“At Barclays, we consider our archive service an important business asset. Opening up the archive to research in this way helps us (and others outside the bank) appreciate the value of our collections, the work of our archive team, and serves as a reminder of not only our history, but also how the archive continues to support our future. The findings of these researchers also point to exciting possibilities for further research and new ways of using our collections.”
Matt Hammerstein, Chief Executive of the UK Corporate Bank and Head of Public Policy and Corporate Responsibility, Barclays PLC
Summary
In September 2017, the University of Liverpool and Barclays Group Archives invited applications for the first of two full-funded Arts and Humanities Research Council Collaborative Doctoral Award PhD studentships, with the second opportunity following a year later.
The idea was conceived by Dr Margaret Proctor, who was then Senior Lecturer at the Liverpool University Centre for Archive Studies (LUCAS), in conjunction with Barclays’ Group Archivist, Maria Sienkiewicz. The opportunities sought to enable knowledge transfer between the archive, the business, and the academic community, with the PhD students ‘embedded’ within the business archive rather than simply visiting it to gather data. The PhDs were designed to be interdisciplinary, crossing archive studies, organisational studies and digital humanities.
Barclays’ Group Archives, based in Wythenshawe on the outskirts of Manchester, tells the story of how the bank’s business has evolved around the world. The collections date from the 16th century to the present day and attract a wide range of users from local historians to researchers working on period dramas such as the BBC’s Gentleman Jack and Poldark.
Cover of brochure produced to celebrate Barclays’ 325th anniversary in 2015. Image courtesy of Barclays PLC.
The first studentship was awarded to Ian Jones. His research looked to challenge popular perceptions of the role of a company archive as dealing primarily with showcasing ‘old stuff’, or putting past events into context, but rather how a business archive might align its activities to match the organisation’s strategic objectives. Specifically, his work examined how the archive service at Barclays actively supports the business with its current activities.
Ian’s research also involved consideration of the processes by which information reached the archives historically and how different this might be given the complexity of modern business systems and whether there might be any implications for the archive of the future.
The archives contain a rich collection of senior managers’ files which provide a tremendous amount of detail and context for the activities of the Bank, and the issues it faced during the 20th century. The research has demonstrated how rich these kinds of records are, and therefore supports the case to identify whether similar information is being recorded and if so, where, so that they can be transferred to the archive – even if this provides a new challenge as most will now be digital.
The second studentship was awarded to Ashleigh Hawkins, with her thesis entitled ‘Accounts with Interest’ – Opening up the Archives of Barclays Bank’. Her research centred on digital humanities, audience development and the potential for using open linked data in new and innovative ways.
Using a Customer Signature Book of the Bank of Goslings and Sharpe (1828-1896), and securing an Archives Testbed grant from The National Archives, the register was digitised allowing the data to be transcribed using the open-source tool Recogito. This meant that data relating to individuals and places could be tagged, and in the case of places, a map generated of locations mentioned in the volume.
The data constitutes valuable information about long-standing customers, which might prove to be useful as the archive service is often asked to provide information and/or interpretation of records for colleagues, such as Barclays’ history in particular regions, support for local economies, or relationships with specific corporate customers.
“Working with Barclays Group Archives and studying [the past strategies of the company] within the context of the organisation gave me a new understanding of the differences, capabilities, and constraints of corporate archives when compared to public archives, and the myriad ways they contribute to their parent organisation.”
Ian Jones, reflecting on their PhD
Challenges and opportunities
A key focus from the outset was for the students to feel an integral part of the archives team. Some of the biggest challenges were the logistical ones of access to the premises and some IT systems, with this normally facilitated through a payroll number, which neither student had.
Whilst the archives had actively hosted archive studies students on listing placements, these studentships represented a new level of academic collaboration for the archives team. Working with a broader range of academics also brought its own challenges, as naturally everybody has their own views and assumptions. However, supporting the PhD Studentships did bring a fresh perspective on the collections alongside new skills and experiences for the Group Archivist who was involved in interviewing candidates and acted as honorary supervisor.
Outcomes
Both students secured their PhDs; for the archive service, the outcomes were new perspectives on their service, an evidence base for how it supports the business, and new insights into how the archive is perceived within the business.
As part of his research, Ian undertook interviews with 20 Barclays employees, including one former CEO and six managing directors, about their experiences in working with the archive service as part of their roles. This informal user survey provided a useful insight for the archives service with many interviewees expressing appreciation for their work.
Ashleigh’s research successfully demonstrated that it was possible to extract data from the signature book and to form a dataset that could be analysed. With this single volume featuring just short of 5000 customers, and the archive service holding more than 400 similar volumes, this series could represent between 1-2 million customers. The potential of this resource to do research at scale, and the future opportunities it affords to collaborate with other academics, were both surprising and enlightening to the archive service.
“[The PhD] gave me the opportunity to challenge my own preconceptions of what an archive is and does, to learn to think more critically and creatively, and to develop both project specific and transferable research skills. It enabled me to embed myself within a corporate archive setting, continuing to ground myself in the practitioner community and further hone professional skills.”
Ashleigh Hawkins, reflecting on their PhD
What was learned from the process?
The process highlighted a new, and quite different, perspective on academic collaboration than the archives team had previously experienced or supported. The engagement with colleagues from within Barclays and getting their views on the archive service was also invaluable.
The archive service has always been aware of its role as ‘custodian of the corporate memory’, but the studentships and the resulting research reminded them of this amongst the day-to-day work of answering enquiries.
Ian’s work, which focused on a particularly challenging time for the Bank in recent times, and where morale was at a low ebb throughout the business, demonstrated the value of the company being able to turn to the past within its archive for comfort, inspiration, and direction.
“Our PhD partnership allowed me to view our service and collections from an entirely new perspective. It gave me insights into how our stakeholders wish to use the archives, the value the archives add to the wider business, and the enormous potential in all our collections which new technologies can help to unlock.”
Maria Sienkiewicz, Group Archivist, Barclays Group Archives
Key advice
With the PhD students being embedded within the team, it did feel different to more traditional academic research use of the collections. This required a delicate balance between providing some assistance whilst at the same time giving them the space and opportunity to take the path that their research directed them towards.
Ian and Ashleigh engaged with colleagues in the archive service, providing regular informal updates and, in Ashleigh’s case, showing them the transcribed signature book in Recogito.
How will this work be developed in the future?
There is a plan to raise awareness of Ian’s findings through a summary of his work, which it is hoped will further the understanding within the business of the key role of the archive service and the importance of colleagues’ support to ensure more recent records are transferred and preserved. Ashleigh’s work has demonstrated the research potential of the signature books, and there is an interest in further academic collaborations that could exploit this data.
Find out more
Contact Maria Sienkiewicz, Group Archivist, Barclays Group Archives: grouparchives@barclays.com
Relevant resources
The Higher Education Archives Programme
The National Archives’ Guide to collaboration between the Archive and Higher Education sectors (PDF, 4.8 MB)
The Business Archives Council’s Facilitating academic-archivist collaborations in business (PDF, 250 KB)