We're suspending the use of this blog and moving our activities over to the news section of our (relatively) new website - http://www.dundee.ac.uk/archives/news/. We're leaving this site up as there are lots of interesting stories and items about our collections here, but please use the link above if you want to keep up with us from now on. As always, we'd love to hear your feedback on what we're doing so if you've any questions about us or our collections, please just drop us a line.
With best wishes from everyone in ARMMS and CAIS.
Wednesday, 1 October 2014
Monday, 28 April 2014
Memories, identities and communities - conference tweets
Our conference last week went incredibly well with a combination of fantastic papers and spirited discussion. Thanks to everyone who attended. We'll post more in due course, but here are the conference tweets to give you a flavour of the event:
Tuesday, 1 April 2014
Murthly Hospital 150 years old today.
Murthly Hospital (also know as the Perth District Asylum) was opened to patients on this day 150 years ago. The Asylum, which cost £30,000, was built to cater for 'lunatic paupers' and was Scotland's second district asylum. It was built following the 1857 Lunacy (Scotland) Act which had created district boards that could establish publicly funded asylums to provide care for people who could not afford the high fees charged by private asylums. Out of town locations were common for asylums at the time as it was believed that separation from the possible causes of anxiety, and fresh air, might help patients recover. Murthly, however, was fairly remote (see its position here), but access was made easier by the fact that the Highland Railway ran nearby. In 1894 the hospital built villas within its grounds as part of a pioneering attempt to provide accommodation for patients based on the colony or village system.
The hospital closed completely in 1984 and has now been demolished. Archive Services hold its records (THB 30) as part of the NHS Tayside Archive. These include patient records dating back to its opening, records relating to staff and various reports. The records are available for consultation, although all clinical records are subject to a 100 year closure period. For more information contact archives@dundee.ac.uk or visit www.dundee.ac.uk/archives
Friday, 7 March 2014
Are you ready?
We thought this was interesting so we’re cross-posting it from Alan’s personal blog.
socially awkward
One of the headings on the front cover of the latest issue of ARC, the magazine of the Archives and Records Association, asks ‘Are you ready for Skype…?’. I found that frustrating, as did some of my colleagues.
Asking that in 2014 makes recordkeeping (and recordkeepers) look out of touch and disengaged. The lazy metaphors - dust, parchment, basements, cardigans etc - are hard enough to shake without the magazines of our professional bodies reinforcing them, however inadvertently. ARC should be a tool for advocacy as well as a way of keeping up with news and other developments across the profession.
Social media isn't the coming thing. We've had fifteen years of blogging. Twitter has been around since 2006. Facebook moved off university and high school campuses and opened up to everyone in that year too. Kate Theimer and Steve Bailey began writing about Archives 2.0 and Records Management 2.0 in 2007.
Skype launched in 2003.
Surely we've moved beyond asking people whether 'they're ready'? Platforms change. The desire of people to create and communicate doesn't. If you have the means to get online, the use of this technology isn't exceptional. It's ordinary. It's routine. It's normal.
I'm not downplaying the challenge of social media. The difficulty of securing organisational and personal memories in such volatile environments is clear. But so is the relevance of recordkeeping principles to that process. Isn’t that the message we want to communicate?
Friday, 14 February 2014
Age of Revolution in the Archives
Over 150 level one
students undertaking the University’s history module Age of Revolution are
currently carrying out a source based exercise which uses material from
our collections relating to Dundee in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The sources used include four of our maps, an unpublished
history, and extracts from a Dundee Directory. This assessment
encourages students to think about issues surrounding primary
sources as well as some of the broader issues relating to the impact that the
industrial revolution had on Dundee, Scotland and the rest of Britain.
 |
| Crawford's plan of Dundee 1776 |
Students undertaking this and similar exercises for history and
other subject areas, including town planning, often make use of the many other
sources we have relating to life in Dundee at this
time. We anticipate many of this year's history cohort will visit us
over the next fortnight. Some of the collections consulted in the past by
students taking this module include:
 |
| Photograph from the Carmichael Collection 1870s |
MS 11 Baxter Brothers & Co Ltd. The Baxters operated one of Dundee's major textile works. Their extensive archives include many records relating to the business as well as an account of the early days of flax spinning in Dundee written by Charles Mackie, 'an old mill manager'.
MS 17/P The Thornton Collection of Manuscripts and Plans includes material relating to the coming of the railways to Dundee as well as several plans of Dundee and its buildings
MS 102 The Peter Carmichael of Arthurstone Collection. There are many fascinating items to be found in the papers of one of Scotland's great factory managers and engineers, including photographs of Dundee in the nineteenth century, personal correspondence and an excellent autobiographical account of life and trade in the city.
MS 134 Working Class Life in Dundee for Twenty Five Years, 1878-1903. This study by Dr David Lennox includes much material relating to the late eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century in Dundee.
 |
| Page from Dundee Infirmary's admission records 1853 |
THB 1 The Dundee Royal Infirmary
Collection has a wide range of useful information on life in Dundee
at this time including reports of the work of the hospital and on disease
in Dundee, patient admission registers and directors minutes
KLoc The Kinnear Local Book Collection has
a number of rare histories of Dundee as well as publications produced in this
period such as the Dundee Directories and the Rev. George Lewis's A course of lectures on the physical,
educational and moral statistics of Dundee delivered in the Watt Institution
Hall in December 1840 and the same author's The State of St
David's Parish; with remarks on the Moral and Physical Statistics of
Dundee (1841)
The archives also have many other collections which contain material relevant to students of the Industrial Revolution as can be seen from our On-line Catalogue (http://www.dundee.ac.uk/archives/thecollections/searchourcatalogue/) and our source lists and subject indexes (http://www.dundee.ac.uk/archives/thecollections/subjectsandtopics/).
 |
| Page from a Dundee Directory |
In addition we hold copies of a number of useful texts on the
history of Dundee in the industrial period, many of which are available for
consultation in the search room. These include:
L. Miskell, C. Whatley & B. Harris (eds) Victorian Dundee Image and Realities 2nd Edition (Dundee, 2011)
C. McKean, P. Whatley with K. Baxter Lost Dundee (Edinburgh, 2008 & 2013)
D. Swinfen, A. Smith and C. Whatley The Life and Times of Dundee(Edinburgh, 1993)
C. McKean, Dundee: An Illustrated Architectural Introduction/Guide(Edinburgh, 1984 & 1993)
C. McKean, C. Whatley and B Harris (Eds) Dundee 1500-1800 Renaissance Burgh to Enlightenment Town (Dundee, 2009)
L. Miskell, C. Whatley & B. Harris (eds) Victorian Dundee Image and Realities 2nd Edition (Dundee, 2011)
C. McKean, P. Whatley with K. Baxter Lost Dundee (Edinburgh, 2008 & 2013)
D. Swinfen, A. Smith and C. Whatley The Life and Times of Dundee(Edinburgh, 1993)
C. McKean, Dundee: An Illustrated Architectural Introduction/Guide(Edinburgh, 1984 & 1993)
C. McKean, C. Whatley and B Harris (Eds) Dundee 1500-1800 Renaissance Burgh to Enlightenment Town (Dundee, 2009)
If you would like to consult the archives we are open Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 9-1 and 2-5. It is best to email us to make
an appointment on archives@dundee.ac.uk
or telephone 01382 384095.
Dr Kenneth Baxter
Valentine's Day in the Archive
...ages seem to have passed since I last went to sleep with your head on my shoulder and you clasped in my arms and I can hardly wait for your comforting presence, oh! Only to hold you in my arms again!Extract taken from letter by Burt S Paton writing to his wife Helen in 1939 when she was in Bridge of Earn Hospital. Ref: Ref: MS 141/1/6/5.
This and other love letters, poems, literature and pictures can be seen in the Archive's new display that celebrates love, romance and marriage. You can find it in the basement of the University of Dundee's Tower Building.
Friday, 31 January 2014
Heading into 2014
The New Year of 2014 is well on its way now, heralded by weather
so miserable that you could almost wish for snow. In the Archive, we’ve been
keeping dry and cosy, dealing with visitors wishing to look at a range of
material, including textile records, First World War letters, architectural
plans and University records.
We’ve also been working with some recent accessions to the
collections, some of which came in just before Christmas. One accession is
material generated by the Episcopalian Diocese of Brechin that includes some
newly discovered letters to Bishop Forbes. We’ve recruited some new volunteers,
and one of them will be working through the scrawl of 19th century
handwriting so that they can be properly described and added to the BrMS
collection.
The work of the volunteers is much appreciated by Archive
staff who come in regularly and create basic lists of collections. At the
moment, volunteers are working on our growing collections of comics, a
mountaineering club collection, Dundee Rep Theatre posters and programmes and
the Kerr Anderson papers.
Finally, if you follow us on twitter you may have seen the Alex
Coupar photographs that we’ve been featuring (twitter.com/UoD_Archives). Alex
is a renowned photographer from Dundee, whose work ranges from street-scenes
and views to candid portraiture and press shots. We’re incredibly lucky to have
his collection here in the Archive, and we’re seeking funding so that we can
bring Alex’s work to a wider public. So, watch this space…
Dr Jan Merchant
Friday, 20 December 2013
Happy Christmas!
We'd like to wish everyone connected with ARMMS and CAIS a very happy Christmas and a safe and prosperous 2014.
Thursday, 19 December 2013
Caroline's new book
Tuesday, 26 November 2013
Congratulations to CAIS students
Graduation at CAIS. Last week was the November graduation ceremony for the School of Humanities at the University of Dundee. Twenty-four Centre for Archive and Information Studies students graduated with either a Certificate, Diploma or Masters and we'd like to send congratulations to all of them.
This picture shows Alison Smith who graduated from the Family History Programme, and Leanne Templeton and Carol Hollywood from the Archive and Records Management programme with family members and CAIS staff on a chilly Dundee morning. We were particularly impressed that Leanne and Carol had come all the way from Canada to receive their degrees.
Congratulations again to everyone who graduated from CAIS staff and tutors!
Monday, 7 October 2013
Archivist comes full circle
We're pleased to welcome a new member of staff to ARMMS, or, in this case, welcome back a former member of the team. Dr Jan Merchant takes up her post as Senior Archivist today, having previously been the Assistant Archivist at Perth and Kinross Council Archive. However, prior to that post Jan worked with us in various roles, latterly as Project Archivist for the Drawn Evidence project of the early 2000s.
Jan has a PhD from the University of Dundee and was one of the first students to undertake CAIS' Archives and Records Management programme by online distance learning, graduating in 2006. She is a CAIS Hon Teaching Fellow and has taught the module 'Archive Services, Access and Preservation' and supervised dissertations.
We're delighted that Jan is rejoining ARMMS after her extended sojourn in Perth and look forward to benefiting from her knowledge, experience and enthusiasm.
Saturday, 5 October 2013
Storify - online responses to the 'Burden or Benefit?' conference
We've tried to capture some of the responses to yesterday's conference using Storify. If you weren't able to make it to Dundee you can get a flavour of how the day unfolded and some of the issues discussed here:
Burden or Benefit? New developments in information rights, communication and compliance
CAIS' latest conference, organised jointly with the Centre for Freedom of Information in the University's School of Law, took place yesterday and was a great success.
The attendees heard presentations from three information commissioners, a former information commissioner, the Keeper of the Records of Scotland, a Caldicott Guardian, an expert in the use of social technologies in business and a University Records Manager.
All the speakers were keen to engage with the themes of the conference and explore the tensions between developing information rights law, the need for openness and accountability, the protection of individual privacy and the potential burdens and benefits for organisations trying to cope with these competing demands.
It was a fantastic day and we would like to extend our thanks to all our speakers, chairs, attendees and colleagues who helped make the day so enjoyable and valuable.
The attendees heard presentations from three information commissioners, a former information commissioner, the Keeper of the Records of Scotland, a Caldicott Guardian, an expert in the use of social technologies in business and a University Records Manager.
All the speakers were keen to engage with the themes of the conference and explore the tensions between developing information rights law, the need for openness and accountability, the protection of individual privacy and the potential burdens and benefits for organisations trying to cope with these competing demands.
It was a fantastic day and we would like to extend our thanks to all our speakers, chairs, attendees and colleagues who helped make the day so enjoyable and valuable.
 |
| L-R Christopher Graham, UK Information Commissioner, Kevin Dunion, former Scottish Information Commissioner and Hon Prof, School of Law, Rosemary Agnew, Scottish Information Commissioner, Euan Semple, author and social business expert and Ken Macdonald, Assistant UK Information Commissioner (Scotland and NI) |
Friday, 30 August 2013
Conference announcement - Benefit or burden? New developments in information rights, communication and compliance
We are delighted to announce a joint conference between CAIS and the University's Centre for Freedom of Information, to be held 4 October 2013. It will include, for the first time at the same event, contributions from Christopher Graham, the Information Commissioner, Rosemary Agnew, the Scottish Information Commissioner and Tim Ellis, Chief Executive, National Records of Scotland. Euan Semple, author of 'Organisations don't tweet - people do', will deliver a keynote on the changing relationship between organisations, people, information and communication.
The conference will explore the developments in the enforcement and extension of information legislation, the implications of new forms of communication for organisations and the role of records management in a changing regulatory and operational environment. This is an essential event for practitioners and researchers concerned with freedom of information, data protection and records and information management.
To download a copy of the programme and booking form please click here. An e-booking facility will be available from next week. Booking forms (including requests for invoices) can be posted to Mrs Vikki Watson, School of Law, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN or emailed to centrefoi@dundee.ac.uk. We will look forward to seeing as many of you as possible in Dundee in October.
The conference will explore the developments in the enforcement and extension of information legislation, the implications of new forms of communication for organisations and the role of records management in a changing regulatory and operational environment. This is an essential event for practitioners and researchers concerned with freedom of information, data protection and records and information management.
To download a copy of the programme and booking form please click here. An e-booking facility will be available from next week. Booking forms (including requests for invoices) can be posted to Mrs Vikki Watson, School of Law, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN or emailed to centrefoi@dundee.ac.uk. We will look forward to seeing as many of you as possible in Dundee in October.
Tuesday, 11 June 2013
E-ARMMS 22 - April/May 2013
The regular newsletter from Archive, Records Management and Museum Services (ARMMS) and the Centre for Archive and Information Studies (CAIS) at the University of Dundee.
In this edition:
1. Democratising or privileging: the future of access to archives
Our ‘Democratising or privileging: the future of access to archives’ conference was staged in Dundee on 25th and 26th April. The event saw delegates from across the world gather to listen to a range of excellent papers from archivists, historians and archival users, which prompted some fascinating discussions. We were delighted with the positive feedback we received from attendees and are looking forward to our next conference in 2014.
2. Peter Randall-Page sculpture
The university is to have its first major piece of public sculpture as part of the Art Fund RENEW project that curator Matthew Jarron is leading to build a collection of art inspired by D'Arcy Thompson. To supplement the Art Fund grant, Matthew has succeeded in securing £15,000 from the National Fund for Acquisitions to complete the purchase of 'In the Beginning' by internationally renowned sculptor Peter Randall-Page. The piece will be sited in the link entrance between the Carnelley Building and the Old Medical School and should be installed in the near future.
3. Grove Academy Visit
Jennifer and Keren recently went to Grove Academy School to look at their archive material and advise them on how best to store the items. They had several interesting items including daily registers dating back to 1889, photographs and magazines produced by the pupils from the 1970's onwards. They took some conservation items with them including acid free paper and envelopes to give them an idea on how to store the materials. It was a really productive visit and hopefully a good first approach with a view to extending our outreach programme.
4.Dundee Redevelopment Photographs
With the redevelopment of Dundee’s waterfront well under way, Kenneth has continued to take photographs of the various on-going works in the area. This project has been in progress since last January and so far has focused on the work to remove Tayside House. By doing this, we will ensure that we have a photographic collection which documents the major changes to this area of the city. This will complement existing photographic collections which document the massive changes to Dundee in the late nineteenth century and in the 1960s.
5. New accessions
Archive Services continues to receive new material. The last few weeks have seen accessions of material relating to traditional songs, new items for the Michael Bolik Collection and University of Dundee prospectuses and other promotional material for prospective students. We anticipate that all of these items will be of interest to a number of readers.
6. Tree of Liberty
The competition for Interior & Environmental Design students to design a garden area around the new Tree of Liberty outside DJCAD has now finished and the students presented their design proposals to the judging panel. Matthew was one of the judges and was very impressed by the range and quality of the submissions. Four entries have been shortlisted and are now being considered by Estates & Buildings for practicability and affordability before the winning design is chosen and implemented.
7. Digital Doctor Day
On Wednesday 8th May, Jennifer attended a ‘Digital Doctor Day’ held by the Archives and Records Association at the National Records of Scotland. The short seminar looked at archival digitisation projects. Rob Mildren and Robin Urquhart started off by talking about how the NRS started digitisation in 1998-99 with the Scottish Archive Network which was originally more of an online exhibition that soon highlighted the fact that users wanted to see whole volumes scanned and made available online. Ashley Beamer, Web Projects Manager at RCAHMS, then spoke about a couple of digitisation projects she has been involved in; Britain from Above and Scotland’s Places. Next Robin showed us a sample volume and got us to think about the issues around scanning it for publication on a website. Finally we were shown round the Digital Imaging Unit by Paul Riley, the Index and Imaging Team Leader. This busy unit has some pretty high tech equipment which, as their leaflet states, ‘Since obtaining them in October 2009, they have enabled us to triple out output’.
8. Social Media
A number of photographs from Archive Services collections have recently appeared on the University’s Facebook page as part of its ‘throw back Thursday’. We are delighted to see the very positive response that there has been to these images and the interest they have generated. Our Twitter accounts also continue to attract new followers, with the @CAIS_archives account attracting a lot of attention during and after our recent Conference ‘Democratising or privileging: the future of access to archives’. In a new venture we also used Storify account to chronicle the extensive online coverage of the conference.
9. Records Management Unit Update
In the last E-ARMMS it was mentioned that Mhairi had received a very large request from Research Finance who were being audited by Cancer Research UK. Several more documents and various closed project files were subsequently asked for and the whole job has only just been completed (with all the records safely back in their appropriate boxes in three different locations) at the very end of April. More recently Mhairi had another request which was slightly out of the ordinary. Normally when a department needs to get hold of finance records it is processed through a section of Finance Office and Records Management does not deal directly with the University department. On this occasion, however, Records Management was asked directly by Estates & Buildings for copies of twelve invoices. This was managed speedily and the whole job completed within a day of the original request.
10. New Records Management Consignments
The Records Management Unit has received 27 boxes from a new customer, Population Health Sciences in the MRI. These have still to be fully processed but are accompanied by a full list with retention dates. There are seven boxes of student files from Humanities/Environmental Science and ten boxes from Disability Services. Mhairi is also currently boxing up files from both Accounts Payable and the Cash Office.
11. CAIS News
CAIS staff have been reading and editing a number of new and revised modules in preparation for the start of the May semester. These include Public History, authored and tutored by Caroline Shenton, Business Archives and Cataloguing in the Digital Age. CAIS has enrolled 39 new students for their postgraduate modules and Beyond the Internet short courses beginning on May 13th.
12. 125 years of the Alliance Trust
This year marks the 125th anniversary of the formation of the Alliance Trust, a Dundee based investment and financial services company, whose records are held by Archive Services. We are pleased that several of the key foundation documents have been used in events to mark the anniversary. The Alliance Trust itself was founded in 1888 but can trace its origins to the Oregon and Washington Trust Investment Co Ltd which was set up in Dundee to lend to pioneer farmers in the Pacific North West of the United States. The collection is fascinating as the history of the American West can be traced through the investments and financial deals recorded. In 1895, for example £75,000 was loaned against the 500,000 Acres Goodnight ranch, owned by Charles Goodnight, who is credited as having been the inspiration for the film ‘The Searchers’, starring John Wayne. The Trust’s history is full of pioneers, cowboys, ranches and oil and the Trust continues to hold mineral rights on land in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas & Saskatchewan in Canada. The collection is currently being fully listed but basic lists are available and researchers are welcome to use the records.
13. Great War Anniversary
Matthew and Caroline have been involved with plans to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War and have been working on a collaborative bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant to take the project forward. Part of the plans include the publication of a book of poetry by Joseph Lee. Combining the best of Lee’s war poems, the volume will celebrate the life of this remarkable Dundonian. Lee is well known for his journalism, often with a strongly political edge, and at the start of the twentieth century he edited a number of periodicals and newspapers. He enlisted in the Black Watch and his experiences as a soldier in France were depicted in the poems that he wrote from the trenches which were internationally acclaimed. Lee was captured in 1917 and became a prisoner of war and spent much of his time sketching and recording life in the camp. Archive and Museum Services hold his papers and sketches, including original manuscripts of poems, correspondence, and his war diaries.
14. Basic Design Course
Currently showing at Tate Britain is an exhibition about the Basic Design Course which was introduced by Richard Hamilton and Victor Pasmore in Newcastle in the 1950s and was subsequently adopted by numerous art schools around Britain. Many of the exercises on the course were based on D'Arcy Thompson's On Growth and Form, and Matthew recently met with the exhibition curators to discuss the D'Arcy connection and the proposed restaging of Richard Hamilton's Growth and Form exhibition at Tate next year.
15. Fulbright Scotland Summer Institute 2013
Pat has been busy organising the first Fulbright Scotland Summer Institute which the University of Dundee is hosting, in partnership with the University of Strathclyde. A full programme of lectures from a range of disciplines and cultural visits, including Glamis Castle, Culloden and Glencoe will culminate in a reception in Bute House, hosted by the First Minister, Alex Salmond. Nine undergraduates from the US will arrive on July 6 in Dundee for two and a half weeks, followed by the same time in Glasgow. They will act as ambassadors for the universities and for Scotland.
16. Finnish Society-funded project: Archives as Sites of Memory
Pat and Caroline recently attended a seminar in Helsinki where Pat gave a keynote presentation on ‘Community Memory and the Record: Remembering and Forgetting’ at The Society of Swedish Literature, Helsinki.
In this edition:
- Democratising or privileging: the future of access to archives
- Peter Randall-Page sculpture
- Grove Academy Visit
- Dundee Redevelopment Photographs
- New accessions
- Tree of Liberty
- Digital Doctor Day
- Social Media
- Records Management Unit Update
- New Records Management Consignments
- CAIS News
- 125 years of the Alliance Trust
- Great War Anniversary
- Basic Design Course
- Fulbright Scotland Summer Institute 2013
- Finnish Society-funded project: Archives as Sites of Memory
1. Democratising or privileging: the future of access to archives
Our ‘Democratising or privileging: the future of access to archives’ conference was staged in Dundee on 25th and 26th April. The event saw delegates from across the world gather to listen to a range of excellent papers from archivists, historians and archival users, which prompted some fascinating discussions. We were delighted with the positive feedback we received from attendees and are looking forward to our next conference in 2014.
2. Peter Randall-Page sculpture
The university is to have its first major piece of public sculpture as part of the Art Fund RENEW project that curator Matthew Jarron is leading to build a collection of art inspired by D'Arcy Thompson. To supplement the Art Fund grant, Matthew has succeeded in securing £15,000 from the National Fund for Acquisitions to complete the purchase of 'In the Beginning' by internationally renowned sculptor Peter Randall-Page. The piece will be sited in the link entrance between the Carnelley Building and the Old Medical School and should be installed in the near future.
3. Grove Academy Visit
Jennifer and Keren recently went to Grove Academy School to look at their archive material and advise them on how best to store the items. They had several interesting items including daily registers dating back to 1889, photographs and magazines produced by the pupils from the 1970's onwards. They took some conservation items with them including acid free paper and envelopes to give them an idea on how to store the materials. It was a really productive visit and hopefully a good first approach with a view to extending our outreach programme.
4.Dundee Redevelopment Photographs
With the redevelopment of Dundee’s waterfront well under way, Kenneth has continued to take photographs of the various on-going works in the area. This project has been in progress since last January and so far has focused on the work to remove Tayside House. By doing this, we will ensure that we have a photographic collection which documents the major changes to this area of the city. This will complement existing photographic collections which document the massive changes to Dundee in the late nineteenth century and in the 1960s.
5. New accessions
Archive Services continues to receive new material. The last few weeks have seen accessions of material relating to traditional songs, new items for the Michael Bolik Collection and University of Dundee prospectuses and other promotional material for prospective students. We anticipate that all of these items will be of interest to a number of readers.
6. Tree of Liberty
The competition for Interior & Environmental Design students to design a garden area around the new Tree of Liberty outside DJCAD has now finished and the students presented their design proposals to the judging panel. Matthew was one of the judges and was very impressed by the range and quality of the submissions. Four entries have been shortlisted and are now being considered by Estates & Buildings for practicability and affordability before the winning design is chosen and implemented.
7. Digital Doctor Day
On Wednesday 8th May, Jennifer attended a ‘Digital Doctor Day’ held by the Archives and Records Association at the National Records of Scotland. The short seminar looked at archival digitisation projects. Rob Mildren and Robin Urquhart started off by talking about how the NRS started digitisation in 1998-99 with the Scottish Archive Network which was originally more of an online exhibition that soon highlighted the fact that users wanted to see whole volumes scanned and made available online. Ashley Beamer, Web Projects Manager at RCAHMS, then spoke about a couple of digitisation projects she has been involved in; Britain from Above and Scotland’s Places. Next Robin showed us a sample volume and got us to think about the issues around scanning it for publication on a website. Finally we were shown round the Digital Imaging Unit by Paul Riley, the Index and Imaging Team Leader. This busy unit has some pretty high tech equipment which, as their leaflet states, ‘Since obtaining them in October 2009, they have enabled us to triple out output’.
8. Social Media
A number of photographs from Archive Services collections have recently appeared on the University’s Facebook page as part of its ‘throw back Thursday’. We are delighted to see the very positive response that there has been to these images and the interest they have generated. Our Twitter accounts also continue to attract new followers, with the @CAIS_archives account attracting a lot of attention during and after our recent Conference ‘Democratising or privileging: the future of access to archives’. In a new venture we also used Storify account to chronicle the extensive online coverage of the conference.
9. Records Management Unit Update
In the last E-ARMMS it was mentioned that Mhairi had received a very large request from Research Finance who were being audited by Cancer Research UK. Several more documents and various closed project files were subsequently asked for and the whole job has only just been completed (with all the records safely back in their appropriate boxes in three different locations) at the very end of April. More recently Mhairi had another request which was slightly out of the ordinary. Normally when a department needs to get hold of finance records it is processed through a section of Finance Office and Records Management does not deal directly with the University department. On this occasion, however, Records Management was asked directly by Estates & Buildings for copies of twelve invoices. This was managed speedily and the whole job completed within a day of the original request.
10. New Records Management Consignments
The Records Management Unit has received 27 boxes from a new customer, Population Health Sciences in the MRI. These have still to be fully processed but are accompanied by a full list with retention dates. There are seven boxes of student files from Humanities/Environmental Science and ten boxes from Disability Services. Mhairi is also currently boxing up files from both Accounts Payable and the Cash Office.
11. CAIS News
CAIS staff have been reading and editing a number of new and revised modules in preparation for the start of the May semester. These include Public History, authored and tutored by Caroline Shenton, Business Archives and Cataloguing in the Digital Age. CAIS has enrolled 39 new students for their postgraduate modules and Beyond the Internet short courses beginning on May 13th.
12. 125 years of the Alliance Trust
This year marks the 125th anniversary of the formation of the Alliance Trust, a Dundee based investment and financial services company, whose records are held by Archive Services. We are pleased that several of the key foundation documents have been used in events to mark the anniversary. The Alliance Trust itself was founded in 1888 but can trace its origins to the Oregon and Washington Trust Investment Co Ltd which was set up in Dundee to lend to pioneer farmers in the Pacific North West of the United States. The collection is fascinating as the history of the American West can be traced through the investments and financial deals recorded. In 1895, for example £75,000 was loaned against the 500,000 Acres Goodnight ranch, owned by Charles Goodnight, who is credited as having been the inspiration for the film ‘The Searchers’, starring John Wayne. The Trust’s history is full of pioneers, cowboys, ranches and oil and the Trust continues to hold mineral rights on land in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas & Saskatchewan in Canada. The collection is currently being fully listed but basic lists are available and researchers are welcome to use the records.
13. Great War Anniversary
Matthew and Caroline have been involved with plans to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War and have been working on a collaborative bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant to take the project forward. Part of the plans include the publication of a book of poetry by Joseph Lee. Combining the best of Lee’s war poems, the volume will celebrate the life of this remarkable Dundonian. Lee is well known for his journalism, often with a strongly political edge, and at the start of the twentieth century he edited a number of periodicals and newspapers. He enlisted in the Black Watch and his experiences as a soldier in France were depicted in the poems that he wrote from the trenches which were internationally acclaimed. Lee was captured in 1917 and became a prisoner of war and spent much of his time sketching and recording life in the camp. Archive and Museum Services hold his papers and sketches, including original manuscripts of poems, correspondence, and his war diaries.
14. Basic Design Course
Currently showing at Tate Britain is an exhibition about the Basic Design Course which was introduced by Richard Hamilton and Victor Pasmore in Newcastle in the 1950s and was subsequently adopted by numerous art schools around Britain. Many of the exercises on the course were based on D'Arcy Thompson's On Growth and Form, and Matthew recently met with the exhibition curators to discuss the D'Arcy connection and the proposed restaging of Richard Hamilton's Growth and Form exhibition at Tate next year.
15. Fulbright Scotland Summer Institute 2013
Pat has been busy organising the first Fulbright Scotland Summer Institute which the University of Dundee is hosting, in partnership with the University of Strathclyde. A full programme of lectures from a range of disciplines and cultural visits, including Glamis Castle, Culloden and Glencoe will culminate in a reception in Bute House, hosted by the First Minister, Alex Salmond. Nine undergraduates from the US will arrive on July 6 in Dundee for two and a half weeks, followed by the same time in Glasgow. They will act as ambassadors for the universities and for Scotland.
16. Finnish Society-funded project: Archives as Sites of Memory
Pat and Caroline recently attended a seminar in Helsinki where Pat gave a keynote presentation on ‘Community Memory and the Record: Remembering and Forgetting’ at The Society of Swedish Literature, Helsinki.
Monday, 20 May 2013
Ninewells Cancer Campaign
Archive Services has recently received the archive of the Ninewells Cancer Campaign, the charity that raises money to support the world-leading research taking place at Ninewells Hospital and the University Medical School. Over the last 20 years more than £17 million has been raised to improve the treatment and care of cancer patients and we are extremely pleased to be given the opportunity, through caring for the archives, to preserve evidence of the work of this important organisation.
Over the last two weeks the collection has been worked on by Nikki, a Skills for the Future Trainee, who has been with us as part of her traineeship. Under the guidance of the archivists she has been cataloguing and rehousing the material and has the following to say about her experiences.
'I'm Nikki
and I am one of ten people taking part in a one year traineeship at the Royal
Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland in Edinburgh (RCAHMS). Our traineeship focuses primarily on
cataloguing and re-housing the different collections at RCAHMS. This
entails working with RCAHMS’ fascinating
collections in the main store but does mean we don’t get out much! As a result, the traineeship incorporates
placements into the programme and I have just come to the end of my two week
placement within the University of Dundee archives.
I have been
cataloguing an accession from the Ninewells Cancer Campaign. I have worked my way through 10 boxes of
files to make detailed lists and uploaded the information onto the cataloguing software CALM. The collection includes letters of
correspondence, brochures, reports, badges and newspaper articles relating to
the many fundraising events hosted by the NCC for cancer research projects. I have also helped with a public enquiry and
had a behind-the-scenes insight into the work of the archivists.
At the end
of our placement we will share our experiences by producing a report and
presentation on the skills we gained. I
have really enjoyed my time here. I have
met some fantastic and inspirational people and this experience has been great
for developing my skills for further use in the heritage sector.'
We've very much enjoyed having Nikki with us and wish her well during the rest of her traineeship. We look forward to Nikki and the other trainees taking some of our modules on archive management and outreach and education in September.
For more information about the Ninewells Cancer Campaign collection contact archives@dundee.ac.uk.
Tuesday, 30 April 2013
Wednesday, 3 April 2013
Was 57% of Dundee's population in 1847 Irish?
Volunteers at Archive Services are working on a project to
index the admission registers of Dundee Royal Infirmary. Andrew Mackenzie, one of our volunteers, has
been working on the register for 1847 and says:
‘The admissions register of Dundee Royal Infirmary from 1847
for the month of February reveals some valuable information about Dundee in
this period. The most common illness was fever; out of 166 patients admitted
between 1st February 1847 and 28th February 1847 there
were 117 cases and of theses 15 patients died.
However, the register tells us more than just the illness of
the patient, other information includes address, occupation, sex, age,
nationality and county where born. The records therefore shed light on the
demographic composition of Dundee in 1847. Out of the 166 patients admitted in
February 68 were Scottish, 4 were English and 94 were Irish (57% Irish, 41%
Scottish, 2% English). As might be expected
of Dundee in this period 53 patients were weavers and 38 were millworkers.
Other common occupations included 17 housewives and 16 labourers.’
By creating indexes for the registers the information will
become more accessibly, particularly to family historians. Clearly assumptions cannot be made about Dundee's population as a whole from these figures but the range of
information included in the registers, stretching over many years, warrants more sustained
academic analysis and we would welcome further research on these archives. Friday, 15 March 2013
Was Disaster Built into the First Tay Bridge?
We were delighted to receive a donation from William (Bill) Dow recently. The gift was a volume of Bill's research into the collapse of the Tay Rail Bridge which happened in December 1879 with the loss of over seventy lives. Bill Dow believes that vital information in the form of correspondence was not revealed to the original enquiry and his volume details this.
This is one of several gifts to the archives by Bill Dow who was principle lecturer in physics and head of science at Dundee College of Education, now part of the University. Bill is well known in Dundee for his extensive knowledge of local history as well as his enthusiasm for physics, stemming from his work on radar in the Second World War.
The University Archives have a number of items relating to the Tay Bridge disaster which can be consulted. For more information contact archives@dundee.ac.uk or visit our website and type Tay Bridge into our online catalogue.
The University Archives have a number of items relating to the Tay Bridge disaster which can be consulted. For more information contact archives@dundee.ac.uk or visit our website and type Tay Bridge into our online catalogue.
Tuesday, 12 March 2013
Dewar 2013 Conference
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