Volunteering Awards

This award is designed to celebrate the contribution of volunteers withinthe archive sector and to promote good practice in volunteering

ARA Archive Volunteering Award

This award is designed to celebrate the contribution of volunteers within the archive sector and to promote good practice in volunteering.

The award supports the recommendations of the National Council on Archives' Volunteering in Archives report (2009). The award is supported by CyMAL: Museums Archives and Libraries Wales (a division of the Welsh Government), the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, and the Scottish Council on Archives

Eligibility

The award recognises work involving volunteers within an institutional archive service in the UK or Ireland
Work must have taken place in previous twelve months (but can be part of an ongoing programme of activity)
Evaluation must include some feedback from the volunteers involved in the project (i.e. not just view of the organisation)

Criteria:

Assessment will be against the following criteria:

Impact on volunteers

For example, the organisation can demonstrate good employer support of the volunteer; that it has supported volunteers in gaining entry into workplace or further training

Impact on service

For example, the project/programme has encouraged diversification of volunteers within organisation, or that the organisation can demonstrate that it has robust plans for sustaining and developing its work with volunteers

Wider impact

For example, that the input of volunteers has had an impact on local or other communities, or the organisation can demonstrate how it has been able to share the learning from its volunteering activity with others (enabling it to act as a role model)

doc Volunteering Awards Nomination Form 2013

doc Volunteering Awards Nomination Form 2013 (Welsh)

The closing date for entries for the 2013 Volunteering Award is 7 June 2013

The 2012 Volunteering Award

The winner of the 2012 Archive Volunteering Award is Wolverhampton City Archives for the project TAKING ACCOUNT OF OUR PAST

The full story is on our news pages.

ara volunteering award 16 august 2012

The winning submission from Wolverhampton City Archives is available to read here:

Taking Account of our Past submission

The 2012 Archive Volunteering Award is presented to volunteers and archivists at Wolverhampton City Archives. In the foreground are, l to r, Cataloguing Archivist Kimberley Benoy, City Archivist Heidi McIntosh, Mayor of Wolverhampton Councillor Christine Mills, President, Caroline Williams, and Chair, Martin Taylor, of the Archives and Records Association (UK & Ireland).

The judges also 'highly commended' a project by WRVS volunteers to sort, catalogue and digitise a vulnerable collection.

Read the WRVS submission here.

There were seven submissions for the 2012 Award, all of which the judges considered to be of a high quality and which together celebrated the depth and breadth of what was happening in archives today

Time Travel Northumberland submission

Paths to Crime (Bedfordshire & Luton Archives and Records Service) submission

Bishopsgate Institute

Harbord of Gunton Archive Project (Norfolk Record Office) submission

Plymouth Local Studies Library Images Digitisation Project