Background to the Project

Project Aims

Before this project was undertaken, no historical study had been conducted on the Society of Archivists and consequently there were a number of questions about the history of the development of the Society and of its changing and enduring concerns: How has the Society changed? How has the profession changed? What are archives? What are the limits of archiving? What are archivists?

The project's aim was to interview as many people as possible in order to get a broad representation of the Society, its growth, and the growth of archives, conservation and records management as professions. The result was a unique insight into both the Society and the professions it represents along with a comprehensive history of the Society itself.

Interviews

Questions for the interviews were compiled by David Lee, curator of Hampshire Film and Sound Archive, to highlight the key issues that the project was seeking to explore.  The interviews themselves were conducted largely by Dr Craig Fees and David Lee along with John Alban, Antonia Moon, Kay Parkinson, Elizabeth Oxborrow-Cowan, Pamela Hunter, Marion Kiely, David Smith, Lisa Strachan, Michael Willis-Fear, Amanda Arrowsmith, Aoife Martin, Jan Merchant, Elizabeth Shepherd, Adam Green, Jennifer Tait, Alistair Tough, Andrew Broom, Nathan Coyde, Patrick Cadell, Pamela Birch, Susan Wood, John Everard, and Carol Vincent.

Each interviewee was asked to sign a user agreement form to ensure that the recording was used according to their wishes.  This is a vital part of any oral history project as it is considered unethical (and in many cases illegal) to use a recording of a person without their informed consent.  For more information on this subject visit the Oral History Society website.

Later interviews were made in 1999 and 2000 at two Society of Archivists' training days organised by Craig Fees.  A complete list of interviews is available on this site along with a copy of the release form signed by all who participated.

These web pages are based on those written and maintained by Craig Fees. They have been reproduced here by kind permission of the original author.

Last modified 09/01/2007