My Brighton and Hove

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

The first two sections of the case-study are reproduced below.

Project summary

My Brighton and Hove is an online heritage website which presents and interprets material about the city. This includes photographs, memories, oral history and interviews, and material from other local heritage sources such as the local museum, community publishers and private image libraries. The website contains 2,500 pages of photographs, memories and historical information related to Brighton and Hove.

The project was set up in 2000. It was re-launched in 2006 with a redesigned website which makes it possible for volunteers without many IT skills to edit and maintain the site.

My Brighton and Hove is run entirely by volunteers, with around 50 involved each year. Over the last two years the project has become affiliated to QueenSpark Publishers, a local community publishing organisation which works with hard-to-reach groups.

For further background, download the case-study or see the directory entry for My Brighton and Hove.

What does this project exemplify?

Sustainability: The project has existed now for 6 years, and has very low core costs and healthy cash reserves. Its core activities are run wholly by volunteers and it has succeeded over the years in recruiting, training and retaining a pool of high calibre volunteers.

Online contribution / collection: My Brighton and Hove receives a steady flow of quality contributions online. This method of collection is unusual among community archives; it takes time to establish and requires an approach that blends the effective use of technology with a ‘human touch.’

High quality presentation: The website is widely used by schools and other users, with around 365,000 visits per annum. It has won Best Community Website in Brighton and Hove in 4 years out of the last 5 years, and a volunteer was recently runner-up in the
national ‘Silver Surfer’ Competition 2006.

Download the full case study