A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure to be present for the launch of the Journal of the Irish Society for Archives, ‘Irish Archives’, at Dublin City Library and Archive. The journals focus is on Irish medical history and the resources available for research into Irish medical history. The genesis for the journal was a workshop entitled ‘Resources in Medical History’ in University College Dublin on 21 September 2007, by the Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland at University College Dublin.
The Minister of Arts, Sport and Tourism, Mr Martin Cullen T.D. was invited to launch the ISA Journal. This is the Minister who is proposing to merge the National Archives and Irish Manuscripts Commission into the National Library. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t show up. His press secretary dropped off his speech before the launch…need not have bothered really. Interestingly, a few days earlier, the Minister was questioned on the proposed merger of the National Archives and the National Library in the Dail.
Deputy Martin Cullen: I propose to take Questions Nos. 76, 77 and 84 together.
For the information of Deputies, it is worthwhile to set out the rationale behind the decision to combine the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Crawford Art Gallery and National Gallery of Ireland while retaining their separate brand identities, and the decision to merge the National Archives, Irish Manuscripts Commission and National Library. These decisions, which were announced in budget 2009, arose from the scrutiny by my Department of administrative costs which was undertaken earlier this year as part of the Government’s efficiency review, with a particular focus on the number of State agencies and other bodies and in the context of the ongoing oversight exercised by my Department of these institutions against the backdrop of the 2009 Estimates process… Keep reading →
‘The only hope is that the measure is so poorly thought-through and therefore so absurd, that it will be impossible to implement it. Perhaps the records will show that this was just a foolish afterthought and perhaps those records will eventually end up in an archive worthy of a self-respecting State’.
I hope that Fintan O’ Toole’s prophecy from above comes true; otherwise if the Irish government gets their way, a ‘proposed amalgamation of the National Archives, National Library and Irish Manuscripts Commission’ will occur. It is widely agreed that the National Archives of Ireland has being under-funded and under-staffed for many a year and
‘a merger could achieve no significant economies since all three bodies are already under-resourced – especially the National Archives, which has been so seriously neglected that it is barely able to discharge its statutory responsibilities’. Keep reading →
Having endured the Irish summer, which should be renamed Rain, RTE Autumn schedules have wetted the appetite for those interested in history, genealogy and archives, with three programmes of varying quality over the past ten days.
It has eventually arrived on our shores, with all the fanfare and marketing of its British cousin, the Irish version of ‘Who do you think you are?’. The first episode, which aired on Monday night, dealt with the renowned journo on the spot, Charlie Bird. I was somewhat cynical before the programme aired as I think the British version has become a tad too contrived, the tried and tested formula of Celebrity X…crying on queue…’skeletons in the closet’…’there is a package at reception for you’. Keep reading →
With ‘le tour de France’ in full swing, I recently visited an exhibition entitled ‘Wheels of Fortune. The Story of Raleigh Cycles of Nottingham’ at the Weston Gallery, University Park, Nottingham. This exhibition draws chiefly on the archives of the Raleigh Cycle Company (now Raleigh Cycle Ltd.) held at Nottinghamshire Archives. It has been curated by Nottinghamshire Archives in association with Manuscripts and Special Collections at The University of Nottingham. If you don’t know your lanterne rouge from your bidon, your chopper from your bmx, this exhibition which runs until August 3, caters for all.
‘Raleigh Cycles have long been associated with Nottingham and their products exported around the world. From their humble beginnings on Raleigh Street to the creation of a global empire, Raleigh became a household name.’
I thought in the spirit of Web 2.0 ‘culture of openess’ that I would share my positive experiences of a recent workshop in Manchester entitled, ‘Sharing Made Simple: a practical approach to social software’. The day was full of new terminologies and activities in the Web 2.0 world. Buzz words such as wikis, flickr, del.ic.ous, twitter, librarything, second life, rss, atom and mash ups were explained. The programme consisted of the following speakers:Brian Kelly, UKOLN, gave a introduction to Web 2.0 http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/archivists-2008-03/
Finally, we got the chance for hands on exercises which included chat services (gabbly), peronalised hompages (netvibes), social bookmarking and blogs (blogger).
Exercise 1: Using Gabbly: A Web-based Chat Tool
Exercise 2: Using Wikipedia To Read About Archive Resources
Exercise 3: Using Wetpaint: An Externally Hosted Wiki Service
Exercise 4: Create Your Own Netvibes Pages and Add An RSS Feed
Exercise 5: Create Your Own Blog Using Blogger
Exercise 6: Using Netvibes To Read And Manage RSS Feeds
Exercise 7 Use Of Social Bookmarking And Social Sharing Services format
Exercise 8: Staff Development To Support Use Of Web 2.0 Technologies
Exercise 9: Using YouTube
Exercise 10: Participating In A Social Networking Service
I looked at some other countries National Archives buildings (although the images above only represent the façades) to contrast them with the National Archives of Ireland (could I find an image of the National Archives of Ireland, not a chance). I think the importance and sense of place that archives hold within their society is indicated by the status of the building. Why is it then that other countries seem to be able to plan more efficiently than Ireland in regards to this?
Musing to myself one evening, I started thinking about what films can have archives, archivists, records, strong rooms…inserted into the title, for example, ‘A fistful of records’. I came across the ‘There will be documents’ image while trawling the web. I wish I had the ingenuity and artistic talent to draw the image, unfortunately not, but the story behind this image highlights a welcome concept regarding copyright and image rights. I found the image on a website called Creative Commons
