Annual Volunteering Award
This award is designed to celebrate the contribution of volunteerswithin the archive sector and to promote good practice involunteering
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).
All nominations to reach This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 7th June 2019.
- ARA Archive Volunteer Awards 2019 Nomination Form
- ARA Archive Volunteer Awards 2019 Nomination Form (Welsh)
The 2018 Volunteering Award
‘Ancestors at Sea’, Lancashire Archives’ project to engage new volunteers to create a free, online name-rich index of maritime records, has won the prestigious national Archive Volunteering Award for 2018.
Read the full story on our news pages.
The 2017 Volunteering Award
'Speak Out London - Diversity City', London Metropolitan Archives' project to establish a permanent community sourced LGBTQ Oral History and memorabilia archive that can be accessed by the public via a website as well as via the LMA onsite facilities, won the Archive Volunteering Award for 2017.
Read their application here
Other applicants were
Archive Resource for Knowsley (ARK) - Knowsley Archives
Glamorgan Archives Volunteer Programme - Glamorgan Archives
Heritage Quay Volunteer Project - University of Huddersfield
'Irish in the Archives' Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
RA 250 - Royal Academy of Arts
The 2016 Volunteering Award
‘Helping us to Achieve’, the National Library of Wales’s (NLW) scheme to expand access to Wales’ national archives by developing a cadre of skilled volunteers, has won the prestigious national Archive Volunteering Award for 2016.
Read the full story on our news pages.
Read their submission here
The 2015 Volunteering Award
The winner of the 2015 Archive Volunteering Award is GM1914, which has been running since 2013 and involves a collaborative effort across ten local authority archives, led by Greater Manchester Archives and Local Studies Partnership.
Read the full story on our news pages.
Read their submission here
The 2014 Volunteering Award
The winner of the 2014 Archive Volunteering Award is the University of St Mark and St John Plymouth for 'The Connected Catalogue'
Read the full story on our news pages.
Read their submission here.
Read other submissions to the 2014 Archive Volunteering Award:
Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance
The 2013 Volunteering Award
The winner of the 2013 Archive Volunteering Award is Hull History Centre for 'Hull's Second World War Records'
Read the full story on our news pages.
Read the Hull History Centre submission here
Read other submissions for the 2013 Archive Volunteering Award:
National Library of Wales - English
National Library of Wales - Welsh
Vivacity Peterborough Culture and Leisure
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.
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
Harbord of Gunton Archive Project (Norfolk Record Office) submission
Plymouth Local Studies Library Images Digitisation Project
The 2011 Volunteering Award
The winner of the 2011 Volunteering Award is Manchester Chinese Archive.
Read the press release here.
Read Manchester Chinese Archive's nomination document
Read all 2011 nomination documents here:
Tithe Records Project at Surrey Heritage Centre
Dudley Archives and Local History Service Volunteer Programme
Wolverton Works Cataloguing Project at National Railway Museum
Making Memories at Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
Gloucester Rugby Football Club Community Heritage Project
The 2010 Volunteering Award
The Volunteering Award was given for the first time in 2010, when it was won by Suffolk Record Office. Suffolk County Council’s Making a Difference Volunteer Cataloguing Backlog Project involved 69 volunteers helping to catalogue 33 collections including a photographic archive of most parishes in Suffolk created by Captain Dunlop RN who was the last Standing Officer of HMS Ganges.
Three other nominations received a Highly Commended Award: Warwickshire County Record Office’s Waller Volunteer Transcription Project; The Black Cultural Archives, The Heart of the Race: Oral Histories of the Black Women’s Movement project; and The National Archives’ Living the Poor Life project.
