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Community Archives in Cambridgeshire

Case-study showing the impact of community archives

Below you can download a detailed case-study of this community archive project. The case-study describes the origins, activities and achievements of the project, and assesses its impact on the local community.

The first section of the report is reproduced below. 

The Cambridgeshire Community Archive Network (CCAN) was launched in April 2006, following the success of a smaller pilot project started in the previous year in East Cambridgeshire. 40 local volunteer groups are being set up across the county in addition to the initial 7 pilot groups.

CCAN has a particular and precise definition of community archive: ‘a community archive is a digital collection of photographs, written word reminiscences, sound recordings and video clips created and maintained by local community groups’. This point about community ownership and empowerment is a central consideration, although groups operate within agreed constitutions they are encouraged to establish their own methods of working and groups setup their own constitutions and practices. This suggests that traditional archives and repositories are not felt to be community owned. The project is clearly in its early stages, so it is not yet possible to assess its full impact, but several key factors concerning scope and significance are relevant to this study:

Funding and support
The projected has been awarded £299,500 by the Heritage Lottery Fund, to cover a 3 year period. The pilot was also HLF funded. The CCAN is also supported by the County Council through staff secondment and IT training. It is linked to Learn Direct initiatives. After this initial funding period ends, groups will have to be self-funding through grants or other fundraising. The Haddenham group, for example, is currently applying to the ‘Community Champions Fund’.

Group profile
With the exception of the planned Cambridge Ethnic Community Forum, the groups are associated with location-based communities, rather than those of faith, ethnicity or common interest. In practice, groups tend to have active cores of c.5 people. It is significant that the way groups are set up encourages a membership of those already involved in other local groups, particularly historical or museum societies. Existing local history experts/enthusiasts – ‘opinion swayers’ – are deliberately used as linchpins to build groups. Another significant membership group comprises people new to a particular community, who are looking for ways to embed themselves. So far group members have tended to be aged over 45. Efforts to expand this profile, and connect with people who do not currently commonly access archives and local societies, may prove effective. See, for example, groups being set up in sheltered housing schemes.

Location
The community archive groups largely ‘piggy-back’ the county’s network of ‘Community Access Points’ – Computer/internet facilities located in library Learning Centres, museums, post-offices, day-centres and pubs across the county. Inaccessible and private spaces, e.g. homes, are avoided.

Digitisation and web access
All records will be digitised: it is intended that no paper archive should be kept, and that individual donors retain original copies and the copyright. Users and members can upload material from their own homes or any computer with internet access, although addition of material to the archive is vetted by the group. Groups are linked in an online network using systems supplied by Commanet (the community archive network). Through the Commanet system,CCAN is linked to other community archives in other regions. Links to the website exist from County Council libraries site and from the national online
directory of community archives in the UK.

Collections
The system is intended to hold digitised photographs, documents, oral history
transcripts and recordings, film clips and other ephemera. These can be annotated and cross-linked. So far photographs are by far the most commonly uploaded category. Archives hold a mixture of historical and recent material, with a preponderance of the former, and there is a sense that groups value ‘traditional’ definitions of what archival material might be. Both original material and copies of material from traditional archives and library collections are
collected.

Relationship with traditional archives and record repositories
Although community archive autonomy is clearly an important value, groups are closely linked to the County Council, supported by staff from the Library Learning Services Team. Links are maintained between CCAN groups and traditional archives by the project’s Archives Liaison Officer, who advises Groups on the best route to conservation for any donated items’. There is additionally a policy ofpassing on digital collections and rights to Cambridgeshire County Council, if a group collapses. Several groups are located in museums and libraries and involve librarians and curators as members, see for example the Haddenham, Chatteris, Denny Abbey, March, St Neots and Wisbech groups. This might invite criticisms that the new community archive groups duplicate these services. On the other hand valuable symbiotic relationships seem to be developing, whereby groups can include copies museum/library material in their collections, and these bodies can benefit from the digitisation and
therefore increased accessibility of their collections.

Activities and outreach
It is too soon to assess these areas of activity, however it is clear that groups are planning outreach and other activities as they develop. Some pilot groups have already engaged in displays and exhibitions, and publicise their activities through local newspapers and newsletters.

CCAN clearly represents an innovative project, with potential for the development of many more community archives in the area, and serving as a useful model for other regions. There are certainly some limitations in current scope and overlap with existing services at present, but this is still an early stage in the project.

Download the full case study

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