Research in archives and records management: a UK perspective

1
Research in archives and records management a UK
perspective

• Dr Elizabeth Shepherd
• e.shepherd_at_ucl.ac.uk

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Practice versus research

• Terry Cook (University of Manitoba, Canada)
• discipline v profession
• theory v practice
• education v training
• new digital recordkeeping approaches v
  traditional cultural heritage priorities
• Sarah McNicol quoting Booth
• research-practice gap

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The role of research

• builds theories and models as frameworks for
  practice
• develops knowledge base, understanding of
  professions ethos and societal role
• promotes critical enquiry and analysis, allows
  sophisticated articulation of concepts
• facilitates standardisation, planning
  evaluation
• examines policy development execution
• practitioner research

4
Framework for sustainability in research

• A shared understanding
• Setting strategic research priorities
• Funding streams
• Critical mass
• Research collaboration
• Identifying gaps and building depth
• Improved dissemination

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How does research fit into graduate education for
archivists and records managers?

• Professional qualifications
• develop professional skills and knowledge
• underpinned by history and theory
• critical enquiry
• Masters thesis

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Mapping the Research Landscape(British Academy
research grant)

• Aimed to improve the quality and quantity of
  academic research in archives and records
  management by creating a map of the research
  landscape for the discipline in the UK.
• Research objectives
• Identify research projects in the discipline in
  the UK, 1995-2006
• Identify areas of professional practice with
  research potential
• Assess areas of weakness success
• Propose future research priorities as the basis
  for a UK research agenda

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Archives and Records Management Research Network
(ARMReN)Funded by the Arts and Humanities
Research Council (AHRC), 2006-2007

• What was ARMReN for?
• help develop research in the discipline of
  archives and records management
• link academics in archives and records management
  with researchers who use archives and
  professionals who manage records
• collect and disseminate information about
  research
• foster the development of new academic
  researchers in the discipline
• act as a central point for the exchange of ideas
• encourage new collaborative partnerships (UK,
  Europe, internationally)

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Archives and Records Management Research Network
(ARMReN)

• What did ARMReN do?
• created a website and information resource
  lthttp//www.slais.ucl.ac.uk/research-ARMReNgt
• organised three one-day research workshops
  Appraisal and collecting Description Access and
  impact
• ran three Archives and History evening seminars
  at the Institute of Historical Research,
  University of London
• disseminate results through conference papers,
  poster and a journal article

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Archives and Records Management Research Network
(ARMReN) results

• Appraisal and collection Description Access and
  impact
• Theoretical and practitioner-focused topics
• Anthropology, museums, archives and records
• UK, Canada, the Netherlands, Ireland, Norway
• extensive discussion alongside formal papers
• a very good insight into the most recent
  research

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Archives and Records Management Research Network
(ARMReN) results

• Archives and history seminars, IHR
• Professor Roger Kain, CBE, University of Exeter
  The mapping of English towns, 1700-1850 a
  locally oriented record
• Else Churchill, Society of Genealogists
  Challenges and new directions in genealogical
  research
• Caroline Williams, The National Archives
  Re-defining the role of research for The
  National Archives

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FARMER (Forum for Archives and Records Management
Education and Research) targets

• http//www.ucl.ac.uk/slais/research/armren/
• Research meeting January 2008, Eric Ketelaar
  spoke
• UK-wide doctoral group for ARM students
• Second PhDs conference held May 2008
• Society of Archivists to be lobbied about
  research policy statement
• Single virtual place, a shared information
  resource, for research in ARM
• Research framework to be developed

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FARMER research framework for the archives and
records management discipline

• Broad purpose of research activity Blue sky,
  Strategic, Applied
• Characteristics of each
• What kinds of questions does it ask?
• Who does it?
• Mapping of existing UK archives and records
  management research projects and doctoral research

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Eric Ketelaars Research Agenda for the
Netherlands

• Foundations (core characteristics of records and
  archives, recordness, ethics, role of records in
  society)
• Cross-sectoral concerns
• Formation and management of recordkeeping systems
  (e-records systems, governance issues, FOI/DP)
• Capture
• Appraisal
• Preservation
• Arrangement, description, representation
• Access and Use
• Management of archival services and programmes

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Research in archives and records managementDr
Elizabeth Shepherde.shepherd_at_ucl.ac.uk