteers and
expressed that when their volunteers, which are usually local
history enthusiasts and retired academics, are sorting through and
cataloguing and inventorying material they are happy, but are less
willing to do jobs such as enquiry work or finding items requested
by users of the archive” (Appendix I).
Judging by these observations from Alastair, the archivist in charge at Durham
cathedral archive, it appears then, that because the volunteers are unpaid, they will
not do work in which they do not want to do. Therefore, the power then is
effectively in the hands of the volunteer, and the cathedral should not worry about
taking advantage of their volunteers.
In the future, the volunteers from the information department of the university
could be engaged to conduct various sub-projects, such as aiding in the creation of
a catalogue of archival items, or creating an online database to link both the
physical collections of the archive, with the cathedral’s digital records and
eventually, the collections in the care of the city archives (Appendix II). The
cathedral could also manage its volunteers more effectively. For the past year, and
the first year of the archive project, volunteers have been working freely, without a
great deal of support from the cathedral or from the university. Next year, for those
students taking the Librarianship MA in 2010/2011, there should be more guidance,
such as written procedures explaining the process of inventorying and cataloguing
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
65
the archive material, include regular updates the progress of the project, and a map
of each of the vaults. This way, if volunteers take some time off the project, they
can continue easily, without confusion, and without compromising the work that
has been done previously.
4.5.4 Creating preliminary access through exhibitions
As explained previously, the current archive at Sheffield cathedral is unable to offer
access to its collections, due to a lack of knowledge of the complete archival
holdings, and through a lack of space for a reading room or user area. However,
despite these constraints, it is possible to allow some semblance of access to the
archival collections to the general public, by displaying or exhibiting some of the
best preserved and most interesting items from the archival collection. Students on
the Sheffield cathedral archive project have previously identified that displays
would be an advantageous asset to the cathedral (Appendix III), and Simon Cowling,
the Reverend Canon at Sheffield cathedral expressed an interest in exhibiting items
from the collection, and highlighted this as a way to prove access (Appendix II).
Exhibiting or displaying archive material is indeed an excellent way of creating the
first steps to access at the cathedral archive. One of the mandates of The National
Council on Archives standard for access to archives, states that “The archive service
has open, effective two-way communications with its community” (National Council on
Archives, 2008). One of the first ways of introducing this ‘communication’ with the
community in terms of access is to display items of interest within the cathedral itself,
so that visitors to the cathedral can view a selection of the archives, without
compromising the rest of the archival collection.
While funding could help develop a separate exhibition space, the cathedral currently
has display cabinets which display the cathedral’s collection of silver (Appendix IV),
meaning that the cathedral could display some of the archive material without having
to negotiate funding. Tables can also be used in lieu of display cases, and facsimiles can
be utilised to avoid damaging the original items (Ramos and Ortega, 2006). The
cathedral has already identified items that could be of particular interest to visitors,
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
66
such as architect’s drawings of the cathedral (Appendix IV), which are of historical
interest. Displaying items from the cathedral archive helps establish a dialogue
between the cathedral and the community, and helps promote awareness that the
cathedral has an archival collection and that it is important. Ideally, the archive should
be promoted to the public. Currently the cathedral archive has no presence on the
cathedral website (Appendix IV), and after the collection is fully inventoried, this should
be rectified. Presently, the public are unaware that the cathedral has an archive.
Displaying the collections, and at a later date, promoting the archive on the cathedral
website, will help change this opinion. The potential exhibition of the cathedral archival
stock proved a predominantly positive action from those involved in the cathedral
archive project, stating; “there are some really nice things in the archives that we’ve
discovered, and it would bring more tourism to the cathedral, and possibly
encourage more donations” (Appendix III, p. 2). The idea of exhibiting the collection to
improve donations is an interesting one. Durham cathedral has a specific donation box
for its cathedral archives (Appendix II), something that could be implemented by
Sheffield cathedral, but only if the cathedral’s collections have increased visibility, an
aim that displaying the collections would achieve.
Essentially, increasing visibility of the cathedral archive is an important step for
Sheffield cathedral, and an exhibition appeals directly to the general public, and
promotes the archive subtly, in a manageable way, without requiring a great deal of
effort, or without needing a fully complete and working archive to do so. This then,
opens up the subject of access for the cathedral archive, and although the cathedral is
unable to offer any significant access to its collections, it is a start, and an obvious sign
that the cathedral is seeking to develop and improve its archive.
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
67
5.CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 CONCLUSIONS
The present state of the cathedral archive, and the development needed in order to
improve the service in order to turn Sheffield cathedral archive into a working
functioning archive is a long process, one which will take a number of years to
complete. The findings and the research documented within this research project
are merely a beginning point and a first step in the developmental process. There
are many ideas and possible scenarios that have not been explored throughout this
research, due to the project being at its initial stage of development, and instead,
offers analysis of the current situation, and early recommendations that will prove
useful at this beginning stage.
The SWOT analysis and gap analysis highlight areas of weakness within the
cathedral archive at Sheffield and opportunity is presented, especially with the use
of volunteers, exhibiting and displaying some of the collections to the public and
the search for funding. Utilising volunteers will help the cathedral maintain a steady
pace of work towards its eventual goals, whereas exhibiting some of the collections
to the public will slowly and subtly introduce access to the public without
compromising the collections. A structured and complete archive policy must be
developed also, to inform the improvements to the archive service and to ensure
that in the future, the cathedral is not left to decline again. However, much of the
proposed changes, such as changes to the storage facilities of the cathedral, require
funding, which the cathedral does not currently have, so opportunities for
fundraising must be sought out if the service is to advance.
Despite the problems that Sheffield cathedral archive currently faces with its
archive, there are many areas of improvement to be found, and many positives to
be taken from the current developmental project, the most important being the
willingness of the cathedral staff, and the strong partnership with the university, to
progress and move forward. The cathedral needs both the positive attitude from
the cathedral staff, and to continue to embrace its link with Sheffield University’s
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
68
information department in order to ensure that the cathedral archive’s
development project gathers momentum and is continued beyond this year.
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
69
5.2 FURTHER RECOMMENDATIONS
Although specific recommendations have been discussed previously during this
research project, there are still further recommendations to be raised. A significant
number of these recommendations depend upon funding being secured in order to
implement the necessary changes and improvements that the cathedral requires in
order to achieve something of a working archive. Currently the archive is not
functioning correctly, and this has been identified throughout the bulk of this
research project. If funding is achieved, and the cathedral project with the
university is continued on further and over a number of years, it may be useful to
again conduct another research project to determine how much the cathedral
archive has been bettered over this time and reanalyse the service using indicators
such as service quality analysis, gap analysis and SWOT analysis to determine how
much the service has improved over a period of time.
There are also a number of research projects that could be conducted in the future
from the development of the cathedral archives. There is certainly scope in the area
of digital and electronic access to the collections. Reverend Canon Simon Cowling
expressed interest in the idea of digitising various plans and items from the current
cathedral archive collection (Appendix III), and there is the opportunity to create an
online catalogue and inventory for the archival collections, both of which would be
interesting research projects and would be beneficial to the cathedral. This project
is hopefully only the beginning of the development of the cathedral archives, and
much work needs to be done in order to ensure that the archive eventually
becomes a functioning archive, and hopefully this work will be continued by both
the cathedral itself, and the university. Essentially the project must be continued, or
the effort that has been expended over the past year will be in vain, and the archive
will once again return to its former state.
20, 014 words in total.
Sheffield Cathedral Archive: Archival Management and Practice.
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7. Appendix 1. Reflective Research Report: Visiting Durham
Cathedral Archives.
On Tuesday August 3rd 2010, I visited Durham cathedral archive and library in order
to ascertain how an effective cathedral archival service is run. I spent an hour and a
half in the company of Alastair Fraser, the current acting librarian in charge at both
the cathedral library and the archive. Alastair Fraser is not employed by the
cathedral itself, but by the university, and he and his colleague Jonathan, have been
seconded over from the university to work on the cathedral library and archives for
the time being. They are currently the only permanent members of staff working
within the cathedral library and archives. The visit was not a formal one, with no
formal interview conducted, but despite this, I still gained a great deal of insight
into both the organisation and the management of the cathedral archive at
Durham. These are my reflections on my visit.
Durham cathedral archive is vastly different to that of Sheffield cathedral archive.
Durham cathedral was first established in 1093 and its archival holdings form the
largest existing archive at any cathedral in England. It has a large collection of
medieval manuscripts and the archive holds items from the 11th to the 20th century.
Sheffield cathedral in comparison is a relatively modern cathedral; reverting from a
parish church to cathedral status in 1914. Because of this, the collections at
Sheffield cathedral archive are in no way comparable to Durham. However, there is
much in the organisation of Durham cathedral archive, such as its reliance on
volunteers, its links with Durham University and the physical condition of its
archives, which make Durham cathedral archive worthy of study.
Links with Durham University
Not all of the cathedral archive collection is in the custody of Durham University.
The cathedral’s medieval manuscripts, its antiquarian collections and collection of
wills and property leases are in the care of the university and according to Alastair,
are well catalogued and inventoried. Alastair identified that the collections in the
care of the university are well looked after, but the collections that belong solely to
the cathedral are not as ordered, with a large backlog of material, such as
photographic material and the cathedral’s Bishop’s papers, are not catalogued or
inventoried, due to lack of resources and time.
The university has placed the medieval collection catalogue online, and it is
searchable through the Durham university library website, and recently
implemented a digitisation project, for which the cathedral received funding from
the university, to digitise their collection of wills, so that their collection is fully
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viewable online. Due to the success of this project, Alastair informed me that the
cathedral are attempting to gain funding for an additional project; to finally
implement an online catalogue for the cathedral’s collection of early printed books,
which currently only exists in paper form.
Alastair identified that the arrangement that Durham cathedral and Durham
university has left the cathedral in a very fortunate position, a position which he is
aware not many cathedral and religious archives have the pleasure of being in. He
identified the university’s involvement in the cathedral archives as being an
arrangement that is distinctly more beneficial to the cathedral than to the
university, but believes that the university are willing to work with the archive
because of the diversity and the historical importance of its holdings. Durham
cathedral is fortunate enough to have nearly one thousand years worth of archival
material, which is understandably valuable to the university.
Because of the university’s involvement with the cathedral library and archive, the
archival holdings are all properly conserved and cared for, stored correctly and to
The National Archives guidelines. The cathedral makes use of the university
conservators, and is inspected regularly by the university conservators to ensure
that the archive is maintained effectively. I was lucky enough to be shown around
the medieval collections and antiquarian collections in the archive. The medieval
collection is all boxed in acid- free boxes on metal storage shelves in a temperature
monitored room, raised up from the ground. I was informed that the collections
used to be housed on all four levels of the archive store, but have since been
rearranged to fill only the top two levels, due to risk of flood damage. The
antiquarian collection is housed slightly differently, with no temperature controls in
place, but stored in sturdy shelves away from direct sunlight. Alastair noted that the
storage facilities in place were the most important part of the university’s
involvement with the cathedral archive. He noted that while the digitisation and
cataloguing projects were useful, the correct storage and handling of the archival
collections was the single most important issue.
Volunteers and staffing of the archive
I was informed that despite the university’s involvement with the cathedral archive,
funding of the archive was still an issue, with limitations on staff, projects and
materials in place. Alastair told me that the university was looking to find a more
cost effective way of managing the archive, and were considering trying to find an
individual who not only had experience of religious archives and rare and early
printed books, but also museum pieces, as the cathedral archive has items of rare
stonework on display to the cathedral visitors within the cathedral. Alastair Fraser is
not himself, a trained archivist or qualified librarian, and instead identified himself
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as a historian, who first came to the university as part of an archival project in the
university archives, and stayed on to work as a librarian afterwards.
There is currently only two full time staff working in the cathedral archives, which
as I stated previously, have been seconded from the university library. There is a
further term-time only librarian, but the cathedral archive relies heavily on
volunteers to catalogue the backlog of material present within the archive. Alastair
himself had reservations about using volunteers and expressed that when their
volunteers, which are usually local history enthusiasts and retired academics, are
sorting through and cataloguing and inventorying material they are happy, but are
less willing to do jobs such as enquiry work or finding items requested by users of
the archive. Therefore, volunteers cannot be relied upon entirely to help fill the
gap in the cathedral archives resources. However, the sheer volume of visitors to
the archive, who wish to view the collections, means that the cathedral archive
staff is unable to catalogue their backlog of material. The archive also receives
donations, which means that the backlog is growing. Because of this, the
volunteers are necessary, despite the reservations that Alastair has about their
commitment. I was informed that the archive currently has a Dr Stanford as a
volunteer, who is cataloguing while compiling his own research, which is an unusual
situation for the archive.
Outreach and public access to the archive
The cathedral archive and the library are keen to promote public access to the
archive. The cathedral library and archive reading room is situated within the
cathedral itself, and visitors to the cathedral are welcome to come in and browse
the library, which is partially open on one side to visitors to make it more
accessible. During my visit there was a PhD student using material from the
medieval archive, as well as queries from local history enthusiasts and individuals
researching their family tree. Alastair also informed me that he does outreach in
schools in the area, bringing material from both the archives and the library into
schools so that the children are aware that the archive exists and the collections
available. Alastair, as a historian, is very knowledgeable on World War One and has
brought material into schools both from the cathedral archive and the university
archive to show history students. This surprised me, as I assumed that, especially as
the archive contains many valuable items, that they would wish to keep their
collections somewhat closed off, but Alastair told me that the greater the interest
in the stores and collections, the greater the opportunity for funding and
development of the archive.
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Final Thoughts
Overall I found my visit to the archive and my talk with the archivist in charge very
interesting and useful. I discovered that even religious archives such as Durham,
which I had highlighted as a well run cathedral archive, with a large budget, is
subject to lack of funds and staffing issues, a problem that is present on a much
larger scale at Sheffield cathedral archive. What I found interesting, was that, to
help with funding, the cathedral archive has a specific donation box for the archive,
in which people can contribute small amount of money when visiting. This is
something which could be utilised by Sheffield cathedral.
My visit to Durham cathedral has helped me identify a number of areas which could
help Sheffield cathedral archive, specifically with the case of volunteers. During my
time with Alastair, I spoke of the project in place with the cathedral and the
university and Sheffield, and he highlighted this as an excellent way to progress
forward. I also became aware of the importance of good, clean storage facilities,
something that is present within Durham cathedral archive, and needs to be
implemented at Sheffield cathedral archive. Ensuring that archive material is clean
and well stored, to prevent further damage is of the utmost importance and I am
grateful for the opportunity to view a well developed and functioning cathedral
archive in order to further my research.
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8. Appendix II. Reflective Research Report: My
Experiences of Sheffield Cathedral Archive
Over a six month period I have been participating in a project at the Sheffield
cathedral archive as an addition to the Archives and Record Management module
part of Sheffield University Librarianship MA. Over this period I have witnessed
first-hand the organisation of the cathedral archive and feel that my experiences
and observations during my time there are worthy of reflection.
I first visited the archive at Sheffield cathedral in January 2010, as an extracurricular
visit as part of the Archives and Records Management module I had taken as part of
my Masters degree at Sheffield University. I, Barbara Sen – the project coordinator,
and my fellow students, found the archive in a state of disrepair and neglect. The
cathedral archive was residing in a basement vault in the cathedral itself, and the
archive material was inadequately stored in a dirty, dusty environment. We were in
possession of an outdated inventory from 1997, and a brief cathedral archival
policy, and these scant tools where all we had to work from. We began then to
slowly re-catalogue the archive material, in order to create a new inventory and
catalogue of the items in the archive. Whilst cataloguing we provided as much
information on the archive material as we could find, including elements such as
damage and condition to the item, a full description of the item, as well as size,
type, where it was located in the archive, and any other notes on the item. Because
of this project I have had extended access to the cathedral archive, both the
documents and archival items, and the physical space in which the archive is
located.
The Physical Archive Space and Storage Facilities
The physical space in which the archive is stored is less than ideal. It is a dark
basement vault with shelving up both sides. Unfortunately, the vault is not big
enough for all the holdings, and some of the larger plans, paintings and folders are
placed on the floor, which is dirty. The vault is also down a set of steep, rather
precarious stairs, which make moving the larger archival items from the vault
difficult. The archive material is stored in non suitable boxes, and as a result, some
of the items, such as photographs, portraits and some books are damaged with
mould and some are ripped due to neglect. Some of the old bibles are also in a
state of disrepair, and are crumbling due to improper storage and maintenance.
Ideally, the archive should be housed in a much larger facility, raised up from the
ground floor, and easily accessible. The archive should be clean, and the archive
contents should be stored in acid free boxes and containers to stop further damage
to the cathedral’s collections. The collections themselves are not hugely valuable,
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but are an important tool in documenting the cathedral’s history, from its
establishment in 1914 and therefore must be cared for appropriately if this
historical information is to be kept for the future. At the moment, with the neglect
that has occurred, and if that neglect were to continue, the archives collections
would be in danger of severe deterioration. It is therefore essential, that even if the
archive itself is not moved from its current location, that the items are cleaned, the
archival space is cleaned, and the archival collection is placed in suitable containers
in order to stop any more potential damage to the collection.
Archivists and Volunteers
The archive has no formal archivist to oversee the day to day running and
maintenance of the cathedral archive. According to documents within the cathedral
archive, a series of letters to and from the archivist, there was an archivist in
employment at the cathedral from 1975-1991, and there is no evidence of any
formal management of the archives after that point. The archivist then, as well as
being responsible for the maintenance of the archive, as also responsible for
answering queries on Births, Deaths and Marriages from enquirers researching their
family history, searching through the registers for a nominal fee, and reporting back
on his findings. The last inventory of the cathedrals archival collections was
completed by a Mr. Brian Thornhill in 1999, which suggests that no collection
management or maintenance has been completed since that point. Sheffield
University has since provided its services and the services of its students to ensure
that the archives are managed and a proper inventory is produced.
The cathedral has a very limited budget, and there is certainly no room in the
budget for a full time trained archivist. Therefore it would be highly beneficial for
the cathedral to utilise as much voluntary work as possible. Creating links with the
University is a positive step, and one, due to the university’s Information Studies
department should be built up. The cathedral would benefit immensely from
volunteers from the Information Studies department of the university, especially
those on the Archives and Record Management course. This arrangement benefits
both the cathedral and the students, as the cathedral gets free labour, who under
the supervision of a project supervisor, would help maintain the archive, and the
students in turn have valuable work experience.
Organisation and Funding
On reflection, based on my personal experience, I would suggest that one of the
main problems with the cathedral archive, as well as lack of adequate staffing and
storage facilities, is the organisation of the archives. Without an archivist, it is
unclear as who has the responsibility of caring and looking after the archive. The
current staff are not trained to look after the archive, they are unaware of how to
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care for their archive, how important the archive is, and have no idea on what the
archives should acquire and what should be thrown away. Because of this lack of
knowledge, the archive is failing. This is not the fault of the staff however, as it is
difficult to both continue with their job role, and take on the additional task of
running and caring for an archive. Caring for an archive without adequate staff and
additional funding is a huge task, and it is unsurprising that the archive has fallen
into neglect.
Since the university project started, the university has helped the cathedral attempt
to bid for additional funding. Although unsuccessful at that point, it is important
that the cathedral keeps applying for funding opportunities. Hopefully, with the
backing and support of the project co-ordinator, Barbara Sen, the cathedral and the
university will continue to search for funding opportunities.
With adequate funding, the cathedral could perhaps afford to employ someone
part time to ensure that the archive is maintained properly. The cathedral is
however, investing in archival standard boxes and containers for its collections,
which will be vastly beneficial.
Final Reflections
The archive has many problems, and unfortunately not a great deal of positives as
the archive currently stands. Essentially, I would place the problems at Sheffield
cathedral archive into three main sections, namely, issues of storage, issues with
funding and issues with staffing. The storage problems are perhaps the easiest to
fix. While the cathedral vault is not ideal, it can be cleaned out; archive boxes can
be purchased to store the collection more effectively. Volunteers can be brought in
as they were this year, in order to ensure the archive keeps on progressing. The
biggest problem is funding – as the archive will never fully realise its potential
unless there is adequate funding available, as volunteers can only do so much. The
archive is very much a work in progress. However, there are positives to take away
from the archive. After years of neglect, the staff at the cathedral is attempting to
rectify the problems with their archive, and appear willing to attempt to implement
change. This is a positive step forward; the cathedral recognises that there is a
problem and are attempting to correct the lack of previous management, thus
making the process of change and repair much smoother, for both the cathedral
and the university, with whom the project is being operated. It is much easier to
identify and correct problems in an organisation that is receptive, than one which is
against change or does not understand why change is necessary.
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9. Appendix III: Survey Responses from Students on the
Cathedral Archive Project
Survey Response #1:
Access 1a. Do you think the cathedral is making the most out of their archival collections? Give reasons for your answer. Not at present. There is a lot of interesting stuff down there, but it’s just been dumped and ignored really. Also in the past they used to make some money from enquiries, but no longer. 1b. Do you think the cathedral would benefit from displaying their collections? Give reasons for your answer. Yes. I think they could create some quite interesting exhibitions, and this would encourage more people to come into the Cathedral for tourism purposes. 1c. Is the cathedral archive valued? What evidence do you have to support your answer? Not hugely. The fact that they have brought some volunteers in to try and sort it all out may indicate that they do value it a bit, however I received the impression that this was more due to legal requirements than actually wanting to make use of the archives.
Organisation
2a. What do you see as the main problem with the organisation of the cathedral archive? Er, there is no organisation. The fact that some of the objects aren’t catalogued means that they don’t even know what is down there – who knows what they could be missing. 2b. What could be done to improve the organisation of the archive? Completing the inventory is the first step. But then, oh loads of things. Too many to type.
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2c. If you could change or improve just one thing about the how the archive is organised or run, what would that be? Take everything out of that dank cellar and put it all somewhere where it could be properly conserved. Criminal neglect so far!
Storage and Arrangement
3a. Do you think the current storage facilities e.g. the cathedral vault, are adequate for the cathedrals archiving needs? No. There are no lights. It’s too small. Access is precarious. The environment is not conducive to conservation. Etc.
3b. What would you recommend to change or improve the storage facilities?
I think a totally new space is needed. The other archive room (I forget the name) is more
suitable – somewhere like that.
Survey Response #2
Access 1a. Do you think the cathedral is making the most out of their archival collections? Give reasons for your answer. Not at the moment, simply because no one knows what’s there and it can’t be accessed 1b. Do you think the cathedral would benefit from displaying their collections? Give reasons for your answer. Yes. There are some really nice things in the archives that we’ve discovered, and it would bring more tourism to the cathedral, and possibly encourage more donations. 1c. Is the cathedral archive valued? What evidence do you have to support your answer? Again, not at the moment because it’s been so disorganised. Clearly though there is an awareness that the collection has a value, hence the collaborative project with the university to bring some order to the archives.
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Organisation
2a. What do you see as the main problem with the organisation of the cathedral archive? A complete lack of cataloguing (until now). There is no awareness of what should be kept and what should be disposed of, and the storage of items is insufficient. 2b. What could be done to improve the organisation of the archive? A comprehensive cataloguing system to enable items to be found with ease. 2c. If you could change or improve just one thing about the how the archive is organised or run, what would that be? Ideally, there should be a member of staff in charge of the archive to make sure that, once an archive system has been implemented, it stays in order. However, there are insufficient funds for this. All staff members could therefore be educated in how to care for the archives.
Storage and Arrangement
3a. Do you think the current storage facilities e.g. the cathedral vault, are adequate for the cathedrals archiving needs? No. While there is obviously limited space available, the conditions are not good. There is no temperature or damp control. Also, it would be better if the archives were all in the same place rather than in separate locations.
3b. What would you recommend to change or improve the storage facilities?
It’s difficult to suggest anything that wouldn’t involve financial investment, which the
cathedral cannot afford at present. However, it would help if items were stored in folders
or envelopes to prevent unnecessary wear and tear. Also if they were kept together in
one place, ideally above ground!
Survey Response #3
Access
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1a. Do you think the cathedral is making the most out of their archival collections? Give reasons for your answer. In all honesty I’d say that they are definitely not making the most of their archival collections. I think my main reason for saying that is that the Cathedral simply has no real concept of what they have in their archive because it is not organised in any way. It seems that currently the archive is not used by anyone and so I think you can safely say that it is not being made the most of. 1b. Do you think the cathedral would benefit from displaying their collections? Give reasons for your answer. Possibly, although I am uncertain about this. Firstly I’m not sure that a great deal of the things that I have seen in the Cathedral archive so far would be tremendously interesting if put on display; there is nothing with seems to be very striking. However, there are some things which I am sure would be of interest to the religious community. Therefore creating a display of archive items within the Cathedral itself, might be beneficial. I think I struggle with the concept of beneficial because I instantly think of money and profit, and I don’t think that they could really generate any funds from displaying their collections. 1c. Is the cathedral archive valued? What evidence do you have to support your answer? It is, yes. To the extent that things have been retained in the archive over time and therefore they must have been seen to hold some value. Also, in requesting the help of the University to voluntarily assist with the project, there is an indication that the archive is valued by the Cathedral. However, on the whole, it perhaps isn’t valued. The reason behind this is that the collection is kept in inadequate storage, is not well cared for and is completely disorganised.
Organisation
2a. What do you see as the main problem with the organisation of the cathedral archive? There isn’t any! I think there needs to be some serious time and money invested into the archive. The problem is that there is no real form of management or organisation – either physically or on paper. 2b. What could be done to improve the organisation of the archive?
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Firstly, some funds need to be generated to invest in the archive. These would be best used to create adequate storage facilities – both in terms of an appropriate location and the correct kinds of storage boxes, etc. Furthermore I think that a professional archivist should be employed. Someone professional who can properly manage the collection and then the team of volunteers from the University could act as a support to the archivist’s work. Practically there needs to be a mass clear out of the items which need to go to Sheffield Archives and those which are simply just rubbish. Then the remaining collection needs to be put in a logical order and then for this organisational system to be captured electronically in a database. 2c. If you could change or improve just one thing about the how the archive is organised or run, what would that be? Probably employing an archivist would be the main thing I would do, as I feel that this would make the most improvement to the situation. However, I do appreciate that this might prove difficult in financial terms.
Storage and Arrangement
3a. Do you think the current storage facilities e.g. the cathedral vault, are adequate for the cathedrals archiving needs? No, to put it bluntly. It’s a hazardous environment for people to access – steep steps, low doorways, dust etc. So that’s the first problem really. However I also think that, in terms of the collection itself, things are not being adequately stored as there is no humidity or temperature control, and the space is very dusty and dirty. Not ideal for the preservation of archival materials, basically. 3b. What would you recommend to change or improve the storage facilities? Obviously the ideal would be a purpose built archive with good access and an appropriate
environment for these types of materials. However, I appreciate this might not be feasible.
Sending the collection offsite to a storage facility might be an option or working in
partnership with the Sheffield Archive. At a very basic level the storage facilities need to be
cleaned and organised. Adequate shelving and containers need to be added, and pathways
into the space need to be cleared.
Survey Response #4
Access 1a. Do you think the cathedral is making the most out of their archival collections? Give reasons for your answer.
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No, because they are rotting away in a vault at the moment and there is some really interesting and valuable stuff there that should be seen and used. However steps are being taken to address this. 1b. Do you think the cathedral would benefit from displaying their collections? Give reasons for your answer. Yes, because this would increase awareness of the collections among the general public and inform, educate and entertain. This would also attract more people to the cathedral generally, and increase appreciation of the collections. 1c. Is the cathedral archive valued? What evidence do you have to support your answer? Not generally, as it has been ignored and uncared for many years. However there is an indication that some people do value it and therefore steps are being taken to organise it and preserve it. So far it has been neglected in favour of other aspects of the running of the cathedral.
Organisation
2a. What do you see as the main problem with the organisation of the cathedral archive? At the moment, it isn’t organised at all and anyone looking for anything would probably not be able to find it. 2b. What could be done to improve the organisation of the archive? Cataloguing it would certainly help, and that would happen at the moment. Ideally there should be an online catalogue as well as a paper one, and there should really be a specific storage area for the archives which are temperature controlled and have appropriate boxes etc to store the archives in, so that things can be easily found. 2c. If you could change or improve just one thing about the how the archive is organised or run, what would that be? Ideally there should be one specific person, preferably professionally qualified, who is responsible for the archives (rather a big thing!)
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Storage and Arrangement
3a. Do you think the current storage facilities e.g. the cathedral vault, are adequate for the cathedrals archiving needs? No, they are damp, dusty, difficult to get to, hard to manoeuvre around and are generally a bit rubbish. 3b. What would you recommend to change or improve the storage facilities? Move them to somewhere that is easier to access and easier to implement temperature controls in. Somewhere with shelves, and there should be appropriate boxes to store the archival material.
Survey Response #5
Access 1a. Do you think the cathedral is making the most out of their archival collections? Give reasons for your answer. No, at the moment they are hidden away with the cathedral actually having no idea what is in them. They are however getting better, and are starting to realise that there is a lot of useful information down there and consequently a project is going ahead to catalogue the contents of the archive 1b. Do you think the cathedral would benefit from displaying their collections? Give reasons for your answer. Yes, people are more likely to notice them. They are also more likely to learn from them, as they will encounter information that they were not necessarily looking for. 1c. Is the cathedral archive valued? What evidence do you have to support your answer? I think it is valued now, as the cathedral is doing something about getting the archive contents catalogued so they can do things with it, like displays mentioned in the previous question. I think it perhaps wasn’t previously valued, as they let it get into a state and seemed to put anything down there in any order.
Organisation
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2a. What do you see as the main problem with the organisation of the cathedral archive? We have no idea what is actually down there. Due to this unknown quantity it is making it difficult to put into categories. 2b. What could be done to improve the organisation of the archive? I could have been catalogued from the word go! Otherwise a bit more space would make it easier to see what is actually in the archive 2c. If you could change or improve just one thing about the how the archive is organised or run, what would that be? Eventually (when all cataloguing is done) an online system would be good, but it would have to be simple, as the staff at the cathedral have said they are not very computer literate.
Storage and Arrangement
3a. Do you think the current storage facilities e.g. the cathedral vault, are adequate for the cathedrals archiving needs? I think the vault in the building is ok, though the stairs are very steep to get down to it. This is sealed properly, though it is not very big. The other area is got to from outside the cathedral and there was a leak, but this has now been dealt with and better conditions put in place. So now, other than lack of space, I think the storage is adequate. 3b. What would you recommend to change or improve the storage facilities? I would recommend, rather than new storage facilities, someone that is able to look after the collection. Otherwise, books will need to be bought and possible better shelving, but these changes are already going to be taken place.
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10. Appendix IV: Interview Transcript:
Sheffield Cathedral
Interviewer: Right, let me just find my questions, and we’ll begin. Shuffles papers.
First of all, do you think it is important for the cathedral to have a fully working
archive? Respondent: I do, um, which is one of the reasons why we’re pleased to be in
partnership with the university department. Because we’ve no functioning archive
at all, which you’ve probably come across with your own work here.
Interviewer: Yeah. Do you think your archives actually have value? I can explain
what I mean by value if you would like.
Respondent: Well, I mean, I know what I understand that to mean...
Interviewer: (Interjects) What do you understand that to mean?
Respondent: Well uh, we are by some stretch the oldest building in the city, um,
there are all sorts of ways, in which that means such as the role that, it’s
incalculable really. Um, I understand archives very broadly, to me, er, historical
records based on paper, and also special artefacts, which helps document the
history of the building. And there is a lot of material, particularly material relating
to the, um, the second decade of the twentieth century, when Sheffield became a
cathedral, which should be available in our archive probably, ah, that material
would give future generations, um, the opportunity to look at quite an important
period in the history of the church, um, cathedral.
Interviewer: What do you perceive as being the biggest barrier to having a fully
operational archive?
Respondent: Well two things really, well one thing really, money, but that splits
down into two complimentary areas, one we don’t have a dedicated member of
staff who is able to take it on as a project, and essentially we haven’t enough space.
There’s those two things, and the second action is probably more important than
the first. If we had space, we could at least put the archive safely in a dry, and
temperature controlled condition, awaiting the moment where we could start to
[unintelligible].
Interviewer: Are there any plans to move the collection, because I know that the
place where it is at the moment isn’t exactly ideal.
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Respondent: Um, where it is now is actually no use whatsoever really (laughs).
There are plans; we have um, at the moment, major plans to refurbish the
cathedral *unintelligible+ and as part of that we’re hoping provide dedicated space
for um, materials of importance in the archive, but that is dependent on an HLF bid
and we won’t hear about that until September.
Interviewer: Um, are you taking any steps at all to try and remove any of those
barriers within the archive? I know you just mentioned funding.
Respondent: Well, the HLF bid is inclusive of this, that will provide us with space,
but it won’t provide us with a, um, the funding for ah, an archivist or equivalent
person. Which is why I think our partnership with the university is so important,
and actually is an interim measure, which I think provides a measure of synergy,
without a doubt it’s very helpful for us, but it’s also helpful for the department as it
gives an ongoing partnership between us and the university, well I hope it’s as
useful for the university as it is for us (laughs).
Interviewer: What do you envision for the future of the archive?
Respondent: Well ideally, we would have, um well, two things I think, a space for
exhibitions, exhibitions that would allow people to access helpful and relevant
information about the building, which is very important to the city, so there might
for instance be an exhibition about the plans that [unintelligible] had to re-
orientate the whole building on its axis, in the period between the two wars. There
is an incredible amount of archive material. Our archive seems to be very good with
architectural drawings, so a space for exhibitions of that sort, as well as a space
where material that is relevant could be stored. So that’s one development. The
other development is the employment of someone, almost certainly part time, who
would maybe combine with another role in the cathedral, such as a litigation
officer, to oversee the archive. I think an also important thing for us to do is to
make sure that we are completely materials there are at Shoreham Street, um...
Interviewer: And that’s the Sheffield city archive?
Respondent: Yes, that is the Sheffield city archive, and there is a lot of material
down there, um, some of which have to be there by statute, copies of marriage
certificates and so on, but some of it is there because it was the best place for it.
And having a complete picture of what is there and what is here is very important.
We’re part way there to be honest, in knowing what is there. But as far as I’m
aware some of the collection at Shoreham Street hasn’t been fully catalogued, and
I’m not even sure what the state of the collection is down there.
Interviewer: What does the archive aim to collect?
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Respondent: Well, that actually is one of the issues we face, I’m not sure we have a
set of aims. There is a policy, a document retention policy that the cathedral has.
Interviewer: Is that the Keep it, Bin it guide?
Respondent: No, the document retention policy is something which the cathedral
chaplain has agreed. I think Barbara Sen has a copy of that but I could send it to
you.
Interviewer: That would be great, yeah.
Respondent: That would give you an indication of what we think is important to
keep, but is by no means an archive policy. It’s about documents, and of course
archives are more than just documents.
Interviewer: Is there anything specifically that the cathedral doesn’t wish to collect,
that you don’t think is necessary for the archive collections?
Respondent: Um, well again, um, because we have no archive policy as such, I’m
afraid this is a difficult question to answer. I mean, I would guess ephemera. I don’t
think we would consider retaining for instance our weekly newssheet, which is
published each Sunday. And that is something that I would regard as a piece of
ephemera. However actually, as we know from people’s interest in newspapers
from the day they were born, that is a present that people get sometimes,
ephemera can sometimes be really interesting actually. And there is also the
question, which you might touch on later, about, um, well the advent of
digitisation; what do you retain electronically, and what do you retain in hard copy?
Um, and that’s something again that we need to be careful about. And if we retain
it digitally and not in hard copy, would format are we retaining it in [unintelligible].
Interviewer: Do you know if there is anything specifically that passes straight to the
city archives, or to the diocesan record office/town hall?
Respondent: The only thing that I’m aware in the statute that we’re obliged to pass
on, we need two copies of the marriages, deaths and births, when a marriage
register is full, the cathedral retains one and one goes to the council archive. As far
as those documents such as baptism registers, I’m not sure if this is entirely
accurate, it may need to be checked, but I think we retain them for, I think if they’re
a hundred years old they go to the city archives, but whether that remains to the
first entry or to the last entry I’m not sure. If the baptism register spans from 1900
to 1925, do you send it in 2000 or 2025? I don’t know, but that’s about all.
Interviewer: Were you aware that the archive previously did have an archivist?
Respondent: No?
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Interviewer: Yes, we found some papers in the archive that suggest there was an
archivist named Robert Stafford in place from 1975-1991.
Respondent: But not full time?
Interviewer: We don’t know, all we have are the letters, I just wondered if you were
aware that previously there was a budget for an archivist of some description.
Respondent: No I wasn’t.
Interviewer: Would this be a priority, obviously if funding permits that you would
like to see again at the cathedral, even perhaps as a job share with another
cathedral in a similar financial situation to yourselves?
Respondent: Yeah it would, I mean, it’s pretty unlikely that we would ever be able
to afford a full time archivist, so either it would have to be somebody who would
have another role at the cathedral or as you mentioned, somebody who would
have a shared role within another cathedral, but even that would involve funding.
Interviewer: Do you think that the general public are at all aware that there is an
archive within the cathedral?
Respondent: No, no, no. Many members of the public aren’t even aware that the
cathedral exists (laughs). But it’s like the flip of a coin, you talk to people who have
lived in Sheffield for a long time who may use the tram which has a stop named
‘cathedral’ who aren’t aware of what this building is.
Interviewer: Um, would you like to be able to offer more access to the public?
Respondent: Yes, although I’m not sure that our archive is interesting enough to
attract huge numbers. But what I do think we could do is provide exhibition space,
which I’ve referred to a number of times now. And if people are interested in the
history of their locality, in their cathedral or parish church as it was before the First
World War, and perhaps significant places within Sheffield.
Interviewer: Do you think the cathedral will ever have the facilities to allow the
general public in to view archive material, such as a reading room?
Respondent: Well ideally, the HLF bid will include a dedicated space where that
could happen, so yes ideally, is the answer to that question, but whether or not it
will ever happen or not is another thing entirely.
Interviewer: Touching on the subject of exhibitions again, what do you think, out of
the cathedral archives, would you most like to exhibit, and have you ever thought
about getting a display cabinet and displaying some things in the cathedral itself to
promote awareness of the archive?
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Respondent: Well we do currently have cabinets within the cathedral that currently
display the cathedral silver, near the gallery, and that I guess could be used to
display archival material as well. They’re pretty good display cases. What I think is
the most interesting period in the cathedral’s history, is the twentieth century,
partly because that’s when the parish church became a cathedral, and partly
because there are two significant architects. The cathedral has to have an architect
under statute, and we had two significant architects in the twentieth century, one
was Charles Nicholson and the other was George Pace. They both did a lot of work
in Sheffield with the architect for the construction of [unintelligible]. After the war
he, the architect for the chaplain... so Nicholson and Page had grand plans for the
cathedral, and I think a permanent exhibition of that period of property during the
1930s and 1940s would be really interesting. These architects worked significantly
to improve, adorn and um, beautify the cathedral.
Interviewer: Regarding your links with the university now, how did that actually
come about?
Respondent: I had a conversation with the cathedral archaeologist; again, like the
architects, the cathedral must have an archaeologist by statute, which in our case
means very little as there is not much archaeology in the building, and I said, I asked
him about the possibility of linking up with the university department, initially I was
thinking in terms of a department of librarianship or something like that, but
Sheffield doesn’t have one of those.
Interviewer: No, it’s the department of information studies.
Respondent: Yes, the information studies department. So I consulted another
colleague on, who was the chaplain of the university, and he said it would be the
department of information studies at Sheffield, and I just contacted, actually I think
I contacted Barbara direct, I just flew a kite, and it was great. So far it’s been really
really helpful.
Interviewer: Do you think it’s an important link for the cathedral to have?
Respondent: Well yes, specifically for this, and we do have more general links with
the university through the summer arts festival, and an outreach project that we
handle, so this is kind of a third way of linking together, and we’re hoping in the
future to link in through volunteering, um, I mean I think there’s huge opportunities
for development and partnership.
Interviewer: I know this is the first year that this specific cathedral project has run;
would you like to see this built up in the future and for more volunteers from the
information studies department continuing to work with the archive?
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Respondent: Well I think there are different kinds of projects from the one that
we’ve got at the moment. What I’m very keen on, and what I’ve said to Barbara, is
that we don’t, is that we’re not seen to be exploiting students, in other words there
has to be a direct benefit for both the department of information studies, for the
particular cohort of students and for the cathedral. That they aren’t seen to be
doing jobs for the cathedral simply because the cathedral doesn’t have the money
to do it themselves. So in that sense, we are a resource for the department of
information studies, as well as being a place that has the opportunity to have
something done, which we couldn’t afford otherwise.
Interviewer: How successful do you think it’s been?
Respondent: I think it’s been very successful actually. I think there’s a lot that
needs done, but what I think that it has shown, is that the project is huge, and as
Barbara said to me a few months ago, is that this project isn’t a yearlong project,
there is much more to do than that.
Interviewer: Have you thought about making the archive a presence on the actual
cathedral website?
Respondent: No, no we haven’t. That’s not to say that we wouldn’t, but that again
is related to other things. We don’t have the time or the expertise to do something
like that. Now that actually might in the future be a task that would be part of a
dissertation project.
Interviewer: We were talking about digitisation and electronic media before, is
there anything that you think would be useful to keep records of electronically?
Respondent: Well we keep most things electronically. I think it would be helpful to
digitise, such as some of the more significant architectural drawings that I was
talking about earlier, as I doubt they are on acid free paper and will therefore
deteriorate, so to get those digitised, preferably in PDF format would be really
helpful.
Interviewer: Electronic catalogues for archives are becoming more prominent,
would you like to have an online inventory or database of the archival collections
available?
Respondent: Yes, I mean I think that would be very useful assuming there were
good search engines added to them for easy location and searching. Let’s take an
example, very often; collected memory within the institution is only as good as the
person who has been there the longest, and in an institution like this it’s rarely
more than about twenty years. So you can find yourself talking to someone in the
chapter, having a discussion about something which may have been discussed
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previously, and which may have been implemented previously. Being able to
access an electronic database that had all previous chapter papers and everything,
especially those from over twenty years ago would be incredibly useful.
Interviewer: And of course there is the opportunity to combine all your electronic
information, and your paper based information, your archives and the archival
collection which is down at Shoreham Street into an easily manageable format.
Respondent: Yes of course, because we keep everything electronic now, it would be
easy to add to that. And merging paper based archives with electronic archives...
yes that would be absolutely fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. Every day that would
transform our ability to maintain and grow.
Interviewer: Again this is related to the website, which I know isn’t a major priority,
but have you ever thought about putting your inventory, when it is finally
completed, up on the cathedral website, so that people can see what is actually
being held at the cathedral archive?
Respondent: Again we haven’t thought about that, and that isn’t because it isn’t a
good idea, but the website is actually being refurb’d at the moment, we’re
launching a new website in September, and it would be at that point I guess that we
would possibly consider it, possibly after six months we would think, well what else
could we do?
Interviewer: Returning to the archive storage facilities, what would you say is the
major flaw with where the archival material is currently being kept?
Respondent: Where should I start? (Laughs) Well, there are two major locations,
one which you will probably be aware of yourself from your work within the
archive, the one under the *intelligible+ chapel, there is no light, it’s dusty, dirty, and
storage is a problem as there are no boxes for anything. The ‘tank’ as we call it, in
the undercroft, is damp, and full of dust, again not very adequate lighting, there is
no space to move around
Interviewer: Do you think it’s a shame the way that some of the archival material
has been damaged due to neglect?
Respondent: Yes, although I don’t think the neglect is deliberate, but it is real
nonetheless.
Interviewer: What do you think are the reasons that the archive has fallen out of
commission in recent years?
Respondent: Well there has been no policy, that’s what it amounts to. If you have a
policy, you have something to help you take care of it. If there is no policy, there is
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no procedure as to what to do; they don’t know what they have to do. They bundle
it up until eventually it finds its way into the tank downstairs. If you don’t have a
policy, then you have no idea how to care, and it is very difficult to find a way
forward. If the service doesn’t run on a Sunday morning, then I take the hit, that is
my role, but the archives have not been anybody’s role, so have been left. There is
no one to take accountability.
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11. Appendix V: `Archives Policy Template Model taken from Ramos and Ortega, 2006, p. 115-116.
A) Vision statement
B) Core mission statement
C) Goals
D) Objectives
E) Collection policy
(a) Purpose
(b) User community (list current and future users)
(c) Scope of coverage (list subject areas, geographical area, languages,
chronological limits, date of publication types of materials, exclusions)
(d) Cooperative collection development (any policies/agreements with
other departments that share the collection)
(e) Statements concerning resource sharing (policies/agreements with
other similar institutions)
(f) Summary of acquisitions/donation policy
(g) Summary of access policy
(h) Summary of deaccessioning policy
(i) Collections housed in archives (list location of collections if placed in
more than one room or building
(j) Procedures for reviewing collection development policy
F. Acquisitions/donation policy
G. Access policy
H. Deaccessioning policy
I. Organisational chart.
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12. Appendix VI: Cathedral Archive Policy
COR06/07
The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Paul in Sheffield
CATHEDRAL ARCHIVE POLICY
1. Introduction
1.1 Proper storage, alongside quality of paper, is crucial.
1.2 Preserve Important material which need not be kept
permanently on site. It is acceptable to deposit originals and
keep photocopies for Cathedral use.
1.3 Destroy Ephemeral material which can be discarded
once its purpose has been served. Do not destroy if there is
any possibility that the document may be required as
evidence, e.g. child protection, personnel and, financial
documents.
1.4 Review/Sample
Material where a proportion needs to be kept, either by
reviewing its value after an agreed period, or by taking a
sample to preserve at the Diocesan Archives.
1.5 Completion It is defined as the time when the
whole document ceased to be current, e.g. when the work is
finished and paid for; when the registers/terrier etc has been
replaced.
1.6 Underlined Names
The names underlined are the key persons responsible for
the action of preserving, destroying reviewing and
completing the archive policy.
2. Types of Paper
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2.1 Avoid newspaper, poor quality wood-pulp or any high acidic content.
As far as possible good quality ink should be used for signatures and
notes. Recycled paper will not be used for official documents. Cheap
brown paper or envelopes will not be used.
3. Computer Storage
3.1 Computer generated data will be copied to a CD. Little
research and agreement is available regarding the length of time
data will remain on discs and CD. Manufactures say, ‘a very long
time’. Therefore, it is recommended a paper back up of data is
stored alongside CD copies of computer information. The Finance
Officer is skilled and responsible in maintaining the Cathedral server.
The maintenance of good back-up procedures and practice will be
communicated to all personnel every three months. [Persons
Responsible: Finance Officer and all Staff].
3.2 The cathedral utilises the W File on the server, which includes
maintenance, administrative information and finance, for the sharing
of necessary data. This file will be updated every three months.
[Persons Responsible: The Finance Officer and Dean’s Clerk.
4. Old Service Books
4.1 Altar editions of the Book of Common Prayer, Alternative Service
Book will be stored in perpetuity. [Person Responsible: Head Verger]
5. Order to Services
5.1 These will be of interest to historians and future staff.
5.2 Red service files of annual services will be preserved on site for 2
years. These files are used as reference for a period of previous 2 years
when planning a current service. Also, enthronement services for Bishops
and installations of Deans and clergy licenses will be preserved for 5 years
on site and then reviewed. [Person Responsible: Precentor]
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5.3 Red service to be preserved on site for 4 years for individual services,
i.e. those that occur again in some form. Files to be destroyed after review.
[Person Responsible: Precentor].
5.4 A printed copy of the yearly cathedral diary will be preserved for 5
years on site then preserved in perpetuity in the Diocesan Archives. [Person
Responsible: Head Verger and Administrative staff]
5.5 Information of the history of HMS Sheffield, York and Lancashire
Regiments, chapels etc. To be preserved on site for 7 years and then in
perpetuity at the Diocesan Archives. [Person Responsible: The Precentor
and administrative staff.
6. Public Notice Sheets
6.1 Cathedral magazines, visitors and incident books, and weekly notice
sheets will be preserved, preferably in bound files or archive boxes for 7
years. After review, destroyed or preserved at the Diocesan Archives for 40
years. [Person Responsible: Head Verger and Administrative staff].
7. The Terrier: Inventory and Logbook
7.1 Church Wardens will, in consultation with the Precentor and Fabric
Advisory Committee, compile and maintain the terrier, inventory and
logbook of the cathedral. They will record details of alterations, additions
and repairs to buildings, artefacts and land belonging to the cathedral. All
faculties, with accompanying papers, photographs, plans drawing,
correspondence and accounts relating to major repairs of alterations will be
preserved for 7 years, and then preserved in perpetuity at the Diocesan
Archive. [Person Responsible: Church Wardens].
8. Cathedral Administration
8.1 all minutes of Chapter and sub committees, Cathedral Community
Committee, Cathedral Friends, Cathedral Council, College of Canons
meetings, and Fabric Advisory Committee will be preserved on site for 5
years, and then preserved in perpetuity at the Diocesan Archives. The
Cathedral Statutes and Policy Documents will be preserved on site in
perpetuity. These will not be stored with ring binders. They will be kept in
properly bound volumes or kept in an archival box. Pages and boxes should
be numbered and dated consecutively. [Person Responsible: The Dean’s Clerk+
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8.2 Routine Cathedral administration does not need to be preserved, but
letters and reports relating to major building, and other, developments in
the cathedral will be retained for a minimum of 7 years, and then reviewed
by the Administrator. [Person Responsible: The Administrator]
8.3 Baptism and Banns application forms will be destroyed after one
year. [Person Responsible: Canon Pastor]
9. Electoral Role
9.1 Copies of the Electoral Roll and Cathedral audits will be preserved in
perpetuity. [Person Responsible: Canon Pastor]
10. Vacancy and Appointments
10.1 The cathedral profiles, written in preparation for the appointment of
a new Dean, in consultation with the Archdeacon and Bishop, and any other
information relating to a vacancy and appointment of a new Dean will be
preserved on site for 7 years and then preserved at the Diocesan Archives in
perpetuity. [Person Responsible: The Dean and Dean’s Clerk.
11. Personnel
All personal files of previous members of staff to be preserved on site for 7
years, then preserved in perpetuity after review. [Person Responsible: The Dean
and Administrator]
All personal files on current staff to be preserved on site for 7 years after
employment ceases, and then reviewed. . [Person Responsible: The Dean and
Administrator]
The Dean’s documentation on confidential staff matters e.g. child protection to
be preserved for 7 years, and then in perpetuity on site after review by the
Dean. [Person Responsible: The Dean].
Correspondence with the Church Burgesses Trust relating to key decisions on
the building, policy or memorandum preserved on site for 5 years, and then
reviewed. [Person Responsible: The Dean, Dean’s Clerk and Administrator].
12. Finance
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12.1 The cathedral will generate a great deal of financial information. The
Annual Accounts of the cathedral funds will be preserved in perpetuity. Cash
records, bank statements, wage records and routine correspondence will be
preserved on site for 7 years after the end of the covenant, and then
preserved at the Diocesan Archive in perpetuity. [Persons Responsible: The
Finance Officer and Chapter Treasurer]
13. The Development Project
13.1 The minutes, policies, letters, reports, financial and bank statements,
and plans, relating to the building of the Community Resources Centre, will
be stored on site until the end of 2022, and then at the Diocesan Archives in
perpetuity. All documents, which also includes legacy agreements and
covenants will be bound or stored in archive boxes. No metal ring-binders
will be used to store documents. All computer information relating to the
Development Project and Community Resources Centre will be stored on
CD, accompanied by printed copies of all information. The archive
documents will be printed on good quality paper and stored in an
adequately ventilated room to prevent deterioration. [Persons Responsible:
The Marketing and Fund Raising Manager].
June 2006
[4th Draft 07 June 2006]
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