Want to know more about the CILIP Local Studies Toolkit? Last year Terry Bracher & Tony Pilmer gave a presentation to the The Historic Society of Lancashire & Cheshire. It included excellent presentations from Tracey Williams on not just ticking to box & Local Studies in an international context by José Luiz Pederzoli and a Q&A that also included Lancashire’s Louise Turner. Watch the record here:
There are two forthcoming training courses on working with cultural heritage data that may be of interest to local studies librarians:
The theme for the school this year is Digital Image Curation. There will be a Q&A about the school and how to apply on 25 January, 2pm GMT. Register for the zoom link.
There will be further face-to-face sessions in York and Wales before July 2023, so watch out for those if they are more convenient to get to.
Date: Friday 21 October, 10.25-15.40
Location: The National Archives, Kew
Cost: £25 plus VAT (£30 inc VAT) including lunch & drinks
New bookings link: book here.
Local Studies projects, collections and staff have the power to engage people from widely different backgrounds and across the generation. They can also meet the priorities of library, archive and heritage services in innovative ways.
To help guide and inspire those who work in our field, CILIP Local Studies Group are launching the Local Studies Toolkit, a free online guide containing nearly fifty sections written and peer reviewed by some of the best local studies professionals in the country. View it now at https://lslibrarians.wordpress.com/toolkit/.
The programme for the day is:
10am Reception open & tea and coffee available
10.25am Welcome, Terry Bracher, Chair LSG & Tina Morton, Head of Archives Sector Development, The National Archives.
10.30am Why local studies matters, Norma Crowe, formerly Local Studies Librarian, Medway
10.50am Launch of the Local Studies Toolkit, Tony Pilmer, Librarian & Archivist, Royal Aeronautical Society & formerly Local Studies Librarian, Slough (Editor-in-Chief of the toolkit)
11am Community Archives, Terry Bracher, Heritage Services Manager, Wiltshire
11.20am Oral history projects, Martin Hayes, County Local Studies Librarian, West Sussex
11.40am Delegates can choose from three of the following options:
12.50pm LSG AGM
1.00pm Lunch
2pm Not ticking the box: local studies and meaningful impact, Tracey Williams, Library Specialist: Heritage & Local Studies, Solihull
2.20pm Creating Online Events and Website Resources, Tudor Allen, Senior Archivist, Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre
2.40pm Opportunities for funding, Eloise Kane, Engagement Manager, London and South, National Lottery Heritage Fund
3pm Panel discussion
3.30pm Closing comments
3.40pm Tour of the National Archives (optional)
To book please visit out revised bookings page.
Full details of travelling to the National Archives, including public transport links and car parking charges, please visit: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/visit-us/how-to-find-us/.
For further information please contact chair.lsg@cilip.org.uk.
Date: Friday 21 October, 10.25-15.40
Location: The National Archives, Kew
Cost: £25 plus VAT (£30 inc VAT) including lunch & drinks
New bookings link: book here.
Local Studies projects, collections and staff have the power to engage people from widely different backgrounds and across the generation. They can also meet the priorities of library, archive and heritage services in innovative ways.
To help guide and inspire those who work in our field, CILIP Local Studies Group are launching the Local Studies Toolkit, a free online guide containing nearly fifty sections written and peer reviewed by some of the best local studies professionals in the country. View it now at https://lslibrarians.wordpress.com/toolkit/.
Join us at the National Archives to formally launch the CILIP LSG Local Studies Toolkit, explore inspirational projects and find out more about the nuts and bolts of local studies and heritage work in the post-COVID world including:
Speakers include former CILIP Local Studies Librarians of the Year, Martin Hayes, Tracey Williams & Norma Crowe, speakers from the National Lottery Heritage Fund together with staff from two of the UK’s most innovative collections: Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre & Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre.
There will also be an opportunity for you to choose from a number of workshops that will enable you to explore and discuss areas of heritage work that interest you, including:
You can also finish the day with a Tour of the National Archives and take part in the 2022 CILIP Local Studies AGM.
To book please visit out revised bookings page.
Full details of travelling to the National Archives, including public transport links and car parking charges, please visit: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/visit-us/how-to-find-us/.
For further information please contact chair.lsg@cilip.org.uk.
Date: Friday 21 October, 10.25-15.40
Location: The National Archives, Kew
Cost: £25 plus VAT (£30 inc VAT) including lunch & drinks
Local Studies projects, collections and staff have the power to engage people from widely different backgrounds and across the generation. They can also meet the priorities of library, archive and heritage services in innovative ways.
To help guide and inspire those who work in our field, CILIP Local Studies Group are launching the Local Studies Toolkit, a free online guide containing nearly fifty sections written and peer reviewed by some of the best local studies professionals in the country. View it now at https://lslibrarians.wordpress.com/toolkit/.
Join us at the National Archives to formally launch the CILIP LSG Local Studies Toolkit, explore inspirational projects and find out more about the nuts and bolts of local studies and heritage work in the post-COVID world including:
Speakers include former CILIP Local Studies Librarians of the Year, Martin Hayes, Tracey Williams & Norma Crowe, speakers from the National Lottery Heritage Fund together with staff from two of the UK’s most innovative collections: Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre & Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre.
There will also be an opportunity for you to choose from a number of workshops that will enable you to explore and discuss areas of heritage work that interest you, including:
You can also finish the day with a Tour of the National Archives and take part in the 2022 CILIP Local Studies AGM.
To book please visit out revised bookings page.
Full details of travelling to the National Archives, including public transport links and car parking charges, please visit: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/visit-us/how-to-find-us/.
For further information please contact chair.lsg@cilip.org.uk.
Several colleagues in the North West of England have recently started discussing networking opportunities in the region. We are aware of some brilliant partnerships and networks operating in parts of the north west, with a range of different models, but want to take a sounding on whether we need to do more.
We would like to invite anyone working with archives to join an initial informal online discussion to simply ask the question, ‘what would you like to see?’ – to be held on Wednesday 29th June, 2.00-3.00.
We are interested in creating a regular informal space for people working with archives to meet, discuss issues, concerns or opportunities, and have a chance to find out from colleagues about activity and good practice taking place within the region. This could be through in person events, online chats or a mixture – and we want to follow up the online meeting with an event at Lancashire Archives towards the end of July.
If you are interested in joining the conversation, please get in touch with me at alexander.miller@lancashire.gov.uk and we will send on the invite. If you can’t make the date, but would be interested in keeping in touch with developments, please drop me a line as well so we can keep you informed.
Alex Miller
Lancashire Archives
The training of all staff is essential so that they expand their knowledge and keep up to date with the latest developments in the field.
Many of these courses will be provided by your own authority. Other training providers include:
Providers include:
It is important to build relationships with a wide circle of fellow professionals, so you can identify potential areas of joint working and refer enquiries to useful services. Local Studies staff also need an understanding and awareness of other heritage professionals’ practices, especially as the divisions between fellow heritage professionals are narrowing.
For more information on networking, please read the toolkit section on Relationships with fellow heritage, library and local government professionals,
You should also make time to pursue your professional interests and what captures your imagination, even if it is not initially clear how this would link in with your current role.
Formal learning is not normally the answer….. the question is, what would make you develop? Reading blogs, visiting other collections incognito, having a coffee with someone who you respect and talking over each other’s projects, or just sitting down and reviewing what you have done recently and how you could have made it better.
Care should be taken to allocate sufficient time for training purposes, especially as training is one of the first things that slips off the end of a to-do list. A useful way to ensure that you do this is to take part in CILIP’s professional registration process. Applying for Associate and Chartered Membership of CILIP is an excellent way to ensure that you and your employers give enough time for you to develop. Once Chartered, you can revalidate each year – a process which is not as painful as it sounds.
Many local authorities support library assistants to take a postgraduate qualification in librarianship, giving local studies assistants the qualification to move into a professional role.
Local Studies Librarians tend to stay in roles for long periods of time and their role is often reviewed once they leave their post. Ambitious local studies librarians can apply for management positions within library and heritage services.
Diana Dixon, ‘Just One World – or is it? Information Skills for the small Museum’. A description of local studies librarians’ skills and how they transfer to the museum world and training, Local Studies Librarian Vol 28 No 2 p 10-14
Do you have any comments, suggestions or updates for this page? Add a comment below or contact us. This toolkit is only as good as you make it.
The Centre for the History of People, Place and Community have four online training workshops that may be of interest to local studies staff. All are in the Autumn. Free to attend, but you must book.
Cartography and Mapping for Publication – 9 September 2020
https://www.history.ac.uk/events/online-cartography-and-mapping-publication
Analysing Historic Settlement – 23 September 2020
https://www.history.ac.uk/events/online-analysing-historic-settlement
Reading and Writing Historic Buildings – 22 October 2020
https://www.history.ac.uk/events/online-reading-and-writing-historic-buildings
The National Archives, the Medieval State, Early Modern Litigation – 18 November 2020
https://www.history.ac.uk/events/online-national-archives-medieval-state-early-modern-litigation
The archives of Britain’s aerospace and aviation industries chronicles stories of design, advances in science and technology, and the business of international and space travel, all with the aim of perfecting man’s dream to master powered flight.
This one-day conference is for everyone who cares for the industry’s paper-based and electronic collections, both large and small. It aims to highlight these records’ importance and inspire ways forward in preserving and promoting them to a wide variety of new and established audiences.
Speakers include:
§ Keynote Speaker: Prof. David Edgerton, Kings College London and author of “England and the Aeroplane”,
§ Michael Lombardi, Boeing archivist and historian,
§ Graham Rood on Farnborough Air Sciences Trust’s work to rescue and promote the Royal Aircraft Establishment collections,
§ Amy Seadon on Aerospace Bristol’s projects to engage children with STEM,
§ Ally McConnell on how Gloucester Archives won a large grant to make Dowty’s archives more accessible,
§ Andrew Lewis on working with Brooklands Museum’s volunteers &
§ Howard Mason on the business drivers for maintaining and exploiting the BAE Systems network of archives.
Plus there will be an opportunity to visit the new Aerospace Bristol galleries and archive, and see the National Aerospace Library’s conservation volunteers in action.
The conference will also introduce the Aerospace and Aviation Archives Initiative (AAAI) and its work. The AAAI comprises representatives from organisations, museums and corporate collections and aims to promote the preservation of, and access to, Britain’s records relating to aerospace and aviation. To find out more about AAAI, visit https://www.aviationarchives.uk/
Discussion on the day will encourage delegates to help shape the future work of the AAAI.
The conference has been generously supported by The Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation.
To book, visit: https://www.aerosociety.com/events-calendar/to-infinity-and-beyond-preserving-and-promoting-the-records-of-britain-s-aerospace-and-aviation-industries/.
A date for your diaries in 2019. The ARA are holding a free event on the 29 January on how to engage diverse communities with archives. This is a topic of interest to many involved in local studies collections, and would also be an good CPD opportunity.
Speakers and topics include:
Penny Allen (The Courtyard Hereford) & Elizabeth Semper O’Keefe (Herefordshire Archives and Records Centre)
‘Who lived in a house like this: creatively engaging care home residents’
Julie Melrose (Islington Local History Centre)
‘Lost Trades of Islington: a collaborative and cross-general project’
Paul Dudman, University of East London
‘Archives, Activism and Action: Participatory Cultural Heritage and Hidden Voices – the Role of Civic Engagement in Enhancing Archives?’
See the full program and book details here.
CILIP Local Studies Group 