Best practice model for Community Archive projects
Best practice model for Community Archive projects
A young student working on the 'Now Then Dewsbury' project
05 April 2004
In conjunction with our partners, a team based at The National Archives are working on an innovative 12-month project called the Community Access to Archive Project (CAAP), which is exploring the development of community-archive relationships.
The CAAP team are developing a 'best practice model' to address the practicalities of developing community-based online archive projects from start to finish and beyond. The team is building on the expertise our partners West Yorkshire Archive Service
and Hackney Archives Department have developed in community-archive relations through their local projects, in addition to the input of our advisory partners (The National Archives of Scotland , The National Council of Archives , The National Library of Wales , Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and http://www.commanet.org/ ). The model will be available from October 2004, and will include details of case studies as well as fully investigated suggestions for funding streams for community archive projects.
"At first I wanted to publish my material in a book since I was very concerned about protecting copyright and didn't feel at ease with the Internet for that reason. What brought me around to the idea of the website was the fact that a woman in Perth, Australia, had contacted me about my project on Old Hemsworth - she had once lived in the area - and I was excited by the prospect of making links with similarly-minded people." Audrey Hemsworth.
Communities and Archive organisations that utilise the model will both benefit by:
Local communities
- Participants will gain a sense of community pride and ownership through involvement in community archive projects
- Opportunity to participate in skills development, community education programs and lifelong learning
- Individuals and groups within the community become empowered archive users
Archive organisations
- Benefit from shared experiences of 'hands on' work with local projects
- Development of new audiences
- Suggested funding streams for community-archive project work
It is hoped that other local or national archive organisations, or organisations from other heritage sectors, will embrace the best practice model as means of empowering potential archive users and archive professionals to work together to identify the sources users require, whether for family, community and local history, for lifelong learning, for educational projects or for their other purposes.
For more information about the project, visit the CAAP pages on this website or contact the CAAP team at caap@nationalarchives.gov.uk 
.
