With best wishes,
All in ARMMS and CAIS
Tuesday, 18 December 2012
Happy Holidays!
We'd like to take this chance to wish all our of our users, students, tutors, colleagues and friends a very Happy Christmas and a safe and prosperous New Year.
With best wishes,
All in ARMMS and CAIS
With best wishes,
All in ARMMS and CAIS
Monday, 19 November 2012
E-ARMMS Newsletter 18
October 2012
A monthly newsletter from Archive, Records Management and Museum Services (ARMMS) and the Centre for Archive and Information Studies (CAIS) at the University of Dundee.This is the latest edition of the ARMMS and CAIS newsletter, eARMMS, that we also post here. Let us know if you would like an email copy each month.
In this edition:
- New Staff Member
- Doors Open Day 2012
- The Airlie Morning Post
- 8th Annual Culture Day
- Outreach Activities
- Dundee Science Festival
- Human Race Events
- CAIS Update
- Carnoustie Golf Club
- Scottish Council on Archives Portal Project
- The Recordkeeper’s Bookshelf
- Postgraduate Students Visit Archives
- Freedom of Information – Changes to Publication Schemes
- CAIS visit to Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)
- Sad News
1. New Staff Member
This month CAIS was delighted to welcome our new Programme Administrator, Daria Wall, who has joined the CAIS team in place of Angela. Daria is an experienced administrator, and was previously with the School of Humanities, where she was Postgraduate Officer.
2. Doors Open Day 2012
On Saturday 22nd Archive Services held two well attended tours as part of Dundee’s Doors Open Day 2012 events. Keren showed the visitors round our repositories, while Kenneth gave a short talk on the archives before introducing the visitors to some highlights from the University Archives. We were also able to advise visitors on the availability of sources that would help their own research. We were very grateful that everyone who attended took the trouble to say how much they enjoyed the event, and we look forward to participating in Doors Open Day again in 2013. Remember that the University Archives are open to all every day but Thursday and you can also explore our collections on our online catalogue at www.dundee.ac.uk/archives
3. The Airlie Morning Post
Archive Services is delighted to have received copies of a rare student newspaper that was produced by the residents of Airlie Hall and that offers a unique insight into student life in a hall of residence during the 1960s. The Airlie Morning Post was written, printed and distributed by the students themselves during the 1967-68 session. One of the founder members, Alan Craxford, was able to make copies of the originals recently and apart from sending them to Archive Services has also made the pages available on the web, along with reminiscences about the newspaper: http://www.craxford-family.co.uk/themetartan/tartantamp.php.
4. 8th Annual Culture Day
The University of Dundee's Culture and Arts Forum (CAF) held its 8th Annual Culture Day on 3rdOctober. The theme of this year’s event was "Health, Well-being and the Arts" and a range of talks was given by staff from across the University. Matthew, who also chaired the event, opened proceedings with a talk on the art collections of Dundee Dentists. Kenneth represented Archive Services and gave a paper on early female medical students at the University of Dundee. Other participants included Brian Hoyle (English), talking about Carry On and Doctor films and Billy Kenefick and Derek Patrick (History) on Image and Reality and the Scottish Soldier. Matthew is Convener of CAF and Caroline is Secretary to the group.
5. Outreach Activities
On 26th September Kenneth visited the Monfieth Local History Society to give a talk on the Archives. Kenneth’s talk gave a flavour of our holdings and he then took questions from the audience who were keen to find out more. Several of the society's members are hoping to visit the archives in the future to pursue leads in their own research. On 24th October Kenneth also gave a talk at the School of Medicine’s International Student Welcome Evening to c.60 staff and students on the History of the Medical School in Dundee. Both staff and students were very interested to find out about some of their illustrious predecessors such as Margaret Fairlie, Scotland’s first female professor, and our late Chancellor, Nobel Prize-winning scientist, Sir James Black.
6. Dundee Science Festival
Museum Services organised various events as part of this year's Science Festival. On Tues 6 November at 6pm, the Tayside Medical History Museum at Ninewells hosted a special event entitled Think Global, Act Local: Dundee's International Role in Improving Child Health. In two stimulating and inspiring talks, Stephen Greene (Professor of Child and Adolescent Health) and Dr Anil Mehta (Reader in Molecular Medicine) focused on Diabetes and Cystic Fibrosis, showing how local expertise is leading international collaborative initiatives to transform the modern management of these important conditions. See http://www.dundeesciencefestival.org/event.full.php?id=118 for details. On Mon 12 and Tues 13 November, award-winning comedian and Radio 4 star Helen Keen returned to the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum for a third year with a new show, The World of Tomorrow. With her usual esoteric mix of stand-up comedy, science fiction and shadow puppetry, Helen transported you into the exciting, inventive and tin-foily world of The Future (by at least an hour).
7. Human Race Events
The events programme for the exhibition Human Race: Inside the History of Sports Medicine continues. Lectures included a talk on Dundee's orthopaedic pioneer Prof Ian Smillie by Bill Hadden on 31 October and on the ground-breaking experimental physiologist, John Scott Haldane, by Peter Taylor on 9 November. The exhibition has been created by the Scotland & Medicine Partnership and is funded by the Olympics Legacy Trust as an official part of the Cultural Olympiad. It is showed across two venues - the Lamb Gallery and the Institute of Sport & Exercise - until 10 November. See http://www.dundee.ac.uk/museum/exhibitions/medical/humanrace/ for details.
8. CAIS Update
A number of students recently completed single modules or short courses. They included students studying an aspect of professional practice for their professional development. Others were continuing to gather credits for their degrees. As well as masters degrees CAIS also offers short non-accredited courses in family and local history. Our 'Beyond the Internet' short online courses, which began on 17 September, have now ended and 35 certificates of completion have been sent to those who took part. A selection of CAIS courses are available three times a year. Further details are on our web site at http://www.dundee.ac.uk/CAIS
9. Carnoustie Golf Club
For some months now, Jennifer has been cataloguing the Carnoustie Golf Club records (MS 329). These include records of the club itself as well as research notes made by Bill Coupar whilst he was writing a book on the impact Carnoustie golfers had on the world. Coupar died before he was able to complete the book but the masses of research notes he compiled along with photographs, correspondence and original artefacts such as club tickets are now fully listed and numbered and can now be made available for the public to use. The last job Jennifer has to do is to input the collection list onto CALM so that readers can search the descriptions online and see what is available.
10. Scottish Council on Archives Portal Project
Caroline has been involved in a Scottish Council on Archives project to develop an online portal for Scotland’s archive catalogues. The aim is to provide a site where item level descriptions of archives will link to details of the creators of the archives and to the repositories that hold them. Funding is being sought to build in educational and interactive resources to the site. More details on the Scottish Council on Archives activities is available at http://www.scottisharchives.org.uk/
11. The Recordkeeper's Bookshelf
CAIS is currently developing a series of online resources called 'The Recordkeeper's Bookshelf' in a project funded by the International Council on Archives. Covering the core recordkeeping functions and issues such as appraisal, electronic records and description, the series will provide an introduction to debates and literature relating to the topics. Caroline is currently writing the module on appraisal. Other topics include the life cycle and continuum and preservation and disaster management..
12. Postgraduate Students Visit Archives
The School of Humanities postgraduate students visited the archives for an induction recently. We discussed the different reasons for keeping archives, their cultural and evidential role and the decisions that archivists have to take when deciding what records to keep. The students were given several archival items and asked to discuss their provenance, the impact their content, context and structure on their role as evidence and their informational content.
13. Freedom of Information – Changes to Publication Schemes
Alan attended a recent event in Perth held by the Office of the Scottish Information Commissioner on changes to the way that Publication Schemes are implemented in Scottish public authorities. A Publication Scheme is a resource that is required by the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 which explains what information a public body normally places into the public domain in areas such as institutional governance and financial management. A generic model scheme has been developed to replace the original publication schemes for the whole Scottish public sector with the aim of promoting consistency in the information routinely published by public bodies. The Secretaries' Group of Universities Scotland has approved the adoption of the Commissioner's new generic model and Alan is a member of a small sub-group of the Scottish HE Information Practitioners Group which is developing the framework for its implementation in Scottish universities (based on his contribution to the development of the previous sectoral scheme and the University of Dundee's leading role in a consultation response on Publication Schemes on behalf of the sector in 2010).
14. CAIS visit to Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)
On 1st November Pat and Caroline accompanied CAIS students on a visit to PRONI’s impressive new building at the developing waterfront of Belfast. The visit started with short presentations by Stephen Scarth, Head of Public Services on PRONI’s marketing strategy, Graham Jackson on access and Iain Fleming on digital preservation. It was interesting to hear of the role of the Public Record office in preserving and managing access to records relating to the Troubles. Glynn Kelso gave us a guided tour of the building which included a visit to the conservation studio where Rose Kelly explained the role of conservators at PRONI and the visit ended in the large purpose built stores managed by Alan Robertson.
15. Sad news
Pat, Caroline and Alan pay tribute to our colleague and friend, Marion Hoy, former Archivist at Records and Information Professionals Australasia, who passed away recently after a long illness in Newcastle, New South Wales. She was a good friend and an unfailingly cheerful colleague at International Council on Archives Section on Archival Education meetings, of which she was Secretary. We will miss her and we send our condolences to her husband and children.
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Witches, Ghosts and Ghouls
As Halloween
draws near our thoughts have turned to the spooky and supernatural in
our collections. Notable items include handwritten notes about the execution of
the so-called ‘Witch of Monzie’ and the mysterious events that followed. These
were found in a copy of Reverend George Blair’s famous poem ‘The Holocaust, or, The Witch of Monzie’ published in 1845.
Kate McNiven
(alternately known as McNieven / Nicniven / Niven), the 'Witch of Monzie', was
nurse to the Graeme family of Inchbrakie, Perthshire. It is said that in c 1715 she was burned at
the stake, which would make her one of the last women to be executed as a witch
in Scotland. However other sources suggest that, if she ever existed, she must
have been executed around 1615.
George Blair
was pastor of Monzie parish, Perthshire around 1843-1844. His tenure was brief
as he was suspended and resigned from his charge. The two documents ('Colonel Graham of
Inchbrakie's Account of the Witch of Monzie’ and a memorandum regarding the
Witch of Monzie both by Grace Grame) were possibly used by Blair when writing
the poem. Their exact provenance and reliability are unknown. Interestingly one
implies that Kate McNiven cursed the Ministers of the Parish of Monzie before
her death. Perhaps the unfortunate Blair felt he was the latest victim of her
curse.
Another
Halloween related item can be found in the papers of the writer and hill walker
Syd Scroggie which include his account of the ‘Ghost of Moss Alasdair’ and its
encounters with Andrew MacIlwraith, Duncan Pitscotie and Robert Calder. Moss
Alasdair was said to be a ghost who dwelt on the Glass Cairn and pushed people
off, resulting in a series of fatalities. It seems that MacIlwraith and Pitscotie had an
odd encounter with a mysterious shepherd and his black dog on their way to a
rendezvous with Calder on the Glass Cairn. Meanwhile Calder, coming from the
other direction, discovered a skeleton and sensed another presence in the
cavern he was sheltering in. He commanded it to disturb the living no more and
after a flash of lightening the atmosphere changed. At the same time the shepherd his companions
were following vanished.
Scroggie
presents this as a true story. However was this an account of a real event or
is this manuscript a clever work of fiction by its author? We would be very
interested to know if anyone can shed any more light on this story .
Contact the archives or visit us to find out more about these collections and our local history books which contain more supernatural stories. www.dundee.ac.uk/archives and archives@dundee.ac.uk
Friday, 5 October 2012
Age of Revolution in the Archives
Over the next couple of weeks
level one students undertaking the Age of Revolution module on the
University’s History Programme will be carrying out a source based exercise
which uses material from our collections relating to Dundee in the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries, including maps and an extract from a Dundee Directory.
This assessment encourages students to think about primary sources as well as
some of the broader issues relating to the impact the industrial revolution had
on Dundee, Scotland and the rest of Britain.
In previous years many students
undertaking this and similar exercises have come to the archives
to enhance their work by making use of the many other sources we have
relating to life in Dundee at this time, and we anticipate many of this year’s
cohort will visit us again in the next few days. Some of the collections
students have made use of in the past include:
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 The Thornton Collection and MS 105 The Shiell and Small
Collection These collections 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 as background to its arguments on the main period it covers.
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 disease in Dundee, patient admission registers and directors minutes. These records provide insight into a range of subjects including health, immigration and working patterns.
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’
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://134.36.1.31/) and our source lists and subject indexes (http://www.dundee.ac.uk/archives/sourcetop.htm). In addition we hold copies of most of a number of useful texts on the history of Dundee in the industrial period 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)
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)
Dr Kenneth Baxter
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 The Thornton Collection and MS 105 The Shiell and Small
Collection These collections includes material relating to the coming of
the railways to Dundee as well as several plans of Dundee and its buildingsMS 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 as background to its arguments on the main period it covers.
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 disease in Dundee, patient admission registers and directors minutes. These records provide insight into a range of subjects including health, immigration and working patterns.
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://134.36.1.31/) and our source lists and subject indexes (http://www.dundee.ac.uk/archives/sourcetop.htm). In addition we hold copies of most of a number of useful texts on the history of Dundee in the industrial period 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)
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)
Dr Kenneth Baxter
eARMMS, August/September 2012
This is the latest edition of the ARMMS and CAIS newsletter, eARMMS, that we also post here. Let us know if you would like an email copy each month.
In this edition:
1. Dundee and Science Exhibition
2. Artist in Residence in the Zoology Museum
3. Dr Mary Young Collection
4. Other Recent Accessions
5. ARA Conference Brighton
6. Skills for the Future Programme
7. Dundee and the Great War
8. European Erasmus Commission Intensive Programme Summer School
9. CAIS Study School
10. Oral History Interview
11. Twitter
12. Enquiries
13. Records and Information Management Professionals Australasia – inForum 2012
14. Update from the Records Management Unit
15. International Council on Archives Congress
16. British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ontario (BIFHSGO)
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1. Dundee and Science Exhibition
Museum Services have curated a special exhibition at Dundee Central Library to mark the centenary of a major scientific conference. In September 1912, the British Association for the Advancement of Science (now called the British Science Association) held a meeting in Dundee that attracted over 2,000 leading scientists from across Britain and the world. The exhibition has been created to tie into this year’s BSA science festival, which is taking place in Aberdeen on exactly the same dates as the Dundee meeting 100 years ago. The exhibition tells the story of the meeting and focuses on some of the scientific topics discussed, showing how they relate to current research – for example work on fruit growing, pollution, numeracy and Antarctic discovery. The displays also explore what Dundee was like in 1912, with dozens of rarely seen photographs on show. Archive Services contributed both text and images for this section of the exhibition, while members of the Tayside & Fife branch of the British Science Association contributed to the science section. The exhibition will be on show until 29 September.
2. Artist in Residence in the Zoology Museum
As part of an Art Funded project to build a collection of art inspired by D'Arcy Thompson, Museum Services has collaborated with the Barns-Graham Charitable Trust and the Royal Scottish Academy to host an artist-in-residence in the Zoology Museum over the summer. Lindsay Sekulowicz studied at the Glasgow School of Art and is now based in London, where she has worked on various natural science projects in the past. Lindsay's studio space is being provided at Balmungo, the former home and studio of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, one of the many 20th-century artists inspired by D'Arcy's work.
3. Dr Mary Young Collection
Archive Services have received eight boxes of research papers of the late Dr Mary Young, deposited by her son, John. Mary was associated with the department for many years, firstly as a researcher than as a member of the ARMMS team. Mary is remembered fondly and missed by all. We are delighted to provide a home for these research papers which will be an important resource for future researchers.
4. Other Recent Accessions
A number of additional accessions have been received during the past month. They include family papers relating to the Anderson and Kerr families who were connected with a house called the Grange in Monifieth, which complement the Anderson and Kerr papers already contained in our Thornton collection; a four volume set of The Works of John Glas and two nineteenth century Dundee Royal Lunatic Asylum volumes. Additional items have been received from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, accruals to the college's archives.
5. ARA Conference Brighton
The annual Archives and Records Association (UK & Ireland) Conference was held during August, in Brighton on the theme of 'Progression, Innovation and New Landscapes'. ARMMS and CAIS were represented by Caroline, Craig, Jennifer and Keren. Sessions included sessions such as Documenting the 21st Century, Innovations in User Services and The New Digital Landscape. As Chair of the conference committee Caroline was busy with the organisation and programme, which included papers on Wikileaks, the collapse of the Cologne archive and funding. Tony Ageh, Controller of the BBC Archive and inventor of the iPlayer, was one of the keynote speakers. 220 delegates attended and it was a great opportunity to meet other archivists, records managers and conservators and share experiences in different repositories throughout the UK. A drinks reception was held at the end of Brighton Pier with a welcome from the Mayor of Brighton (a former employee of DC Thomson) and a 'Latin' gala dinner was held in the hotel. This involved delegate participation and many took to the floor to show off their best salsa moves!
6. Skills for the Future Programme
Caroline recently attended an event organised by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland at Stirling Castle, to showcase the work of their Skills for the Future Trainees. Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Skills for the Future Programme provides opportunities for training and work experience in the archive and heritage sector. CAIS has been involved in the programme since it started and provides modules in Archive Management and Outreach and Education for the trainees.
The current students attended an induction in Dundee to the CAIS courses in September and were introduced to the VLE, archive issues, oral history principles and transcription issues by Craig, Pat, Kenneth and Keren.
7. Dundee and the Great War
Planning for a series of events to commemorate the Great War and its impact on Dundee is underway. Archive and Museum Services will be joining representatives of History, McManus, the Wellgate Library and other Dundee heritage institutions in organising a range of talks, exhibitions and other activities over the next few years.
8. European Erasmus Commission Intensive Programme Summer School
Two CAIS students were among a group of over 25 students who attended a European Erasmus Intensive Programme (IP) Summer School Archives and Records Challenges in the Digital Information Society (ARCHIDIS). The Programme is supported by 13 European universities and took place from 30th July - 10th August, hosted by the Mid-Sweden University, in Harnosand, Sweden. The students examined issues surrounding appraisal and gained 10 credits towards their masters degrees from group and online work and written submissions. Next year the Summer School will be hosted by CAIS in Dundee. Craig and Pat were part of the teaching team in Harnosand.
9. CAIS Study School
A CAIS Study School for 28 new distance-learning students took place from Tuesday 4th September and Saturday 8th September. Students attended sessions including Archive Management: Principles and Practice, Electronic Records Management and Digital Preservation, Ethics and Palaeography, Diplomatic and Family and Local History. CAIS now has over 200 continuing Masters students from the UK, Europe and other areas of the world. The twice yearly study school is a great opportunity to meet our students in person.
10. Oral History Interview
On 28th August Kenneth and Michael conducted an oral history interview with John Carvell, who studied at Queens College and the University of Dundee in the 1960s. While attending the University he was a member of the 1968 expedition to Scoresby Land, Greenland, the records of which are held by Archive Services. The interview, which has been added to our oral history collection, includes fascinating details about the expedition and provides valuable insight into life at the University of Dundee at the time it became independent.
11. Twitter
The @UoD_Archives and @CAIS_Archives twitter accounts continue to be be popular. The number of people following the former has almost doubled this year and we are delighted with the number of our tweets which are being retweeted by a diverse range of users. We have even started to receive enquiries via Twitter! @The UoD_Museums account is also going from strength to strength with over 1600 people following it..
12. Enquiries
Archive Services continue to receive many enquiries from people across the globe. Recent subjects include the Great War, the jute industry, records of people who died in Dundee Asylum and the reorganisation of the University's sport teams in the 1960s. As ever, a wide range of people have sent enquiries in the past few weeks including academics, students and family historians. Enquires can be made in person, via telephone or by e-mail. We also have an online enquiry form which can be found here: http://www.dundee.ac.uk/archives/enquiry.htm
13. Records and Information Management Professionals Australasia – inForum 2012
Following the recent ICA Congress, Alan was invited by RIM Professionals Australasia to give a keynote presentation at two one-day conferences held as part of inForum 2012. His paper, 'Digital (dis)engagement: Recordkeeping Risk or Recordkeeping Reward?' examined the challenges faced by recordkeepers when dealing with digital information and asked whether recordkeeping theory and practice was robust enough to cope with rapidly evolving online environments. Other papers at the conferences included and excellent exploration by Kathryn Crawford of the methods used at Victoria University to capture records created in social media services and a keynote from Miriam McIntire Nisbet, Office of Government Information Services, NARA, on the Freedom of Information and Openness agenda in the United States.
14. Update from the Records Management Unit
As predicted, August was a particularly busy month for requests. A preliminary tally of retrieval forms indicates that nearly 400 items were produced. That will need to be double checked, but it is one of the highest monthly totals that RMU has ever seen. September has also started quite briskly, so let’s hope things get a bit calmer soon so that plans for the next shred can be resumed and further work done on all the records which are still waiting to be properly sorted out for listing and boxing up.
15. International Council on Archives Congress
Pat, Caroline and Alan attended the Congress and presented a session on ‘Communities, engagement and risk: Developing sustainable recordkeeping services in a changing world.’ They attended sessions and meetings of the Section Bureau of the Section on Archival Education (ICA/SAE) and Pat also attended her final meeting as Secretary to the Section on University and Research Institutions (ICA/SUV).
16. British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ontario (BIFHSGO)
Pat was invited to attend the BIFHSGO conference in Ottawa in September and presented a three hour workshop on Scottish Archival Sources online and a lecture on the Scottish Poor Law as a source for family historians. Over 250 delegates attended and leaflets on CAIS family history degrees and short courses and the Scottish Council on Archives were available.
In this edition:
1. Dundee and Science Exhibition
2. Artist in Residence in the Zoology Museum
3. Dr Mary Young Collection
4. Other Recent Accessions
5. ARA Conference Brighton
6. Skills for the Future Programme
7. Dundee and the Great War
8. European Erasmus Commission Intensive Programme Summer School
9. CAIS Study School
10. Oral History Interview
11. Twitter
12. Enquiries
13. Records and Information Management Professionals Australasia – inForum 2012
14. Update from the Records Management Unit
15. International Council on Archives Congress
16. British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ontario (BIFHSGO)
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1. Dundee and Science Exhibition
Museum Services have curated a special exhibition at Dundee Central Library to mark the centenary of a major scientific conference. In September 1912, the British Association for the Advancement of Science (now called the British Science Association) held a meeting in Dundee that attracted over 2,000 leading scientists from across Britain and the world. The exhibition has been created to tie into this year’s BSA science festival, which is taking place in Aberdeen on exactly the same dates as the Dundee meeting 100 years ago. The exhibition tells the story of the meeting and focuses on some of the scientific topics discussed, showing how they relate to current research – for example work on fruit growing, pollution, numeracy and Antarctic discovery. The displays also explore what Dundee was like in 1912, with dozens of rarely seen photographs on show. Archive Services contributed both text and images for this section of the exhibition, while members of the Tayside & Fife branch of the British Science Association contributed to the science section. The exhibition will be on show until 29 September.
2. Artist in Residence in the Zoology Museum
As part of an Art Funded project to build a collection of art inspired by D'Arcy Thompson, Museum Services has collaborated with the Barns-Graham Charitable Trust and the Royal Scottish Academy to host an artist-in-residence in the Zoology Museum over the summer. Lindsay Sekulowicz studied at the Glasgow School of Art and is now based in London, where she has worked on various natural science projects in the past. Lindsay's studio space is being provided at Balmungo, the former home and studio of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, one of the many 20th-century artists inspired by D'Arcy's work.
3. Dr Mary Young Collection
Archive Services have received eight boxes of research papers of the late Dr Mary Young, deposited by her son, John. Mary was associated with the department for many years, firstly as a researcher than as a member of the ARMMS team. Mary is remembered fondly and missed by all. We are delighted to provide a home for these research papers which will be an important resource for future researchers.
4. Other Recent Accessions
A number of additional accessions have been received during the past month. They include family papers relating to the Anderson and Kerr families who were connected with a house called the Grange in Monifieth, which complement the Anderson and Kerr papers already contained in our Thornton collection; a four volume set of The Works of John Glas and two nineteenth century Dundee Royal Lunatic Asylum volumes. Additional items have been received from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, accruals to the college's archives.
5. ARA Conference Brighton
The annual Archives and Records Association (UK & Ireland) Conference was held during August, in Brighton on the theme of 'Progression, Innovation and New Landscapes'. ARMMS and CAIS were represented by Caroline, Craig, Jennifer and Keren. Sessions included sessions such as Documenting the 21st Century, Innovations in User Services and The New Digital Landscape. As Chair of the conference committee Caroline was busy with the organisation and programme, which included papers on Wikileaks, the collapse of the Cologne archive and funding. Tony Ageh, Controller of the BBC Archive and inventor of the iPlayer, was one of the keynote speakers. 220 delegates attended and it was a great opportunity to meet other archivists, records managers and conservators and share experiences in different repositories throughout the UK. A drinks reception was held at the end of Brighton Pier with a welcome from the Mayor of Brighton (a former employee of DC Thomson) and a 'Latin' gala dinner was held in the hotel. This involved delegate participation and many took to the floor to show off their best salsa moves!
6. Skills for the Future Programme
Caroline recently attended an event organised by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland at Stirling Castle, to showcase the work of their Skills for the Future Trainees. Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Skills for the Future Programme provides opportunities for training and work experience in the archive and heritage sector. CAIS has been involved in the programme since it started and provides modules in Archive Management and Outreach and Education for the trainees.
The current students attended an induction in Dundee to the CAIS courses in September and were introduced to the VLE, archive issues, oral history principles and transcription issues by Craig, Pat, Kenneth and Keren.
7. Dundee and the Great War
Planning for a series of events to commemorate the Great War and its impact on Dundee is underway. Archive and Museum Services will be joining representatives of History, McManus, the Wellgate Library and other Dundee heritage institutions in organising a range of talks, exhibitions and other activities over the next few years.
8. European Erasmus Commission Intensive Programme Summer School
Two CAIS students were among a group of over 25 students who attended a European Erasmus Intensive Programme (IP) Summer School Archives and Records Challenges in the Digital Information Society (ARCHIDIS). The Programme is supported by 13 European universities and took place from 30th July - 10th August, hosted by the Mid-Sweden University, in Harnosand, Sweden. The students examined issues surrounding appraisal and gained 10 credits towards their masters degrees from group and online work and written submissions. Next year the Summer School will be hosted by CAIS in Dundee. Craig and Pat were part of the teaching team in Harnosand.
9. CAIS Study School
A CAIS Study School for 28 new distance-learning students took place from Tuesday 4th September and Saturday 8th September. Students attended sessions including Archive Management: Principles and Practice, Electronic Records Management and Digital Preservation, Ethics and Palaeography, Diplomatic and Family and Local History. CAIS now has over 200 continuing Masters students from the UK, Europe and other areas of the world. The twice yearly study school is a great opportunity to meet our students in person.
10. Oral History Interview
On 28th August Kenneth and Michael conducted an oral history interview with John Carvell, who studied at Queens College and the University of Dundee in the 1960s. While attending the University he was a member of the 1968 expedition to Scoresby Land, Greenland, the records of which are held by Archive Services. The interview, which has been added to our oral history collection, includes fascinating details about the expedition and provides valuable insight into life at the University of Dundee at the time it became independent.
11. Twitter
The @UoD_Archives and @CAIS_Archives twitter accounts continue to be be popular. The number of people following the former has almost doubled this year and we are delighted with the number of our tweets which are being retweeted by a diverse range of users. We have even started to receive enquiries via Twitter! @The UoD_Museums account is also going from strength to strength with over 1600 people following it..
12. Enquiries
Archive Services continue to receive many enquiries from people across the globe. Recent subjects include the Great War, the jute industry, records of people who died in Dundee Asylum and the reorganisation of the University's sport teams in the 1960s. As ever, a wide range of people have sent enquiries in the past few weeks including academics, students and family historians. Enquires can be made in person, via telephone or by e-mail. We also have an online enquiry form which can be found here: http://www.dundee.ac.uk/archives/enquiry.htm
13. Records and Information Management Professionals Australasia – inForum 2012
Following the recent ICA Congress, Alan was invited by RIM Professionals Australasia to give a keynote presentation at two one-day conferences held as part of inForum 2012. His paper, 'Digital (dis)engagement: Recordkeeping Risk or Recordkeeping Reward?' examined the challenges faced by recordkeepers when dealing with digital information and asked whether recordkeeping theory and practice was robust enough to cope with rapidly evolving online environments. Other papers at the conferences included and excellent exploration by Kathryn Crawford of the methods used at Victoria University to capture records created in social media services and a keynote from Miriam McIntire Nisbet, Office of Government Information Services, NARA, on the Freedom of Information and Openness agenda in the United States.
14. Update from the Records Management Unit
As predicted, August was a particularly busy month for requests. A preliminary tally of retrieval forms indicates that nearly 400 items were produced. That will need to be double checked, but it is one of the highest monthly totals that RMU has ever seen. September has also started quite briskly, so let’s hope things get a bit calmer soon so that plans for the next shred can be resumed and further work done on all the records which are still waiting to be properly sorted out for listing and boxing up.
15. International Council on Archives Congress
Pat, Caroline and Alan attended the Congress and presented a session on ‘Communities, engagement and risk: Developing sustainable recordkeeping services in a changing world.’ They attended sessions and meetings of the Section Bureau of the Section on Archival Education (ICA/SAE) and Pat also attended her final meeting as Secretary to the Section on University and Research Institutions (ICA/SUV).
16. British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ontario (BIFHSGO)
Pat was invited to attend the BIFHSGO conference in Ottawa in September and presented a three hour workshop on Scottish Archival Sources online and a lecture on the Scottish Poor Law as a source for family historians. Over 250 delegates attended and leaflets on CAIS family history degrees and short courses and the Scottish Council on Archives were available.
Tuesday, 2 October 2012
Culture Day is on its way!
On
Wednesday 3rd October the University of Dundee will hold its Annual Culture
Day, an afternoon of short talks by University staff from a diverse range of
disciplines. This will be the 8th year of an event which has proved to be
highly popular both within the University and with the wider public. The theme
of this year’s event is ‘Feeling Good? - Health, Well-Being and the Arts’ and
it will feature ten presentations which examine the connections between
culture & the arts and health & well-being.
As in
previous years staff from Archive Services and Museum Services will be among
the speakers. Museum Curator Matthew Jarron will open proceedings with a talk
on the remarkable story of art collecting by Dundee dentists in the 19th
and 20th centuries. Later Archive Service’s Kenneth Baxter
will use materials held in the archives to examine the stories of some of
Dundee’s early female doctors and medical graduates and the impact they made
upon the city and the wider world. Other speakers include Beth Lord, Brian
Hoyle, Billy Kenfeick, Derek Partick and Sandra Wilson.
Culture
day is organised by the University’s Culture and Arts Forum (CAF), an informal
network developed to support and promote the various departments within
the University that are involved in cultural activity. Matthew is
Convener of CAF, and Deputy Archivist Caroline Brown is its Secretary.Thursday, 9 August 2012
The Mission work of Dr D.W. Torrance and Dr. H.W. Torrance in Tiberias.
The Torrance collection, which includes
thousands of photographs and colour slides of Israel, Palestine and medical illnesses,
has now been fully updated on our online catalogue. The photographs were taken
by David Torrance and his son Herbert
Torrance who established a hospital in Tiberius in 1885 which lasted for
over a hundred years helping the local communities.
David Watt Torrance (1862-1923) was
educated at Glasgow University before travelling to Palestine in 1884 and
assisted in the inauguration of the sea of Galilee Medical Mission. In 1885 he
returned to Tiberias and opened the first hospital for those of any race or
religion in two rooms near the Franciscan monastery. By 1984 there was a fully
functioning hospital with 24 beds and 6 cots. In 1890 Dr Torrance married Lydia
Huber and they had four children: Gordon, Stuart, Herbert (1892) and Lydia
(1894). Dr D. W. Torrance died in Tiberius on 26 August, 1923.
Herbert Watt Torrance (1892-1977)
was educated at Glasgow University and joined the Royal Army Medical Corps
serving in France and Serbia and was awarded the Military Cross. In 1923 he
went to Tiberius and become superintendent of the hospital. He was made an
Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and received an OBE.
Following the declaration of the
state of Israel in 1948 the mission hospital became a maternity hospital in
Northern Galilee under the Israeli Department of Health. In 1959 the Israeli
Government closed the mission hospital and a hospice for travellers was
established in the buildings with a resident minister continuing the mission
work. Dr H.W Torrance returned to Dundee in 1953 and died in 1977.
These photographs provide a glimpse
into the world of both David and Herbert Torrance and their lives and work
alongside the Israeli and Palestinian people. The collection of over 4,500
items can be searched online at http://www.dundee.ac.uk/archives/
and can be consulted in the Archive searchroom.
We would like to thank our volunteers and Elizabeth Thompson and Hazel Elder for their hard work on this collection.
Tuesday, 7 August 2012
eARMMS, July/August 2012
This is the latest edition of the ARMMS and CAIS newsletter, eARMMS, that we also post here. Let us know if you would like an email copy each month.
In this edition:
1. Staff Member Leaving
2. History Dissertations
3. Local Societies Display
4. Imag(in)ing the Past
5. Scottish Word and Image Group Conference
6. Recent Accessions
7. Photographing Changing Dundee
8. The Great British Story Event
9. Glasite/Sandemanian Papers
10. 100 Year Anniversary of the First World War
11. Returning Volunteer
12. New Archival Standard for Preservation
13. Records Management Update
14. Partnership with the University of Stirling
15. The Archives and Records Challenges in the Digital Information Society (ARCHIDIS) 2012
16. Preparing for September Student Intake
-----
1. Staff Member Leaving
CAIS said goodbye to a member of staff in July. Ms Angela Morton, CAIS Programme Administrator, has left to take up a post in education. CAIS would like thank Angela for all her excellent work over the past two and a half years and she will be sadly missed.
2. History Dissertations
The latest batch of 45 Arts and Social Science dissertations has been added to the Thesis database for 2011-2012. That is an increase in dissertations of 13 from 2011 figures. The dissertations cover a wide variety of subjects from the Boer War to fallen women of the nineteenth century. A large number of the dissertations look at local issues such as the Tay Bridge and why the 1960’s Overgate shopping centre failed. The dissertations are a valuable source of information as well as providing guidelines for up and coming students. Many also acknowledge the University Archives staff who were thanked for their help.
3. Local Societies Display
Jennifer has created a small display in the exhibition cabinet outside the Archive Searchroom showing items from various collections of local societies and organisations. This is to go with the display boards which were put together by Ruth Macdonald, the HLF funded Skills for the Future Trainee who was with us for two weeks in May. The boards show images from MS 21 Abertay Historical Society, MS 138 The Grampian Club and MS 342 Dundee Art Society. The items in the display case are from MS 155 Dundee Working Men’s Field Club, MS 80 Dundee Naturalists Society and MS 107 Calcutta and Mofussil Scots Society. For more information on all these collections you can search our online catalogue, www.dundee.ac.uk/archives/
4. Imag(in)ing the Past
The latest exhibition by Museum Services in the Lamb Gallery explores some of the many ways that art has represented, challenged and been inspired by history, mythology and our ideas of the past. Rather than straightforward history painting as such, this is about artists who explore issues relating to the past in more interesting ways. Some artists – such as Will Maclean – draw on the history of traditional Scottish and Gaelic culture to make us more aware of the impact of its loss. Ian Hamilton Finlay is one of several artists in the exhibition who draw on classical mythology, while updating Biblical imagery results in very striking works by Edward Burra and Neil Dallas Brown. There are also artworks inspired by archaeology and by the artists’ own personal past. All of the works shown come from the University’s own extensive collections of art, and many have not been shown publicly before. They include oil paintings, watercolours, prints, drawings and artists’ books. The exhibition runs until 8 September.
5. Scottish Word & Image Group Conference
The exhibition, Imag(in)ing the Past, was launched as part of a conference called Excavating Time, organised by the Scottish Word & Image Group (SWIG). The conference examined the various ways that the past is interpreted and distorted through interactions between word and image. Curator Matthew Jarron was one of the conference organisers and also gave a paper called 'Form and Number / Word and Image - Exploring the ideas and collections of D'Arcy Thompson'. The conference was attended by delegates from across Europe, Canada, the USA and Australia and also included tours of the McManus, a civic reception hosted by the Lord Provost and a walking tour of historic Dundee by Adam Swan of the Dundee Historic Environment Trust.
6. Recent Accessions
Recent accessions to the archives include material from the University Cash Office including information relating to flats the University owned in Whitfield; additional material on the Dundee Mountain Film Festival; a note book relating to the Angus Jute Mill; material relating to Duntrune House and records relating to the impact of the creation of the University of Dundee on the teaching of medicine at the University of St Andrews. The last item will be of particular interest to anyone interested in the history of university education in Scotland.
7. Photographing Changing Dundee
As you may have seen on Twitter over the past few months Kenneth has been taking photographs of the area around the waterfront which is currently undergoing extensive redevelopment. By doing this we aim to build a detailed photographic archive of this period of change in Dundee, which will see the demolition of Tayside House and the Olympia, as well the construction of several new buildings, including the striking new V&A.
8. The Great British Story Event
On 30th June Caroline, Jennifer, Kenneth and Keren represented Archive Services at the BBC's Great British Story Dundee event at the McManus. Several people visited our stall to try writing with a quill pen, to take part in our guess the date of the photograph competition and to have a look at some of our maps, photographs and documents relating to old Dundee. We were also able to help many people with their own research.
9. Glasite/Sandemanian Papers
The process of cataloguing the Glasite/Sandemanian papers is continuing. Of recent interest was a bundle of letters written by Michael Faraday and his wife Sarah to a friend and fellow believer who lived in Edinburgh. Faraday’s writing can be difficult to decipher, but it seems that he was losing sleep over the stand taken by the London Sandemanian church – of which he was a member – on accepting back ex-communicated believers. The practice of the church was to accept a person back only once – if they were ex-communicated again then presumably they had to remain ex-communicated forever. Faraday was quite upset by this; the two letters from his wife to their friend were written without his knowledge, and she in them she asks their friend to give Faraday advice based on Scripture. His response did seem to have succeeded in appeasing Faraday. It is little wonder, however, that Michael Faraday found the subject of ex-communication painful. Some years earlier he had been ‘excluded’ from the church and stripped of his eldership – all because he had accepted a dinner invitation from Queen Victoria. The problem was that the dinner was on a Sunday, when Faraday was supposed to be fulfilling his duties at the church.
10. 100 Year Anniversary of the First World War
Caroline and Matthew are involved, along with representatives from History, Mcmanus, the Local History Centre at the Wellgate Library and others, in planning a series of events to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the First World War. Starting in 2013 Dundee will see a range of lectures, exhibitions and other projects relating to the war and its impact.
11. Returning Volunteer
We are pleased to welcome back a volunteer. Hazel Elder, who was with us last summer, has returned for July and August and is currently working on the Torrance archives. The Torrances were medical missionaries in Tiberius and Hazel is checking the numbering of some of the thousands of their photographs that we hold.
12. New Archival Standard for Preservation
Archive Services staff held a meeting about the new archival standard for preservation, PD 5454: 2012 which replaces and updates BS 5454. Currently temperature and humidity levels in our stores are within recommended levels for mixed collections and Jennifer regularly monitors the conditions with thermohygrometers. We discussed recommendations for the filing and storage of different media, including photographs and PD 5454’s recommendations for nitrile rather than cotton gloves.
13. Records Management Unit Update
July was an unusual month in the Records Management Unit. Client requests were considerably lower than normal which meant that more time could be given over to processing new accessions than in recent months. Mhairi has been able to finalise consignments from Accounts Payable, Cash Office, Research Finance, Environmental Sciences, Careers and Registry. There are yet more consignments waiting to be dealt with from Management Accounting & Planning, Payroll, Residences, HR, Duncan of Jordanstone, Dental Health Services Research Unit and Education, Social Work & Community Education. However, with three audits by the Chief Scientist’s Office looming before the end of August, Mhairi is waiting for the requests to start coming in from Research Finance and will soon be busy scribbling out retrieval forms and searching for the required documents.
14. Partnership with the University of Stirling
A new partnership between ARMMS and the University of Stirling began this month. Alan will work with their information compliance team, providing guidance and support as required, based upon his knowledge and experience as the University of Dundee's Records Manager and Information Compliance Officer and as a professional educator and Programme Leader in CAIS. This is the first formal collaboration between institutions in this area in Scottish Higher Education and we are excited to be working with our partners in Stirling.
15. The Archives and Records Challenges in the Digital Information Society (ARCHIDIS) 2012
Pat and Craig attended ARCHIDIS 2012 in Härnösand, Sweden during August. ARCHIDIS is an Erasmus-funded Intensive Project, which has 14 European University partners. 30 students from the participating universities stayed at Mid-Sweden University and, in workshops, presentations and group sessions, discussed aspects of Appraisal and Social Memory. The current three-year programme finishes next year when ARCHIDIS will be hosted by the University of Dundee.
16. Preparing for September Student Intake
CAIS is currently processing offer documents for the September student intake. We expect to have over 50 new students studying a range of courses with us, including modules on our Masters, Family and Local History, and CPD programmes as well as on our 6 week vocational course Beyond the Internet.
1. Staff Member Leaving
2. History Dissertations
3. Local Societies Display
4. Imag(in)ing the Past
5. Scottish Word and Image Group Conference
6. Recent Accessions
7. Photographing Changing Dundee
8. The Great British Story Event
9. Glasite/Sandemanian Papers
10. 100 Year Anniversary of the First World War
11. Returning Volunteer
12. New Archival Standard for Preservation
13. Records Management Update
14. Partnership with the University of Stirling
15. The Archives and Records Challenges in the Digital Information Society (ARCHIDIS) 2012
16. Preparing for September Student Intake
-----
1. Staff Member Leaving
CAIS said goodbye to a member of staff in July. Ms Angela Morton, CAIS Programme Administrator, has left to take up a post in education. CAIS would like thank Angela for all her excellent work over the past two and a half years and she will be sadly missed.
2. History Dissertations
The latest batch of 45 Arts and Social Science dissertations has been added to the Thesis database for 2011-2012. That is an increase in dissertations of 13 from 2011 figures. The dissertations cover a wide variety of subjects from the Boer War to fallen women of the nineteenth century. A large number of the dissertations look at local issues such as the Tay Bridge and why the 1960’s Overgate shopping centre failed. The dissertations are a valuable source of information as well as providing guidelines for up and coming students. Many also acknowledge the University Archives staff who were thanked for their help.
3. Local Societies Display
Jennifer has created a small display in the exhibition cabinet outside the Archive Searchroom showing items from various collections of local societies and organisations. This is to go with the display boards which were put together by Ruth Macdonald, the HLF funded Skills for the Future Trainee who was with us for two weeks in May. The boards show images from MS 21 Abertay Historical Society, MS 138 The Grampian Club and MS 342 Dundee Art Society. The items in the display case are from MS 155 Dundee Working Men’s Field Club, MS 80 Dundee Naturalists Society and MS 107 Calcutta and Mofussil Scots Society. For more information on all these collections you can search our online catalogue, www.dundee.ac.uk/archives/
4. Imag(in)ing the Past
The latest exhibition by Museum Services in the Lamb Gallery explores some of the many ways that art has represented, challenged and been inspired by history, mythology and our ideas of the past. Rather than straightforward history painting as such, this is about artists who explore issues relating to the past in more interesting ways. Some artists – such as Will Maclean – draw on the history of traditional Scottish and Gaelic culture to make us more aware of the impact of its loss. Ian Hamilton Finlay is one of several artists in the exhibition who draw on classical mythology, while updating Biblical imagery results in very striking works by Edward Burra and Neil Dallas Brown. There are also artworks inspired by archaeology and by the artists’ own personal past. All of the works shown come from the University’s own extensive collections of art, and many have not been shown publicly before. They include oil paintings, watercolours, prints, drawings and artists’ books. The exhibition runs until 8 September.
5. Scottish Word & Image Group Conference
The exhibition, Imag(in)ing the Past, was launched as part of a conference called Excavating Time, organised by the Scottish Word & Image Group (SWIG). The conference examined the various ways that the past is interpreted and distorted through interactions between word and image. Curator Matthew Jarron was one of the conference organisers and also gave a paper called 'Form and Number / Word and Image - Exploring the ideas and collections of D'Arcy Thompson'. The conference was attended by delegates from across Europe, Canada, the USA and Australia and also included tours of the McManus, a civic reception hosted by the Lord Provost and a walking tour of historic Dundee by Adam Swan of the Dundee Historic Environment Trust.
6. Recent Accessions
Recent accessions to the archives include material from the University Cash Office including information relating to flats the University owned in Whitfield; additional material on the Dundee Mountain Film Festival; a note book relating to the Angus Jute Mill; material relating to Duntrune House and records relating to the impact of the creation of the University of Dundee on the teaching of medicine at the University of St Andrews. The last item will be of particular interest to anyone interested in the history of university education in Scotland.
7. Photographing Changing Dundee
As you may have seen on Twitter over the past few months Kenneth has been taking photographs of the area around the waterfront which is currently undergoing extensive redevelopment. By doing this we aim to build a detailed photographic archive of this period of change in Dundee, which will see the demolition of Tayside House and the Olympia, as well the construction of several new buildings, including the striking new V&A.
8. The Great British Story Event
On 30th June Caroline, Jennifer, Kenneth and Keren represented Archive Services at the BBC's Great British Story Dundee event at the McManus. Several people visited our stall to try writing with a quill pen, to take part in our guess the date of the photograph competition and to have a look at some of our maps, photographs and documents relating to old Dundee. We were also able to help many people with their own research.
9. Glasite/Sandemanian Papers
The process of cataloguing the Glasite/Sandemanian papers is continuing. Of recent interest was a bundle of letters written by Michael Faraday and his wife Sarah to a friend and fellow believer who lived in Edinburgh. Faraday’s writing can be difficult to decipher, but it seems that he was losing sleep over the stand taken by the London Sandemanian church – of which he was a member – on accepting back ex-communicated believers. The practice of the church was to accept a person back only once – if they were ex-communicated again then presumably they had to remain ex-communicated forever. Faraday was quite upset by this; the two letters from his wife to their friend were written without his knowledge, and she in them she asks their friend to give Faraday advice based on Scripture. His response did seem to have succeeded in appeasing Faraday. It is little wonder, however, that Michael Faraday found the subject of ex-communication painful. Some years earlier he had been ‘excluded’ from the church and stripped of his eldership – all because he had accepted a dinner invitation from Queen Victoria. The problem was that the dinner was on a Sunday, when Faraday was supposed to be fulfilling his duties at the church.
10. 100 Year Anniversary of the First World War
Caroline and Matthew are involved, along with representatives from History, Mcmanus, the Local History Centre at the Wellgate Library and others, in planning a series of events to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the First World War. Starting in 2013 Dundee will see a range of lectures, exhibitions and other projects relating to the war and its impact.
11. Returning Volunteer
We are pleased to welcome back a volunteer. Hazel Elder, who was with us last summer, has returned for July and August and is currently working on the Torrance archives. The Torrances were medical missionaries in Tiberius and Hazel is checking the numbering of some of the thousands of their photographs that we hold.
12. New Archival Standard for Preservation
Archive Services staff held a meeting about the new archival standard for preservation, PD 5454: 2012 which replaces and updates BS 5454. Currently temperature and humidity levels in our stores are within recommended levels for mixed collections and Jennifer regularly monitors the conditions with thermohygrometers. We discussed recommendations for the filing and storage of different media, including photographs and PD 5454’s recommendations for nitrile rather than cotton gloves.
13. Records Management Unit Update
July was an unusual month in the Records Management Unit. Client requests were considerably lower than normal which meant that more time could be given over to processing new accessions than in recent months. Mhairi has been able to finalise consignments from Accounts Payable, Cash Office, Research Finance, Environmental Sciences, Careers and Registry. There are yet more consignments waiting to be dealt with from Management Accounting & Planning, Payroll, Residences, HR, Duncan of Jordanstone, Dental Health Services Research Unit and Education, Social Work & Community Education. However, with three audits by the Chief Scientist’s Office looming before the end of August, Mhairi is waiting for the requests to start coming in from Research Finance and will soon be busy scribbling out retrieval forms and searching for the required documents.
14. Partnership with the University of Stirling
A new partnership between ARMMS and the University of Stirling began this month. Alan will work with their information compliance team, providing guidance and support as required, based upon his knowledge and experience as the University of Dundee's Records Manager and Information Compliance Officer and as a professional educator and Programme Leader in CAIS. This is the first formal collaboration between institutions in this area in Scottish Higher Education and we are excited to be working with our partners in Stirling.
15. The Archives and Records Challenges in the Digital Information Society (ARCHIDIS) 2012
Pat and Craig attended ARCHIDIS 2012 in Härnösand, Sweden during August. ARCHIDIS is an Erasmus-funded Intensive Project, which has 14 European University partners. 30 students from the participating universities stayed at Mid-Sweden University and, in workshops, presentations and group sessions, discussed aspects of Appraisal and Social Memory. The current three-year programme finishes next year when ARCHIDIS will be hosted by the University of Dundee.
16. Preparing for September Student Intake
CAIS is currently processing offer documents for the September student intake. We expect to have over 50 new students studying a range of courses with us, including modules on our Masters, Family and Local History, and CPD programmes as well as on our 6 week vocational course Beyond the Internet.
Tuesday, 3 July 2012
eARMMS, June 2012
This is the latest edition of the ARMMS and CAIS newsletter, eARMMS, that we also post here. Let us know if you would like an email copy each month.
In this edition:
1. Outreach and Talks
On 10th May Kenneth was delighted to be the guest speaker at a meeting of the Rotary Club of North Fife, where he gave an illustrated talk on Archive Services' holdings. The talk was well received and Kenneth was asked many interesting questions by the those in attendance. Kenneth thoroughly enjoyed the event and was very grateful for the kind hospitality the club showed him.
2. Twitter
The UoD_archives twitter account has gained more than forty followers in the last few weeks. Regular updates about the work of Archive Services, our collections and the archive world in general are posted by our staff on this account. The CAIS_archives and UoD_Museums accounts are also popular. The former now has over 550 followers while the later has well over 1,400!
3. New Archive Accession
We were very pleased to receive a new political collection a few weeks ago in the form of the papers collected by Robert Knight relating to Scottish Nationalism. This collection includes material relating to the Scottish National Party, leaflets and news cuttings relating to elections in Dundee and Angus in the 1970s and items relating to Wendy Wood's unsuccessful campaign to be elected Rector of the University of Dundee in 1974. The collection has been catalogued and listed by Kenneth and is now on our online catalogue.
4. New semester
The 2012 summer semester began on Monday 14th May. 56 new students were enrolled across all CAIS distance learning courses (Masters programmes in Archives and/or Records Management, Masters/PG Certificate in Family and Local History, single-module study for continuing professional development and two non-accredited short courses in family and local history). The most popular modules this semester are Archive Management: Principles and Practice, Archive Services, Access and Preservation, House History and Principles and Practice of Records Management.
5. Family History Fair
CAIS recently attended a family history fair in Maryhill to promote our programmes and short courses in family and local history and to raise awareness about the University's Archive and Museum Services collections. A presentation from Dr. Craig Gauld, CAIS Administrator, proved highly successful and generated follow-up interest.
6. External Examiners
CAIS held its bi-annual external examiners meeting this month and welcomed our new external examiner, Steve Bailey, to Dundee for the first time. Warm thanks to Norman Reid for his service in this role over the past five years.
7. Zoology Museum Summer Openings
The summer season for the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum is now underway, with the museum open to the public every Friday afternoon until 7 September, 2-4.30pm. As well as the amazing range of animals, birds, fish, insects and reptiles from around the world, the museum will also be displaying the first artworks acquired under a special Art Funded project to build a collection of art inspired by D'Arcy's ideas and collections. Further works will be added over the summer.
8. Comics Genius in the Baxter Suite
Currently on show in the new comics exhibition area in Baxter room 1.36 (on the first floor of the Tower Building) is a selection of original artwork by one of the great unsung heroes of British comics, David Sutherland. David has worked for Dundee publisher DC Thomson since 1959, initially illustrating adventure strips for The Beano including The Great Flood of London, Danny on a Dolphin and Billy the Cat. In 1962 he took over from Leo Baxendale drawing The Bash Street Kids, which he still illustrates today, having created well over 2000 separate strips. He then replaced Dudley D Watkins drawing Biffo the Bear (1969-84) and took over from David Law drawing Dennis the Menace (1970-1998). It was during this period that Dennis became the Beano’s most iconic characters, moving to the front page in 1974 and establishing the Dennis the Menace Fan Club in 1976, which grew to over 1.5 million members. The exhibiton celebrates David's 50 years of illustrating the Bash Street Kids and is being held as part of West Fest. It will be open Mon-Fri 10am-5pm until 22 June and then 1-3pm on Wednesday afternoons until 15 August.
9. Stunning Photographs in the Tower Foyer
The next exhibition in the Tower Foyer Gallery features spectacular images of Dundee by local photographer Shahbaz Majeed. Born in Dundee, Shahbaz studied at Morgan Academy before taking a degree in Applied Computing at the University of Dundee. He has since worked for the University as an IT Officer with the Residences Office and for the Web Development Team. His photographs of Dundee have been widely reproduced and one of them won him the National Rail Award in the Landscape Photographer of the Year 2011 Photography Competition. The exhibition is on show from 19 June - 8 September.
10. Canongate
Caroline and Pat visited the offices of Canongate in Edinburgh and brought back a van full of boxes, including publicity material and several foreign editions of titles. Canongate staff have been sent a retention schedule summarising the records that they produce and highlighting the items that should be kept for the archives. The next stage will be to approach their ICT support to discuss transferring electronic records to the University.
11. Disaster Planning Training
ARMMS staff had a training session on disaster planning using the department's updated disaster plan. During the session they discussed the appropriate fire extinguishers to use for different types of fire, how to deal with wet and fire damaged material, and the best steps to take in response to different types of emergency. Further training will follow later in the year..
12. Skills for the Future Trainee
We were very pleased to be able to offer a two week placement to Ruth Macdonald who is one of this year’s HLF funded Skills for the Future Trainees at the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. It was a pleasure to have Ruth with us. Over the two weeks that she was here she prepared a Powerpoint display to mark the 65th anniversary of the Abertay Historical Society, catalogued and re-housed a collection of papers of George Patrick Henderson, a philosophy professor, and produced a small exhibition on local societies using items from our collections.
13. Medical Students
Caroline took a class of medical students who are studying the history of medicine. This class has been running for several years and an archive session is now a key fixture in the syllabus. Caroline introduced the students to using archives and discussed why they are important. The students were able to examine our extensive medical collections and had a tour of the archives. Favourite items included 19th century coloured pathology drawings, asylum case books and Professor Charles Alexander’s operation books from the First World War.
14. Papers of a Dundee Medical Graduate
Archive Services recently received a new deposit from the son of former Medical School graduate Hugh Douglas Ross, a Dundonian who graduated in 1940. Ross later emigrated to Southern Rhodesia with his family, having been recruited as consultant histologist for the shortly to be created Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The material in the collection relates mainly to the aircraft accident in 1961 that cost the lives of sixteen people, one of them the Secretary General of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjold. Dr Ross and an RAF doctor carried out forensic examinations and provided medical evidence for the subsequent reports on the accident. The items in the deposited papers include the reports themselves, photographs and x-rays of the victims, and plans showing the exact location of the fragments of the plane and the positions of the victims' bodies.
15. Calm
Archive Services is currently in the process of transferring its Calm database to a new server and also upgrading the Calm software itself to the most recent version. Tobi Wood of ICS has been of immense help in installing the software on the new server. So far a 'clean' pc (i.e. one that had never had Calm installed on it) has been used to run the new version of Calm to experiment with the functionality of the software. This has proved to be successful. The next stage is to install the web server software and Michael, with the help of Tobi and the Axiell Ltd help desk, is currently in the process of doing this. Once the server software is running the catalogue will have its own url: http://archivcat.dundee.ac.uk
16. Volunteering Roadshow
On Friday 18th May 2012, Michael and Jennifer attended a Volunteering Roadshow that was held in the Tower Building of the University of Dundee. This was organised by The Archives and Records Association and was supported by the Centre for Archive and Information Studies, University of Dundee and the Scottish Council on Archives. It was an opportunity for archive professionals to share their experiences of working with volunteers, to discuss how to make the process as enjoyable and useful as possible for all parties and to talk about creating and implementing volunteer policies. It was an interesting day which highlighted different kinds of volunteers with different aims and how different types of institution (local authority and university archives) approach working with volunteers. All in all the day was productive and enlightening. It was particularly encouraging to see how repositories with differing circumstances often faced the same challenges with regard to volunteer work. The general opinion was that having volunteers working in repositories is a positive experience for everyone involved.
17. Information Compliance
One of the key roles of Records Management Services is the management of the University’s compliance with information legislation such as the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Acts. The first five months of this year were especially busy with a 43% increase in the number of requests over the same period last year.
18. Beyond the Internet
31 students have successfully completed Beyond the Internet Part 1 and 13 students have successfully completed Part 2, both of which began in May. To date, three students have signed up for Part 1 and 22 have signed up for Part 2 beginning in September. Beyond the Internet is a six week vocational family and local history course aimed at giving students the skills to develop their own research. Beyond the Internet covers various topics such as church records, wills and testaments, military records, palaeography, educational records, court records, title deeds and maps and plans.
19. Records Management Unit
As another academic year nears its close the Records Management Unit is being kept especially busy. In addition to student leavers from various Schools and Units such as Engineering, Physics and Mathematics, Humanities and Environmental Science, Records Management now supports other student related units, and shortly will be receiving records from Disability Support Services and Student Funding as well as Residences. These are amongst the newer client departments which have approached RMU for assistance over the past two to three years. They join long established customers such as Human Resources, Academic Affairs, and of course, Finance in benefiting from Records Management help in supporting their work through the efficient storage and secure, confidential destruction of time-expired records. This helps the University as a whole to free up valuable office space and, indeed, to encourage staff to be aware of the records they keep.
Last month RM reached the landmark figure of consignment 500 which appropriately was a batch of CODA files from Accounts Payable. From the Unit's inception in 1998 these batches from Finance have been a constant and regular part of the Unit's work. We are currently at No 507 with consignments from Education, Social Work and Community Education, Human Resources, Research and Commercial Finance Office and School of the Environment adding to the tally along with PECOS files also from Accounts Payable, and inevitably more CODA!
In this edition:
- Outreach and Talks
- New Archive Accession
- New semester
- Family History Fair
- External Examiners
- Zoology Museum Summer Openings
- Comics Genius in the Baxter Suite
- Stunning Photographs in the Tower Foyer
- Canongate
- Disaster Planning Training
- Skills for the Future Trainee
- Medical Students
- Papers of a Dundee Medical Graduate
- Calm
- Volunteering Roadshow
- Information Compliance
- Beyond the Internet
- Records Management Unit
1. Outreach and Talks
On 10th May Kenneth was delighted to be the guest speaker at a meeting of the Rotary Club of North Fife, where he gave an illustrated talk on Archive Services' holdings. The talk was well received and Kenneth was asked many interesting questions by the those in attendance. Kenneth thoroughly enjoyed the event and was very grateful for the kind hospitality the club showed him.
2. Twitter
The UoD_archives twitter account has gained more than forty followers in the last few weeks. Regular updates about the work of Archive Services, our collections and the archive world in general are posted by our staff on this account. The CAIS_archives and UoD_Museums accounts are also popular. The former now has over 550 followers while the later has well over 1,400!
3. New Archive Accession
We were very pleased to receive a new political collection a few weeks ago in the form of the papers collected by Robert Knight relating to Scottish Nationalism. This collection includes material relating to the Scottish National Party, leaflets and news cuttings relating to elections in Dundee and Angus in the 1970s and items relating to Wendy Wood's unsuccessful campaign to be elected Rector of the University of Dundee in 1974. The collection has been catalogued and listed by Kenneth and is now on our online catalogue.
4. New semester
The 2012 summer semester began on Monday 14th May. 56 new students were enrolled across all CAIS distance learning courses (Masters programmes in Archives and/or Records Management, Masters/PG Certificate in Family and Local History, single-module study for continuing professional development and two non-accredited short courses in family and local history). The most popular modules this semester are Archive Management: Principles and Practice, Archive Services, Access and Preservation, House History and Principles and Practice of Records Management.
5. Family History Fair
CAIS recently attended a family history fair in Maryhill to promote our programmes and short courses in family and local history and to raise awareness about the University's Archive and Museum Services collections. A presentation from Dr. Craig Gauld, CAIS Administrator, proved highly successful and generated follow-up interest.
6. External Examiners
CAIS held its bi-annual external examiners meeting this month and welcomed our new external examiner, Steve Bailey, to Dundee for the first time. Warm thanks to Norman Reid for his service in this role over the past five years.
7. Zoology Museum Summer Openings
The summer season for the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum is now underway, with the museum open to the public every Friday afternoon until 7 September, 2-4.30pm. As well as the amazing range of animals, birds, fish, insects and reptiles from around the world, the museum will also be displaying the first artworks acquired under a special Art Funded project to build a collection of art inspired by D'Arcy's ideas and collections. Further works will be added over the summer.
8. Comics Genius in the Baxter Suite
Currently on show in the new comics exhibition area in Baxter room 1.36 (on the first floor of the Tower Building) is a selection of original artwork by one of the great unsung heroes of British comics, David Sutherland. David has worked for Dundee publisher DC Thomson since 1959, initially illustrating adventure strips for The Beano including The Great Flood of London, Danny on a Dolphin and Billy the Cat. In 1962 he took over from Leo Baxendale drawing The Bash Street Kids, which he still illustrates today, having created well over 2000 separate strips. He then replaced Dudley D Watkins drawing Biffo the Bear (1969-84) and took over from David Law drawing Dennis the Menace (1970-1998). It was during this period that Dennis became the Beano’s most iconic characters, moving to the front page in 1974 and establishing the Dennis the Menace Fan Club in 1976, which grew to over 1.5 million members. The exhibiton celebrates David's 50 years of illustrating the Bash Street Kids and is being held as part of West Fest. It will be open Mon-Fri 10am-5pm until 22 June and then 1-3pm on Wednesday afternoons until 15 August.
9. Stunning Photographs in the Tower Foyer
The next exhibition in the Tower Foyer Gallery features spectacular images of Dundee by local photographer Shahbaz Majeed. Born in Dundee, Shahbaz studied at Morgan Academy before taking a degree in Applied Computing at the University of Dundee. He has since worked for the University as an IT Officer with the Residences Office and for the Web Development Team. His photographs of Dundee have been widely reproduced and one of them won him the National Rail Award in the Landscape Photographer of the Year 2011 Photography Competition. The exhibition is on show from 19 June - 8 September.
10. Canongate
Caroline and Pat visited the offices of Canongate in Edinburgh and brought back a van full of boxes, including publicity material and several foreign editions of titles. Canongate staff have been sent a retention schedule summarising the records that they produce and highlighting the items that should be kept for the archives. The next stage will be to approach their ICT support to discuss transferring electronic records to the University.
11. Disaster Planning Training
ARMMS staff had a training session on disaster planning using the department's updated disaster plan. During the session they discussed the appropriate fire extinguishers to use for different types of fire, how to deal with wet and fire damaged material, and the best steps to take in response to different types of emergency. Further training will follow later in the year..
12. Skills for the Future Trainee
We were very pleased to be able to offer a two week placement to Ruth Macdonald who is one of this year’s HLF funded Skills for the Future Trainees at the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. It was a pleasure to have Ruth with us. Over the two weeks that she was here she prepared a Powerpoint display to mark the 65th anniversary of the Abertay Historical Society, catalogued and re-housed a collection of papers of George Patrick Henderson, a philosophy professor, and produced a small exhibition on local societies using items from our collections.
13. Medical Students
Caroline took a class of medical students who are studying the history of medicine. This class has been running for several years and an archive session is now a key fixture in the syllabus. Caroline introduced the students to using archives and discussed why they are important. The students were able to examine our extensive medical collections and had a tour of the archives. Favourite items included 19th century coloured pathology drawings, asylum case books and Professor Charles Alexander’s operation books from the First World War.
14. Papers of a Dundee Medical Graduate
Archive Services recently received a new deposit from the son of former Medical School graduate Hugh Douglas Ross, a Dundonian who graduated in 1940. Ross later emigrated to Southern Rhodesia with his family, having been recruited as consultant histologist for the shortly to be created Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The material in the collection relates mainly to the aircraft accident in 1961 that cost the lives of sixteen people, one of them the Secretary General of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjold. Dr Ross and an RAF doctor carried out forensic examinations and provided medical evidence for the subsequent reports on the accident. The items in the deposited papers include the reports themselves, photographs and x-rays of the victims, and plans showing the exact location of the fragments of the plane and the positions of the victims' bodies.
15. Calm
Archive Services is currently in the process of transferring its Calm database to a new server and also upgrading the Calm software itself to the most recent version. Tobi Wood of ICS has been of immense help in installing the software on the new server. So far a 'clean' pc (i.e. one that had never had Calm installed on it) has been used to run the new version of Calm to experiment with the functionality of the software. This has proved to be successful. The next stage is to install the web server software and Michael, with the help of Tobi and the Axiell Ltd help desk, is currently in the process of doing this. Once the server software is running the catalogue will have its own url: http://archivcat.dundee.ac.uk
16. Volunteering Roadshow
On Friday 18th May 2012, Michael and Jennifer attended a Volunteering Roadshow that was held in the Tower Building of the University of Dundee. This was organised by The Archives and Records Association and was supported by the Centre for Archive and Information Studies, University of Dundee and the Scottish Council on Archives. It was an opportunity for archive professionals to share their experiences of working with volunteers, to discuss how to make the process as enjoyable and useful as possible for all parties and to talk about creating and implementing volunteer policies. It was an interesting day which highlighted different kinds of volunteers with different aims and how different types of institution (local authority and university archives) approach working with volunteers. All in all the day was productive and enlightening. It was particularly encouraging to see how repositories with differing circumstances often faced the same challenges with regard to volunteer work. The general opinion was that having volunteers working in repositories is a positive experience for everyone involved.
17. Information Compliance
One of the key roles of Records Management Services is the management of the University’s compliance with information legislation such as the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Acts. The first five months of this year were especially busy with a 43% increase in the number of requests over the same period last year.
18. Beyond the Internet
31 students have successfully completed Beyond the Internet Part 1 and 13 students have successfully completed Part 2, both of which began in May. To date, three students have signed up for Part 1 and 22 have signed up for Part 2 beginning in September. Beyond the Internet is a six week vocational family and local history course aimed at giving students the skills to develop their own research. Beyond the Internet covers various topics such as church records, wills and testaments, military records, palaeography, educational records, court records, title deeds and maps and plans.
19. Records Management Unit
As another academic year nears its close the Records Management Unit is being kept especially busy. In addition to student leavers from various Schools and Units such as Engineering, Physics and Mathematics, Humanities and Environmental Science, Records Management now supports other student related units, and shortly will be receiving records from Disability Support Services and Student Funding as well as Residences. These are amongst the newer client departments which have approached RMU for assistance over the past two to three years. They join long established customers such as Human Resources, Academic Affairs, and of course, Finance in benefiting from Records Management help in supporting their work through the efficient storage and secure, confidential destruction of time-expired records. This helps the University as a whole to free up valuable office space and, indeed, to encourage staff to be aware of the records they keep.
Last month RM reached the landmark figure of consignment 500 which appropriately was a batch of CODA files from Accounts Payable. From the Unit's inception in 1998 these batches from Finance have been a constant and regular part of the Unit's work. We are currently at No 507 with consignments from Education, Social Work and Community Education, Human Resources, Research and Commercial Finance Office and School of the Environment adding to the tally along with PECOS files also from Accounts Payable, and inevitably more CODA!
Friday, 22 June 2012
Graduation for CAIS students, Dundee 2012
Congratulations to all our students who graduated this week!
27 students across the various programmes graduated on Tuesday 19th June. Graduation is a
special day for all to celebrate the hard work that they have put in to achieve
their awards and, to add to the occasion, the sun was shining in Dundee for those who
attended the ceremony. We hope that those who were not able to attend in person celebrated in suitable style.
 |
| Some of the students who graduated and were able to attend the ceremony in Dundee |
Students attending the ceremony came from the UK, Ireland and Malta and students graduated from the following programmes:
- Postgraduate Certificate Family and Local History
- Postgraduate Certificate Records Management and Information Rights
- Postgraduate Diploma Archives and Records Management
- Postgraduate Diploma Records Management and Information Rights
- MLitt Archives and Records Management
- MSc Records Management and Information Rights
- MSc Records Management and Digital Preservation
 |
| A welcome for the students leaving the ceremony |
Good luck to everyone
for the future and we hope to see some of you again, perhaps enrolling on modules for
Continuing Professional Development. For more information about any of our programmes visit www.dundee.ac.uk/cais or email armtraining@dundee.ac.uk.
Friday, 15 June 2012
Football crazy in the archives ...
In honour of Euro 2012 we thought it would be nice to say a little bit about the records we have relating to football. Many of you will have seen the Peto image of Lajos Tichy’s goal for Hungary on our website. Although not generally noted for photographing sporting events, Michael Peto did take a series of photographs of this epic international friendly between Hungary and West Germany in 1959 which ended 4-3 in the host nation’s favour. Peto had earlier taken official photographs of England’s 7-1 defeat by Hungary in 1954.
We have a few interesting records relating to local sides
most notably a share prospectus and blank share forms for Dundee United dating
from 1925 (MS 261). Additionally in the Sidlaw Industries Collection (MS 66)
there are several aerial photographs which show Dundee United’s Tannadice Park
and Dens Park, the home of Dundee FC, in 1922.
 |
| Aerial view of Tannadice Park (on right) and Dens Park (top) |
These are significant because
they show how both grounds have been developed beyond recognition. Photographs of both grounds dating from the
1960s can be found in the Thomas C Keay Ltd Collection (MS 94). Both clubs’
grounds, which are the closest together of any senior football teams in the UK,
are located on the former Clepington Estate owned by William Neish of Tannadice
and Clepington, whose family’s papers were the subject of an earlier blog.
The records of the University of Dundee and its predecessors
contain material relating to various student sporting teams including a number
of football XI’s. One of the most
interesting items is a photograph of a University College, Dundee team taken
during World War Two which features future Tottenham Hostspur and Northern
Ireland star Danny Blanchflower among the players. At the time he was attending a course at the
College, then part of the University of St Andrews, while serving in the
RAF.
 |
| Blanchflower is second from the right front row and Quskaly far right, back row |
A key figure associated with all
University sports teams in Dundee was Jack Qusklay, the Director of Physical
Education from 1936 until 1968, who had worked as a trainer to Dundee, Dundee
United, Celtic and the Scottish national team at various points in his career.
Quskaly was a very popular figure at the University and had been a talented
boxer in his youth.
Other collections also have some interesting football related
items. The papers of D. J. MacDonald (MS 93) feature photographs of that firm’s
football team and a speech its owner made at a football match to raise fund for
Dundee Royal Infirmary. The Kinnear
Local Book Collection features books on Dundee United, Dundee, Raith Rovers and
Dunfermline Athletic among others. The
collection also contains the Dundee Directories which provide good details of
club and association officials. The NHS Tayside Archives contain a number of
records relating to football being played in hospitals in Tayside, as well as a
photograph of St Johnstone’s long serving goalkeeper Derek Robertson
participating in a ‘beat the goalie’ competition at an event at Murray Royal
Hospital. Perhaps the most unusual
football related item we have is a picture of a team from the SS Active (a
Dundee whaler) posing on the Arctic ice in 1894!
 |
| SS Active team 1894 |
If you are interested in consulting these or any of our
collections please visit the archive or get in touch. Our contact details and
further information are www.dundee.ac.uk/archives.
Our email address is archives@dundee.ac.uk.
Kenneth Baxter
Monday, 4 June 2012
The wrong end of the building…
More accustomed to working in the basement of the University
Tower Building, on Saturday Michael Bolik of Archive Services found himself on
the roof of the building, preparing to descend 140 feet straight to the ground.
He was taking part in a charity abseil to raise funds for Chest Heart and
Stroke Scotland, which also gave him the opportunity to conquer one or two
fears – such as a fear of heights! However, Michael had always had an odd
desire to attempt abseiling, and when the leaflets advertising the event
appeared his colleagues encouraged him to sign up. “I registered on the CHSS
website and that was me committed,” said Michael. “And when people began to
donate there was just no getting out of it.”
Michael confessed to feeling quite tense during the weeks
leading up to the event each time he thought of actually standing on the roof
of the Tower. Indeed, this turned out to be the most difficult moment of the
whole experience. “The worst bit is climbing over the railing at the top and
then leaning back,” Michael explained. “Then it becomes all about trust. We had
been told a couple of times that abseiling is safer than crossing the road, but
that was little comfort on the edge of the Tower roof leaning back at a 45
degree angle!” However, the team on hand to ensure that the abseil went
smoothly were very professional and coached the participants at each stage,
thus instilling a level of confidence. In fact, one of the most surprising
things about the abseil was that it seemed to be over very quickly. “When I
passed the Principal’s Office, which juts out of the building on the fourth
floor I knew I was more than half way down,” said Michael.
All in all it was a worthwhile experience and Michael’s
family, friends, colleagues - and even complete strangers – donated generously
to the charity. There is still time for last minute donations on Michael’s
JustGiving page: http://www.justgiving.com/michael-bolik
The acid test of the experience is whether or not Michael
would ever contemplate abseiling again. His response to this question is “Definitely!”
(Photographs taken by Kenneth Baxter and Kristian Bolik)
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