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Community Archives Launch |
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Community Archives Launch |
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Nearly 150 people attended the first ever national conference on community archives, held at University College London on 27 June 2007. What was particularly exciting about the occasion was the fact that the audience was multi-cultural and cross-generational and a lively mix of enthusiasts, volunteers, professionals and academics, who spent the breaks deep in conversations about their own projects and what others were saying. There was a real buzz to the day, which made it one of the best local history related conferences in a long while. There can be no doubt that the community archives movement is gathering pace across Britain. The number of delegates demonstrated clearly that this was a timely moment to invite those most involved in building community archives to explore progress and look to the future. Staged by the Community Archives Development Group (CADG), the conference heard that CADG’s recent study of the impact of community archives had concluded that there were probably 3,000 groups now at work across the country. The results of that study, which had looked at a sample of 46 groups and made in-depth studies of eight of them, demonstrated a wide range of social outputs from community archive work, including inter-generational co-operation, the development of a sense of belonging and the giving of a voice to otherwise under-represented or neglected groups in society. The organisers managed to persuade Tony Benn to open the conference and he spoke of the importance of records to the identity and confidence of communities. He told his audience ‘An understanding of where you have come from as a community is vital in deciding what you want to do in the future’. He was followed by other speakers, just as inspirational, who spoke of their work in such places as the tiny village of Cwmystwyth which is part of the developing Community Archives Wales network; the Bata Reminiscence and Resource Centre in East Tilbury, Essex, working to keep alive the legacy of a company town after the closure of the Bata shoe factory and the Cypriot Diaspora Project from north London which has filmed life-interviews with early Cypriot émigrés to Britain in the 1930s. CADG will use the results of opinions sought from the conference to formulate how best it can help community archives to develop while still retaining their independence. Convenor of the Group, Vic Gray, reminded the delegates that this was a movement which could only retain its vigour and value if its future was shaped from the grassroots up. ‘CADG’s job will be to give a helping hand where it is useful, providing the means to exchange experience and ideas but always remembering that it is the views and the energy of each community which matters most’. For further information on CADG and its Impact Study contact Victor Gray, Convenor, CADG, tel: 01245 380835, email: grayvw@globalnet.co.uk, www.communityarchives.org.uk. |
9 August 2007 |
