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LSG Volunteer of the Year Award Winners Announced

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The 2024 Alice Lock Memorial Volunteer Award (Under 25 Category) 

Winner: Jegan Jatta, Nottinghamshire Archives 

Jegan volunteered whilst studying at university in a project aiming to create activities for 18-25 year olds in the form of escape room activities using historical documents, followed by murder mystery events which he took part in delivering. Staff acknowledged his dedication to participate whilst balancing work and study commitments.

General information about Nottinghamshire Libraries and Archives can be found at:

www.inspireculture.org.uk/heritage

The 2024 Alice Lock Memorial Volunteer Award (Over 25 Category) 

Winner: Peter Slater, Leeds Libraries

Peter volunteered to assist in research on a British Library/ Leeds Libraries project to record local football fanzines. However, his enthusiasm didn’t stop there and he has now completed a survey of national significance, covering all UK fanzines which has already been useful to researchers. 

To find out more about the project please visit: 

The Final Whistle: Voice of the Fans is over

An award ceremony for the winners will take place on-line in October. Thank you to all those who nominated volunteers. 

The deadline for the 2025 award is the end of January 2026 for those actively volunteering during 2025.

visit our nominations page: Local Studies Volunteer Award – CILIP Local Studies Group

If you wish us to consider previous nominees please contact us.

Local Studies Toolkit – Recording of Presentation now live

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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:

Not ticking the box – Local Studies and meaningful impact. An online presentation by Tracey Williams

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Local Studies Group are proud to publish this talk based on Tracey’s section on Linking with local authority priorities in Local Studies Toolkit. A must watch for all librarians, archivists and other heritage professionals.

What did you think? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Book Now for LSG Conference 2025

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We are pleased to start the New Year by announcing the theme and line-up for our annual conference. In 2025, we will be exploring community wellbeing with a great range of speakers in Manchester.

Local Studies and Archive services contribute to community health and wellbeing in many ways. It makes our collections and expertise ever more relevant to our organisations, customers and local areas. Come and join us in the historic Central Library for informative sessions on how you can design impactful activities and brilliant outcomes, in the most creative ways.

Local Studies and Community Wellbeing

Date and time: Monday 7th April 2025 | 10 am – 4 pm.

Location: Performance Space, Manchester Central Library, St Peter’s Square, Manchester, M2 5PD.

Register via the CILIP website. (CILIP members should login first to receive the member rate).


Speakers confirmed include:

  • Dr Michala Hulme, award-winning Historian and Genealogist, Podcaster, and who has appeared on many national and regional TV programmes. Michala will be talking about her popular podcast and especially how Family History has been supporting men’s mental health.
  • Karen Shannon, CEO Manchester Histories and Hon. Research Fellow at Manchester University. Manchester Histories, with a hub in Manchester Central library, deliver inspirational work with local communities, and we will have an introduction to their new Heritage and Wellbeing Toolkit
  • Isobel McDonald, Glasgow Life Museums. Glasgow’s award-winning museums are rooted in the community, and we will learn about their work, notably with the Bangladesh community and the city’s Lascar Heritage, winner of the Alan Ball Award for Local History.
  • Julie Davis, Archives and Local Studies Lead officer, and colleagues from the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, will reveal what has been learned from their community engagement projects
  • Hannah Turner, Local Studies Librarian for Lancashire Archives, also giving insights into their community work in the county.
  • Dr Paul Carter, Principal Records Specialist (Collaborative Projects), The National Archives, will be talking about the impact of volunteering
  • Matt Grace, English Heritage, will be introducing their new online content for historic buildings and how they can support wellbeing.
  • Plus, a tour of Manchester Central Library and an introduction to the Local History Collections.

Ticket Prices

  • £25 Member (login via CILIP website to receive member rate)
  • £27 Employer Partner (login with your employer partner details to receive this discount)
  • £30 Non-Member

Register via the CILIP website.

Lunch is provided.

Still time to book: Heritage & the community – top tips from the CILIP Local Studies Toolkit – Free online session, 20 November, 2pm

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Heritage resources can make a difference to individuals: the young couple in their first house who visited because they had chopped down some trees which were inside their fence only to find that their neighbour claimed the land and the trees; the schoolteacher who said that her students’ A level results had improved as a result of class visits to the local studies library; the family who were helped to find essential evidence about a local company and were able to obtain compensation for the loss of a loved one.

Heritage projects have the power to engage people from widely different backgrounds and generations. Interesting and creative projects have the power to motivate individuals to overcome barriers to learning, to experience digital technologies, to build new social networks (combatting isolation, depression and related health issues) and to rekindle an in interest in life through informal learning opportunities.

Heritage people working creatively, and in partnership with a wide range of educational providers, facilitators and artists, and others, can ensure that opportunities exist to engage different levels of ability and ranges of interest.

But how do you do this? Some of the finest and most experienced local studies librarians have come together to form a free online resource, The Local Studies Toolkit, that can help guide heritage people to the right answer for them.

In this session, we will explore the toolkit and hear some top tips from those who wrote some of its sections.

Speakers include:

  • Terry Bracher, Heritage Services Manager, Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre
  • Tracey Williams, Heritage & Local Studies Librarian, Solihull (Recorded)
  • Tony Pilmer, Librarian & Archivist, Royal Aeronautical Society & formerly Local Studies Librarian, Slough (Chair)
  • José Luiz Pederzoli Jr., Unit Manager – Strategic Planning, ICCROM (Recorded)

This event is organised by the CILIP Local Studies Group & The Historic Society of Lancashire & Cheshire

Book Here

Heritage & the community – top tips from the CILIP Local Studies Toolkit – Free online session, 20 November, 2pm

tonypilmerLeave a comment

Heritage resources can make a difference to individuals: the young couple in their first house who visited because they had chopped down some trees which were inside their fence only to find that their neighbour claimed the land and the trees; the schoolteacher who said that her students’ A level results had improved as a result of class visits to the local studies library; the family who were helped to find essential evidence about a local company and were able to obtain compensation for the loss of a loved one.

Heritage projects have the power to engage people from widely different backgrounds and generations. Interesting and creative projects have the power to motivate individuals to overcome barriers to learning, to experience digital technologies, to build new social networks (combatting isolation, depression and related health issues) and to rekindle an in interest in life through informal learning opportunities.

Heritage people working creatively, and in partnership with a wide range of educational providers, facilitators and artists, and others, can ensure that opportunities exist to engage different levels of ability and ranges of interest.

But how do you do this? Some of the finest and most experienced local studies librarians have come together to form a free online resource, The Local Studies Toolkit, that can help guide heritage people to the right answer for them.

In this session, we will explore the toolkit and hear some top tips from those who wrote some of its sections.

Speakers include:

  • Terry Bracher, Heritage Services Manager, Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre
  • Tracey Williams, Heritage & Local Studies Librarian, Solihull (Recorded)
  • Tony Pilmer, Librarian & Archivist, Royal Aeronautical Society & formerly Local Studies Librarian, Slough (Chair)
  • José Luiz Pederzoli Jr., Unit Manager – Strategic Planning, ICCROM (Recorded)

This event is organised by the CILIP Local Studies Group & The Historic Society of Lancashire & Cheshire

Book Here

Alan Ball Awards 2024

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We are once again seeking nominations for the Alan Ball Awards – the UK’s leading prize for local history publishing.

The object of the Awards is to encourage the production of high quality publicly or locally funded local history publications. They are open to all heritage and community organisations; and individuals that have self-published. Our criteria for assessing the award are not just about the quality and content of a publication, but its whole journey i.e. how it was conceived, who is involved and how it was funded.

We especially welcome submissions from libraries, archives, museum and archaeology services, small local museums and heritage centres, Local History societies, community history projects and local authors.

2024 Award

We have three categories:

  • Print publication – for best hardcopy publication 
  • E-publication – for best digital publication (e-books, journals, websites or virtual exhibitions, blogs and apps – we are sorry but we are unable to include digital installations within heritage or museum sites)
  • Community Award – for best community publication in either category

The publication needs to have appeared between January and December 2024.

Nominations including a copy of the publication or link to e-content to be submitted by end of January 2025. 

For further information, and to submit an application, visit our nomination page.

Winners of Volunteer Awards announced

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CILIP Local Studies Group are delighted to announce the winners of the Volunteer Awards (Under 25 and Over 25 categories). These are new awards, and we had a good range of nominees, which made the judging very difficult. The winners are:

Under 25 category

Jess Pascal, University of Leicester Library

Over 25 category

There are joint winners in this category: Anne Langley, Warwickshire County Record Office and Stella Robinson, Wakefield Libraires.

Congratulations to all our winners and to everyone who was nominated. An award ceremony will be arranged soon.

We are hoping to continue the awards next year, so if you have a volunteer who you would like to nominate again, or anyone who has volunteered during 2024, please check the blog for details later in the year.

Alan Ball winners 2023 announced

william
Logo for Alan Ball Award

CILIP Local Studies Group and the Library Services Trust are pleased to announce the winners of the Alan Ball Awards for the best local history publications that were published in 2023. Once again, we had a good number of high-quality publications that made judging very difficult. The winners are:

Hardcopy joint winners

Glasgow Life Museums, Scotland’s Lascar Heritage: Investigating the lives of South Asian Mariners (Glasgow Museums Publishing in Association with the Bangladesh Association Glasgow, 2023). Available here: https://shop.glasgowlife.org.uk/products/scotland-s-lascar-heritage-investigating-the-lives-of-south-asian-mariners

Paula Stevens, Lavenham House Histories (Self-Published, 2023). Available here: https://paula-stevens.sumupstore.com/

Hardcopy highly commended

Kevin Crangle, Ardglass and Dunsford County Down Biographies (Self-Published, 2023). Available here: https://ulsterhistoricalfoundation.com/shop/products/ardglass

Lancashire Archives, Archives: Lancashire History Magazine (issues 2 & 3, 2023). More information here: https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/libraries-and-archives/archives-and-record-office/archives-magazine/

E-publication winner

Harlaxton History Society website 2023; www.harlaxtonhistory.co.uk

Community Project publication winner

Newport History Group, Lest We Forget: Poppy Project 2022 (Newport on Tay, Fife, 2023). Available here: https://www.newportontayhistory.org.uk/shop/Lest-We-Forget-p601784795

Congratulations to all the winners and to everyone who submitted their publications. An online presentation event will take place in July 2024.

Nominations are open for hard copy and e-publications published in 2024, closing date end of January 2025.

New award announced: Local Studies Volunteer

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We are excited to announce two new pilot awards for library or archive volunteers. We are looking for an outstanding volunteer under the age of 25, and a volunteer who is over 25 years of age, who have contributed to a local studies library or archive project.

We welcome nominations from a library or archive professional for a volunteer who has developed their own skills significantly or has shared their skills with others.

Before making a nomination, please consult the CILIP volunteer guidelines.

The deadline for application is Monday 10 June.

The online ceremony will be held in July (date to be confirmed)

The successful nominees will each receive a prize of £100 in National Book Tokens.

To make a nomination, please fill in the form on this page.