ICARUS

Centre for Archives and Records Research (ICARUS)

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Research Activity

INTERPARES Trust

2013-2018 UCL co-investigators: Bunn, Flinn, Shepherd, Yeo. UCL researchers are part of a European Team led by Karen Anderson, Mid Sweden University. Project PI Luciana Duranti, UBC

The goal of this new phase of the InterPARES Project, supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, is to generate the theoretical and methodological frameworks that will support the development of integrated and consistent local, national and international networks of policies, procedures, regulations, standards and legislation concerning digital records entrusted to the Internet, to ensure public trust grounded on evidence of good governance, a strong digital economy, and a persistent digital memory. This research will develop new knowledge on digital records kept on social media and in the cloud and on methods for identifying and protecting the balance between privacy and access, secrecy and transparency, the right to know and the right to oblivion in globally connected networks. It will propose law reform, and other infrastructural reform, model policies, procedures, and practices, and functional requirements for the systems in which Internet providers store and manage digital records.

Funding the Archive Sector

2011-12 Co-Investigators: Elizabeth Shepherd, Louise Ray Research Fellow: Marie Laperdrix

The ‘Funding the Archives Sector’ research project was a collaboration between The National Archives and the International Centre for Archives and Records Management Research and User Studies (ICARUS) of University College London. The research was carried out over the period September 2011 to September 2012. The final report outlines the results of the project and addresses three key research questions:

• How are archives in the UK funded?

• What funding resources are under developed within the sector?

• What appropriate advice and training support can be delivered by The National Archives to improve access to additional funding resources?

The critical drivers for this report were the financial pressures on archive services foregrounded by the impact of the recession; the UK government’s ‘Big Society’ agenda and related initiatives, and the general awareness of the need for further development in this area within the archives sector and how this might be achieved within The National Archives’ strengthened leadership role.

• Final report
• Executive summary
• Survey questions
• Literature review
• Bibliography
  
  

User participation

2010-2013.
AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award, UCL:DIS in collaboration with The National Archives, 'We think, not I think: harnessing collaborative creativity to archival practice; implications of user participation for archival theory and practice'.
For the original bid see http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dis/icarus/projects/CDA-Oct_2009-furtherdetails-final-headed.pdf

For further details of the project click here

Freedom of Information and records management

2008-2009. Principal Investigator: Elizabeth Shepherd
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, this project investigated the impact of the UK Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000 on records management services in public authorities. More specifically, the project examined how well records management services prepared for and coped with the first three years of FOI implementation; what contribution records management services make to the ability of public authorities to comply with the FOI Act; how the user experience of FOI is affected by the management of records; and the implications of FOI for good practice in records management.

Community archives and identities

2007-2009. Principal Investigator: Andrew Flinn
This project investigated the importance of community archives, and in particular the role of these archives in the production of community identity via academic and popular public histories, exhibitions and other interactions. Community archives are collections of materials (and the custodial institutions or organisations which hold them) that are created and held within communities and outside the formal heritage sector. Although many of these initiatives have a relatively long history, the importance of these collections has only recently been widely recognised amongst cultural policy-makers and professional organisations. However these collections provide many challenges to traditional professional practices.

Archival description and presentation

2007-2010.
AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award, UCL:DIS in collaboration with The National Archives, 'Multiple narratives, multiple views: exploring the shift from paper to digital archival description'. Doctoral student Jennifer Bunn is carrying out this research.

Students’ expectations of the job market in archives and records management in the United Kingdom

2007-2008. Principal investigator: Geoffrey Yeo
This project, funded by Unilever plc, sought to investigate the expectations and preferences of postgraduate students entering the job market in archives and records management. The objectives of the research were to find explanations for the varying levels of response to advertised vacancies and offer insights into the factors and influences that might determine whether new entrants to the profession decide to apply for a particular job vacancy.

Digital lives

2007-2009.
This Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded project focused on personal digital collections and their relationship with research repositories. It brought together expert curators and practitioners in digital preservation, digital manuscripts, literary collections, web-archiving, history of science and oral history from the British Library, University College London and the University of Bristol.
Website: http://www.bl.uk/digital-lives/

Research infrastructure

ICARUS has been instrumental in establishing a research infrastructure for the emerging academic discipline of archives and records management in the UK. Two projects, notably the AHRC-funded Network project, ARMReN, have resulted in, for the first time, a baseline map of research activity, a research network and the beginning of a UK research agenda.

ARMReN

2006-2007. Principal Investigator: Elizabeth Shepherd
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council Networks scheme, ARMReN, the Archives and Records Management Research Network, sought to help develop research in the discipline of archives and records management. It linked academics, researchers and professionals through research workshops and archives and history seminars. It aimed to collect and disseminate information about research projects in the theory and practice of the management, preservation and accessibility of records, foster the development of young academic researchers in the discipline, act as a central point for the exchange of ideas and encourage new collaborative partnerships.

Mapping the research landscape

2006. Principal Investigator: Elizabeth Shepherd
Funded by a British Academy Small Research Grant, this project aimed to improve the quality and quantity of academic research in the discipline of archives and records management by creating a map of the research landscape for the discipline in the UK. The research sought to establish the state of academic and professional research during the period 1995-2006, evaluate the output of research in the UK, establish how academics and practitioners have used research findings, identify areas of weakness and strength for research in the UK, identify research opportunities and make proposals for future priorities for a research agenda.

LEADERS (Linking EAD to Electronically Retrievable Sources)

2001-2004. Principal Investigator: Susan Hockey; Senior Research Fellows: Chris Turner, Geoffrey Yeo; Research Fellow: Anna Sexton
The LEADERS project developed a generic computer-based toolset to enable the creation of an online environment which integrated EAD encoded finding aids and EAC authority records with TEI encoded transcripts and digitised images of archival material, in a way that was flexible enough to handle a wide variety of archives. The aim was to contribute significantly to the enhanced provision of remote user access to archives. The project was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Board.
Website: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/leaders-project/

e-TERM (European programme for Training in Electronic Records Management)

2000-2001. Co-investigators: Margaret Crockett, Elizabeth Danbury, Elizabeth Shepherd, Geoffrey Yeo
UCL was a joint partner in a transnational project led by Archiefschool, Amsterdam. The aim of the project was to design a trans-national vocational training course in the management of electronic records to meet the needs of administrators, information professionals, archivists and records managers. e-TERM was initially targeted at educators and training managers. It was funded by the European Commission Leonardo da Vinci programme.
Website: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/e-term/