Thanks to all our volunteers

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those without whom it would be impossible to run our archive effeciently. Our volunteers perform many essential tasks from undertaking enquiries to listing small collections, often coming in regularly week after week and expecting nothing in return but the chance to work with our collections. This is Zoe, one of our volunteers who is looking through recent University accessions and fully listing them.

A recent report by the National Council on Archives gives a fuller picture of the work of volunteers across the UK. The Public Services Quality Group Annual Forum also looked at this and in particular the issues that a reliance on volunteers can raise, including finding suitable tasks for them and whether we should ask volunteers to undertake professional functions like cataloguing and arragement. Looking at the papers at the Forum it seems that it is the benefits of volunteering rather than the problems posed that most speakers emphasised. The NCA is leading on a National Archive Volunteering Project of the Year Award as further recognition of the important work that volunteers do.

Our experience has certainly been a positive one, so thanks very much to everyone who has helped us over the years!