Progress Report 1

January 2000 - February 2000

Contents:

General Summary

Modules

Milestones Accomplished

Goals for February

Important Dates

General Summary of Activity

Principally this month has been taken up with compiling a database of contacts, preparing for the first partners meeting and the launch of the project in February. I have been concentrating on reading through the work that David, Julie and yourselves have done already and doing some further research. I have been attending various meetings and establishing contacts with other projects, which I will expand upon in the appropriate module. Due to the extent of the project, I decided to compile what has already been done in these fields to try and avoid duplication and to get a better idea of how to proceed. This has certainly been very useful in terms of focusing resources and considering the models already in place.

Modules

Archives

I have created a database of respondents to the questionnaires sent out by Marika Sherwood via the Society of Archivists before the Black and Asian Studies Association conference in January 1999. Of 118 completed questionnaires I have identified 86 repositories for follow up, either to ask for participation or for subject index information. There were also several respondents which merit further contact to use as examples of good practice e.g. Bedfordshire and Luton, Ipswich, Birmingham. Although these may seem to have more relevance for Black and Asian history the questionnaires have identified a considerable amount of material of interest to Caribbean Studies. There have also been useful finds for printed source listings and initiatives within local study libraries. Lambeth Archives have received funding from the Department of Education to survey their records for references to Black and Asian people. I visited Howard Falksohn and Jon Newman to discuss how our projects could interact. They have agreed to participate and provide us with the references they find. I also attended the Black and Asian Archives Working Party (BAAWP) AGM. Again this was also very useful, allowing me to meet some more of our partners and to realise the level of professional support for our shared vision. I have contacted Vic Gray, Chair of the National Council on Archives and sent information about our project to Carl Harrison at Leicestershire Record Office, to be presented to the DCMS council on social inclusion. I am also in close contact with the Cosmos project set up by West Yorkshire Archive Service to encourage the deposit of records by the Black and Asian communities and to publicise the services of the record office to those communities. We have also established links with the Public Record Office led New Opportunities Fund (NOF) project ‘Moving here: the peopling of England’. Channel 4 are also involved in a project ‘Black History Map’ co-ordinated by Jonah Albert. It encourages schools, youth groups and local history groups to research local black history, create web-pages linking through the Channel 4 site. We discussed the shared aims of our projects to encourage the use of resources in record offices and libraries and the promotion of Black history and intend to co-operate further. Julie and I met Lola Young, Project Director of the National Museum and Archives of Black History and Culture to discuss our projects and plans for mutual support. The Society for Caribbean Studies Committee were kind enough to invite Julie and I to give a short talk about CASBAH and how they could be of direct assistance. We discussed sharing bookmarks to Internet sites and references to manuscript collections. The launch party has been organised to start at the end of Dr Amanda Sives’ and Dr John Cowleys’ Caribbean Music Conference on the 23rd February.

Printed Sources and Audio-Visual

For this module I have been looking at the collection information supplied for the RSLP Expression of Interest, supplementing this with trawling web-sites and library catalogues. I have been reading reports about collection profiling at the University of Birmingham in preparation for the collection surveys. I have established contact with the LASER and Royal Geographical Society NOF project ‘Restoring the lifeline’. I attended the Audio Visual Sub-Committee of the BAAWP and have secured the participation of the British Film Institute. I also met several interested parties including Maryann Gomes, North West Film Archive, Sonia Boyce, African and Asian Visual Arts Archive and Toby Haggith, Imperial War Museum Film and Video Archive. Continued participation in the Audio Visual meetings is important. It will allow for the promotion of our project and its resources and enable input from experts in this field. Awareness I have asked or been asked to write articles for the Black and Asian Studies Association, Society for Caribbean Studies and the Association of Commonwealth Archivists and Records Managers (ACARM). I intend to put out a circular on the archives-nra listserve and the library equivalent, lis-link. I have also produced a draft information leaflet.

IT

So far Dr Frances Blomeley and I have had preliminary consultations particularly concerning the archive part of this project. I intend for the remainder of this month to concentrate on the printed sources and audio-visual requirements. A web-site has also been established but this is an interim site.

Milestones Accomplished

1 Project Officer started

2 Contact made with partners, advisory bodies, interested parties and other projects.

3 Web-site available

4 Partners Meeting

5 Monthly Report

Goals for February

1 Establish Project Web-site – request – could everyone send electronic versions of logos to me. I intend to use them on the web-site as links to partner information. They would also brighten up the information leaflet.

2 Project Launch 23rd February

3 Discuss database requirements for archives, printed sources and AV material

4 Develop survey strategies for printed sources via e-mail discussion with Printed Sources Module group

5 Set up listserve

6 Write up articles

7 Approve final draft of information leaflet.

Important Dates

1 Partners’ Printed Source and AV collections surveyed by end of March

2 Archive Surveys at Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London Metropolitan Archives and University of North London completed by end of April

3 Archive surveys at Wolverhampton and Modern Records Centre completed by end of May

Author: Samantha Collenette, 4th Feb 2000