Local Studies is democratic education

by Alice Lock, LSG Secretary

Now that I’ve become a library user (viruses permitting), rather than a staff member, I can’t help noticing how many events and initiatives are arts based. I suppose that this is partly because the Arts Council has national responsibility for libraries and grants for activities come from them. This must bring in new audiences who can make use of local studies collections in different ways, but I worry that it an emphasis on arts rather than learning might have its drawbacks.

I’ve always believed that local history and family history are important because they are the most democratic form of education available to anyone. Anybody can walk through the door and decide for themselves what they want to study and how. They can interact with other people through chatting to others in the library or through societies – or they can work completely on their own if they wish. They don’t have to pay fees to an educational organisation, they can pick whatever aspect of history that interests them – and, if they adopt proper research techniques, their work has equal value to professionals in the field. Very few subjects allow complete amateurs opportunities like this. In my working life I came across many people who had not done well at school and had come to regret their perceived “lack of education” – local history gave them a second chance to learn, on their own terms. I can’t count the number of people who complained that the history of “kings and queens” which they encountered in their young days at school was of no interest to them. Local and family history is not only of interest because it concerns our immediate environment but it also focusses on the past lives of people like us.

Many years ago family history was regarded as a rather pointless exercise of collecting names and dates. Nowadays its value as a way of learning about our past and how society works is as evident as in the study of local history. But students learn so much more – research techniques (both online and with documents), how to evaluate evidence, how to analyse evidence, how to present findings etc etc.

To me this is what makes local studies collections important.