Progress Report 16

August - September 2001

Contents:

General Summary

Modules

• Archives
• Printed and Audio-Visual Resources
• Collaborative Collection Management
• Awareness Raising, Outreach and Training Initiatives
• IT: Project Web Site, Database and Subject Gateway

Action Points for October 2001

Project Researcher's September Report

Project Personnel: Julie Evans (Project Manager); RSB (Roiyah Saltus-Blackwood - Project Researcher); CD (Carol Dixon - Project Officer)

1. General Summary of Activity

Throughout August and September the main focus of activity has been the completion of the regional archives surveys, with visits to the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Belfast, and the Glasgow City Archives. The team has spent time identifying records from the Public Record Office collections at Kew for inclusion on the CASBAH database and work is continuing on the preparation of collection descriptions from the printed sources survey data. Steady progress has been made within each of the project's modules, as shown below:

2. Modules

Archives

On Tuesday 14th August, JE and CD visited the Public Record Office (Kew) to discuss the inclusion of PRO collection descriptions within the CASBAH database. It was agreed that CD would search the PRO online catalogue for c.10-15 descriptions of collections within the files of the Colonial Office (and its predecessors), the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and other files documenting Britain's links with the Caribbean region. Records from the PRO's "Moving Here" Project which relate to the migration experiences of Black and Asian peoples in Britain will also be included in the CASBAH dataset.

The Belfast regional archive survey took place between 13th-17th August at the Public Record Office for Northern Ireland. The key collections reviewed included the records of the Irish Association for Cultural Economic and Social Relations (PRONI ref: D2661), government files, records of businesses owned by members of Belfast's Black and Asian communities, and the following sets of family papers which provided details of estates owned in Jamaica and St Vincent: D/638 - De Ros Papers; D/1049 - The Hart Papers; D1108 - Cunningham family of Crookedstone and of Belfast. Full details about this survey will be available shortly on the 'Project Data' web page at http://www.casbah.ac.uk/projectdata.stm. Further information about the Public Record Office for Northern Ireland is available from:

Public Record Office for Northern Ireland (PRONI) 66 Balmoral Avenue, Belfast BT9 6NY Tel: 01232 255905; E-mail: proni@nics.gov.uk Web site: http://proni.nics.gov.uk

The Glasgow survey took place between 10th-14th September at the Glasgow City Archives and Mitchell Library. As part of the pre-survey research Rozina Visram (academic research representative for the CASBAH Steering Group), Marika Sherwood (BASA) and Jacqueline Jenkinson (University of Stirling) recommended the following books and articles, which helped to identify key collections to sample during the visit:

1. Duffield, Ian (1992) 'Identity, community and the lived experience of Black Scots from the late eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries, Immigrants and Minorities, Vol. 11 (2), p.105-129.
2. Dunlop, Ann and Miles, Robert (1990) 'Recovering the History of Asian migration to Scotland', Immigrants and Minorities Vol. 9 (2), p.145-167.
3. Dunlop, Ann (1990) 'Lascars and labourers: reactions to the Indian presence in the West of Scotland during the 1920s and 1930s', Scottish Labour History Society Journal 25, p.40-55.
4. Edward, Mary (1993) Who belongs to Glasgow? 200 years of migration. Glasgow: Glasgow City Libraries
5. Jenkinson, Jacqueline (1985) The Glasgow race disturbances of 1919, in Lunn, Kenneth, Race and labour in twentieth-century Britain. London: Frank Cass.
6. Maan, Bashir (1992) The new Scots: the story of Asians in Scotland. Edinburgh: John Donald (ISBN: 0859763579)

The main collections surveyed are listed below:

• Records of Ardgowan Estates Ltd, Ardgowan, Renfrewshire (Ref: T-ARD)
• Records of the Smith family of Jordanhill: Jamaican estates (Ref: TD1/75-93)
• · Colquhoun (Colhoun) of Glasgow family papers: 1552 - 1853 (Ref: TD 301)
• Records of the Lennox family of Woodhead - also containing the records of the Cunningham family of Craigends - Jamaican estate owners (Ref: T-LX)
• Stirling family of Keir (Perthshire) and Cawder (Lanarkshire) - Estates in Jamaica, Montserrat and St Kitts (Ref: T-SK)
• Records of John Gordon, East Indies merchant (Ref: TMJ)
• Papers of Daniel Campbell of Shawfield, Glasgow merchant 1691-1714.
• Papers of the Speirs family of Elderslie, Renfrewshire. (Ref: TD 1318)
• Glasgow Emancipation Society
• Glasgow Unemployed Relief Fund

In addition to the above RSB also sampled the Glasgow Corporation files and a database of "Applications for Poor Relief to the Parish Authorities in Glasgow c.1850-1910", which, alongside name details and reasons for the applications, contained a searchable 'place of birth' field. As research by Jenkinson (1985) and Maan (1992) had relied heavily on articles from local newspapers to document historic events in the history of Glasgow's of Black and Asian communities (such as the race riots of 1919), time was also spent describing the newspaper collections in the 'History and Glasgow Room' of the Mitchell Library.

Further information about the Glasgow City Archives is available from: Glasgow City Archives The Mitchell Library 210 North Street Glasgow G3 7DN Tel: 0141 287 2910 E-mail: archives@gcl.glasgow.gov.uk Web site: http://www.mitchelllibrary.org/

Printed Sources and A-V Materials

· To-date 50 completed questionnaires have been returned and the data is being converted into collection descriptions, for export to the main CASBAH database. Responses to the printed sources survey are still being received and it is hoped that c.70 descriptions will be available when the database is launched next year.

Collaborative Collection Management

· The date for the first CCM module group meeting has been set for Thursday 15th November, 2pm, ICS.

Awareness Raising, Outreach and Training Initiatives

CD gave a presentation about the work of the project at the University of North London (Caribbean Studies Department) on 21st August.

CD and RSB collated information about Black History Month events taking place in libraries, museums, archives and community centres throughout the UK for inclusion on the CASBAH web site. Events lists were also circulated to BBC History Magazine and History Today.

The team have finalised the presentation programme for the Black History Month Dissemination Event, 15th October, and have circulated advertisements via listservs, partner institutions and associated projects. Full details about the event are shown below:

CASBAH PROJECT - BLACK HISTORY MONTH DISSEMINATION EVENT. Date: Monday 15th October 2001, 3pm-8pm Venue: Institute of Commonwealth Studies, 28 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DS

During the afternoon visitors will be able to view resource displays from organisations such as the Archives and Museum of Black Heritage, Black and Asian Studies Association, Birmingham Black Oral History Project, Commonwealth Institute and New Beacon Books. There will also be presentations from the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Archive, Channel 4's 'Black and Asian History Map' Project, University of North London's Caribbean Studies Department and the CASBAH Project. Later, Sandra Courtman, lecturer in Caribbean Literature at Staffordshire University, will present a seminar paper about the experiences of Caribbean migrants in the UK using illustrations from the Dyche Studio Photograph Archive. The event will close with poetry and music from Tanzanian writer and musician, Freddy Macha.

Presentation Timetable (Teaching Room, 1st Floor - Institute of Commonwealth Studies):

3.00pm - Welcome and introduction by the CASBAH Project team

3.20pm - Marie Bastiampillai (Head of Library Services) - Commonwealth Resource Centre, Commonwealth Institute

3.40pm - Roshi Naidoo (Education Outreach Manager) - Archives and Museum of Black Heritage

4.00pm - Marika Sherwood (Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies) - Black and Asian Studies Association

4.30pm - Jonah Albert (Black History Project Co-ordinator) - Channel 4 Black and Asian History Map Project

5.00pm - Lou Kushnick (Project Director) - Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Archive (University of Manchester)

5.30pm - Jean Stubbs (Lecturer in Caribbean Studies) - University of North London

Evening Presentations (Menzies Room, 1st Floor, Institute of Commonwealth Studies):

6.00pm - Freddy Macha (Tanzanian writer and musician) - Poetry performance, entitled 'Mama Nyonyo'

6.15pm - Tim Shaw (Director, Institute of Commonwealth Studies) - Introduction to the Caribbean Studies Seminar

6.30pm - Sandra Courtman (Lecturer in Caribbean Literature, Staffordshire University) - Presentation of a seminar paper based on research into the experiences of post-war Caribbean migrants, using illustrations from the Dyche Studio Photograph Archive.

7.30pm - Freddy Macha - Poetry and music performance, entitled 'Song of Ethiopia'

8.00pm - Close

Entrance to the event is free and refreshments will be provided throughout the day.

IT: Project Web Site, Database and Subject Gateway

JE has devised a methodology for allocating subject headings to collection-level descriptions within the CASBAH database. Following on from her report to the Steering Group on 19th July, it has been agreed that: (1) the UNESCO Thesaurus will be used as the "core" thesaurus for allocating subject headings to the collection-level descriptions for archival, printed and a-v resources; and (2) If appropriate terms are not available in the UNESCO Thesaurus, terms from other sources will be selected and added to the CASBAH index of keywords, currently being compiled by RSB, with acknowledgement to the source (e.g. keywords lists from the Institute of Race Relations and the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Archive).

RSB prepared a checklist for updating and uploading the survey data that is currently stored on MS Access databases to the CASBAH MySQL database (17th Sept.) Following on from this, the team met with Frances Blomeley (ULCC) on 24th September to discuss the final transfer of data and the design of the database interface for the web site.

Web usage statistics:

Listserv: There are now 95 members of the CASBAH-RSLP listserv. 11 messages were posted to the list during August and, to-date, 11 messages have been posted during September.

3. Action Points / Priorities for October 2001

• Work on inputting archive survey data into the MS Access databases and exporting to the MySQL test server.
• Transferring data from the printed sources survey questionnaires into the MS Access database
• Design work on the interface of the CASBAH database.
• Review of collections at the Public Record Office (via targeted searches of the 'PROCAT' online catalogue) and the selection of c.10-15 collection descriptions for export to the CASBAH database.
• Work on analysing data from the printed sources survey in preparation for the Collaborative Collection Management Module Group.
• Web site revisions and updates.
• Preparation of display materials and continued distribution of invitations and advertisements for the Black History Month Dissemination Event - up to 15th October.

Carol Dixon: 1 October 2001

Project Researcher's September Report

General Summary

Over the last two months I have concentrated on conducting surveys and drafting survey reports, archive guides, and summaries. Attention has also been given to documenting the procedures in place for transferring the survey data from access to MySQL

Core Collections and Regional Surveys

• Surveys at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and at the Glasgow City Archives were conducted between August and September 2001.
• Survey reports for the five surveys conducted in selected regions have been drafted and will be sent out over the next few weeks.
• All survey reports will be mounted on the website in January 2002.
• A document entitled, 'Summary of the archive pilot surveys (including TUC and IRR)' has been drafted. The aim is to finish this document by November 2001.
• A document entitled, 'Caribbean Studies and the History of Black and Asian People in the UK: Some archive survey guidelines for researchers' has been drafted. The aim is to finish this document by December 2001.
• A document entitled 'Caribbean Studies and the History of Black and Asian People in the UK: Some survey guidelines for service providers' has been drafted.. The aim is to finish this document by December 2001.

IT: Database and Subject Gateway

• The field lists have been altered. All survey data will be uploaded over the next few weeks.
• A document has been drafted which details the process of uploading data from access to MySQL. I have concentrated on the archive surveys and have passed this documents on to JE and CD in regards to the Subject headings and the Printed sources and AV materials respectively.

Awareness raising, Outreach and Training Initiatives

• Listserv Membership: 95

Roiyah Saltus - Blackwood Tuesday, 25 September 2001