Twitter chat for historians and archivists
On 9 July 2020, we teamed up with History UK to co-host a Twitter chat that asked how historians and archivists could work together in a Covid-19 landscape. We invited members of the history and archives communities to join the discussion.
Citation capture report
The National Archives, Research Libraries UK (RLUK) and Jisc have published a report to kick-start a discussion about how to standardise the thousands of references every year to unique and distinct collections (UDCs) held in UK repositories.
Citation capture report (9.0MB, PDF)
Creating a more consistent framework for how academics cite UDC repositories will:
- make it easier for archivists, librarians and collection managers to gauge usage and will support collection management decisions
- provide valuable metrics for repositories in order to evidence impact of their collections and activities, and make the case for funding.
The report, delivered by The Research Base, looks at the challenges and opportunities related to improving citation practices for UDC materials, as well as the strategies and tools required to effectively capture data for citations. It is divided into three key strands designed to meet the long-term outcomes from the original tender:
- model citation guidance
- embedding best practice
- citation capture software.
A workshop is being planned to discuss the recommendations and implications of the report and further details will be announced in due course.
Guide to collaboration between the Archive and Higher Education sectors
In summer 2018, The National Archives, the Higher Education Archive Programme (HEAP) and History UK launched the ‘Guide to collaboration for Archives and Higher Education 2018’. This builds upon previous guidance co-commissioned with Research Libraries UK and explores practical ways to identify, develop and sustain cross-sector collaborations.
Supported by innovative case studies from across the archives and higher education sectors, the guidance gives insights into the drivers, initiatives, support and language of both sectors and offers advice on identifying organisational and project priorities.
The guidance also explains how to understand outputs and outcomes in mutually beneficial projects and offers advice for measuring impact in cross-sector collaborations.
Guide to collaboration for Archives and Higher Education (complete document) (PDF, 3.77MB)
The guidance document can also be downloaded by section:
Section 1: Foreword and introduction (PDF, 0.32MB)
Section 2: Context of collaboration (PDF, 0.6MB)
Section 3: Forming a collaboration (PDF, 0.69MB)
Section 4: Developing collaborative working (PDF, 1.47MB)
Section 5: Recording activities and capturing impact (PDF, 1.2MB)
Section 6: Key terms, concepts and resources (PDF, 0.56MB)
Case Studies (PDF, 2.36MB)
In addition to this guidance, a complementary guide has been produced exploring collaborative opportunities between business archives and Higher Education. Facilitating Academic-Archivist Collaborations in Business utilises the existing guidance and draws out specific examples from a range of business archives. The guidance is supported by a series of short films that are available on the Business Archives Council’s YouTube channel.
Collecting drivers for Higher Education Institutions
‘Collecting drivers for Higher Education Institutions with Archives and Unique and Distinctive Collections’ examines the collecting drivers for archival collections within a cross-section of diverse Higher Education Institutions with unique and distinctive collections; looking at the degree to which these drivers align with institutional missions, and contemporary research and learning environments.
The report was jointly funded by Research Libraries UK and The National Archives as part of the commitment to work together on matters of shared interest to the archive and research library sectors, to improve understanding, share good practice and to help institutions develop, and produced by Caroline Williams, Independent Archival Consultant.
Collecting drivers for higher education institutions with archives and unique and distinctive collections (PDF, 0.77MB)