If you’re working in local studies in the South of England, this year’s annual general meeting for the LSG South group is being held at The National Archives on 3 December. In addition to the meeting the day will include a tour of The National Archives’ library, plus a talk by Principal Records Specialist Dr. Paul Carter on ‘The Victorian Poor in their Own Words’ which promises to be fascinating.
Booking form and programme details:
The CILIP Local Studies Group is calling for submissions to the Alan Ball Award for Local History publishing for material, printed or digital, published in 2013 and 2014.
Background
The Alan Ball Local History Awards were established by the Library Services Trust in 1985 to encourage local history publishing by public libraries and local authorities. The awards were named after Alan W. Ball, a former Chief Librarian of the London Borough of Harrow, and author of many local history publications.
Following discussions with the Library Services Trust CILIP LSG will take on the administration, judging and promotion of the award. This has always been a prestigious award within the library and information community, especially for Local Studies services, and the LSG is honored to be involved with it. Traditionally, the award has been for printed materials, although more recently electronic information such as websites have been considered. The LSG committee has consulted with a number of stakeholders and it is clear that the award is still very popular; but as a result of the consultation we have decided to update and expand the criteria, so we are hoping for a bumper crop of submissions this year.
Criteria
There will be two awards this year. One for printed material and another for digital. Printed material might include books, pamphlets and guides etc.; while digital submission might include websites, apps, video, animation and some aspects of social media, such as blogs. We are interested in both the quality and usefulness of the content, and also how it engages the reader or user, especially new users.
The award will now be open to all heritage and community organisations involved with some aspect of Local History and who receive or have received public funding. This also includes lottery funding, e.g. Heritage Lottery Fund and Awards for All. In addition to local authority libraries, archives, museum and archaeology services; it includes small local museums, heritage centres and community history projects.
Submitting your publications
We will need submissions to be with us by 1st October 2015, for materials published in 2013 or 2014. Ideally we would like a hard copy of any printed item you submit. For digital items, please send any CDs or DVDs, or let us know how we can access websites, apps, blogs etc.
Contact Terry Bracher (Chair of CILIP LSG) c/o Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, Cocklebury Road, Chippenham. SN15 3QN.
email: terry.bracher@wiltshire.gov.uk , telephone: 01249 705515 for further information.
You will find the submission details and entry form on our CILIP (LSG) webpage:
http://www.cilip.org.uk/local-studies-group/awards/alan-ball-local-history-awards
The Judges
This year the judges will be:
Tracey Williams, Local Studies Librarian, Solihull Library
Dr Craig Horner, Manchester Metropolitan University and the Peoples History Museum.
Dr John Chandler, Local History Publisher (Hobb Nobb Press), Editor Victoria County History of Gloucestershire and former Local Studies librarian and LSG McCulla prize winner.
Dr Diana Dixon, Hon Reviews Editor, CILIP Update and LSG Committee Member
Alice Lock, former Librarian, Tameside Local Studies and Archives, and Hon. Secretary LSG
Convener: Terry Bracher, Archives & Local Studies Manager, Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre and Hon. Chair LSG.
The Prize
Winners will be given a certificate and accorded the title of Alan Ball Award winner, which can be used on promotional material. Sadly, there is no trophy or cash prize, but as previous award winners will confirm, it is a prestigious award that is very meaningful within Local History community
A few weeks ago I attended a half-day event at CILIP HQ on the use of newspapers for historical research. The event, organised by CILIP Local Studies Group, featured two very interesting talks by Edmund King, former head of the British Library‘s newspaper library, plus a personal account by Diana Dixon of the way local newspapers have enabled her to piece together previously untold stories from her family history.
Most of the day focused specifically on digitised newspaper databases, and in particular the British Newspaper Archive which Edmund King oversaw the creation of at the British Library. Like Diana Dixon I had used the BNA for my own family history research and at the local studies library where I work, but had not previously appreciated the full range of international newspaper databases which can now be searched online. Some of these databases mentioned by Edmund King in the first of his talks included:
Several of the above can be cross-searched via Elephind.com, which is attempting to create a single-search interface for all the world’s online historic newspapers (they have quite a long way to go admittedly, but a noble aim nonetheless). As local studies specialists we might question how useful international databases like these are to our daily work, which tends on the whole to focus on local people and events. The truth of course is that historically these ‘local people’ often moved around considerably, especially within the Empire, and events on one side of the world would often be reported on the other due to the complex web of family and business connections which linked people across the globe. Indeed, comparing the regional and international reportage of local events can often provide unique insights into these events which local sources alone could not.
Next Diana Dixon provided a very useful overview of some of the ways local newspapers can be used by family historians. In the past I had used reports of local births, marriages and deaths as an alternative to ordering GRO certificates, but had not thought to examine the long lists of wedding guests and mourners frequently included in these same reports to put together a detailed picture of an individual’s extended family and social circle.
After tea and coffee Edmund King’s second talk focused on some of the more unusual items which can be found in the British Newspaper Archive. We would naturally expect to find reports of local events, births, marriages and deaths etc., but many of the ‘lighter’ pieces can be equally revealing. These include poetry, cartoons, celebrity portraits, ladies’ fashions, maps, literary reviews, serialised novels and items of musical interest, which can all help flesh out the world in which our ancestors lived.
All of the above were all illustrated with examples, and one of the best in my opinion was a brief mention in the Oxford Journal on the 23rd of February 1765 of a visit by:
“One Wolfgang Mozart, a German boy of about eight years old…who can play upon various Sorts of Instruments of Music, in Concert, or Solo, and can compose Music surprizingly ; so that he may be reckoned a Wonder at his Age” (p. 3, col. 1).
It is inconceivable to think this wonderful description would have been found without the BNA’s search engine, and it is worth remembering how lucky we are to have such an excellent tool at our disposal.
It was a very interesting and informative day, and a great opportunity to meet with colleagues and share experiences. If there are any historical newspapers in your library’s collections which you would like to see digitised, you can submit a request on the BNA forum.
Robert Jones, Assistant Librarian (Local Studies)
London Borough of Hillingdon
rjones1@hillingdon.gov.uk
CILIP Local Studies Group 