Appendices

General Principles

• The format of an item (i.e. whether paper or digital) should not influence the decision, which should be based purely on the information it contains.
• There should no distinction between users, i.e. between academic researcher and a member of the public who is simply curious to find out more. If restrictions on access to certain materials are created, there should be documentation detailing why the distinction has been made and how this will be managed.
• Help from colleagues from the delivery, creative and monitoring and evaluation teams will be needed to identify material of business/commercial sensitivity.
• Items that contain sensitive information as defined by Data Protection legislation should be appropriately documented.
• Any items with restrictions placed on the re-use or reproduction (e.g. copyright) need to be identified so that the necessary permission holder can be clearly identified by the individuals looking at the information or archival catalogue.
• It is quite common for educational use to be granted at the discretion of the archive service but publication permission only granted by the rights holder; this distinction should be articulated to all relevant parties, including archive service users.

It is important to engage colleagues from the delivery and creative teams about providing access to material in the archive once it has been catalogued. It might be useful to talk about four different categories of access:

• Level 1 – Not worth retaining – documents might include drafts of press releases, correspondence relating to travel arrangements etc that have no legal, evidential or historical value.
• Level 2 – Retain and immediately available to the public – documents might include press releases, published videos, programmes, leaflets (Items that are not likely to have any sensitive content). Adopting a broad approach assuming we cannot physically check each individual document.
• Level 3 – Retain with public access at a point in the future – documents might include minutes (which will made accessible after an agreed number of years), contracts, emails from senior team members. Access determined by meeting type rather than on a meeting-by-meeting basis.
• Level 4 – Retain with no public access at any point in the future.

Ask colleagues from the delivery/creative teams to identify which level (giving them the level name and title only) they think is appropriate for different types of material they have created or received.

The purpose of this exercise is to recognise that some material is already in the public domain so shouldn’t be closed and that some items can be shared after an agreed time. It also seeks to create a dialogue about material they think should never be made accessible (i.e. under Level 4). Discussing why they think this should be the case and talk about the role of an archive service to preserve and provide access to material. Items falling within level 4 should not be placed into the archive if there is no prospect of access.

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In Hull the idea of collecting material during the City of Culture year to enable a retrospective exhibition to be held in 2027 was quickly understood by the creative team as they were actively commissioning exhibitions as part of the programme. Conversations then sought to identify a mix of items that would capture the variety of activities and events but also stimulate discussion. The range of objects collected included:

• Small suitcase (featured in marketing and used to submit the bid)
• Sample of feathers (1.5 tonnes of feathers were dropped from the sky by acrobats in the ‘Place des Anges’ event)
• Wrist bands and lanyards from a range of events across the year including BBC Radio 1 Big Weekend
• Model of wind turbine blade (the first 250-foot-long turbine blade made in Hull was installed in the city centre prompting a debate about what is art)
• Two volunteer uniforms (it was widely remarked that you never saw a volunteer on their own), storyboards and set design models
• Body paint tins (used in Spencer Tunick’s ‘Sea of Hull’ installation)
• Lifejacket (from the production ‘Flood’ which occurred in Victoria Dock)
• Ceramic poppy (from the ‘Weeping Window’ 14-18 NOW installation)
• Lego daffodil and watering can from the Spring Flowers display
• Cinema style usherette tray used to collect feedback at events.

Attendees to the ‘New Eyes Each Year’ Philip Larkin exhibition at the University Library were invited to write a ‘letter to Larkin’. Over 250 letters containing observations, reflections and doodles were written. These were digitised and added to the City of Culture archive forming a resource for future re-use. Where an event or activity prompts a creative response then some or all (depending on the scale of the response) should also be collected for the archive.

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A session was provided for Hull’s City of Culture volunteers by the archive service in response to the central bid team wishing to enhance the skills and knowledge of the volunteers. The event ran for three hours, with the group being split into three and rotated around the three activities, each lasting about 45 minutes.

1. Introduction to service and looking at selection of documents
2. Use of the computers and microform machines
3. Tour of the building

A refreshment break was offered after the second session and then everybody brought back to together at the end to answer any questions.

The archive service was paid a fee for the session which was run 3 times in total on different days/times and was attended by over 130 volunteers. Only the use of computers/ microfilm machines was new – the tour and selection of documents was part of the standard offer to groups.

With the volunteers working across the city, the sessions effectively created a cohort of advocates for the service who were able to speak about the archives to attendees at events across the city.

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