Distinguished Service Award 2024:
James Ranahan
Nominated for Distinguished Service in Archives
Jim Ranahan is an innovator who leads by example, particularly around diversifying collections and their users. Jim is committed to opening up access to not just collections but also for people entering the archives sector as a career, recognising that this can sometimes be difficult.
Jim’s career in archives began nearly 30 years ago in 1995 at Birmingham City Archives as a Records Manager. With Rachel Roberts, he developed and co-led the records management service that she and Nick Kingsley established, growing it from the original three staff with two clients to a team of twelve and over thirty clients by the time he moved to public service archives in 2003.
During this time Jim became committed to Continuing Professional Development for archivists and records managers, initially as Records Management Group representative on the Society of Archivists’ CPD committee.
He later served as Secretary and Chair of the committee and his commitment to CPD has remained strong throughout his career. Jim served for some years as an assessor for ARA’s Professional Development Programme. He has also mentored a number of colleagues, formally through the CPD route , and informally through support of volunteers gaining pre – course experience . Jim also contributed to the development of the Level 7 Archives and Records Management Apprenticeship, through his participation in the Apprenticeship Trailblazers Group, hosted by The National Archives.
The benefits of CPD were not then universally accepted, requiring a strong level of advocacy from Jim and fellow committee members. It was a time where the Society of Archivists was seeking to modernise its own practices and to lead the profession by example. Jim was motivated to become a Board member for the Society (2005-2009), and he served as Treasurer, introducing devolved budgets away from the Centre to regions and groups. Jim was a key member of the transitional team that oversaw the merger of the Society and the National Council of Archives to form the Archives and Records Association in 2009. His proudest moment of this period was to promote and secure ARA membership of the Digital Preservation Coalition, ensuring that the lead professional body could play an active role in this crucial area.
As a records manager, Jim witnessed the transformative effect that records could have on people's lives e.g. Adoption Records and records as proof of residence in immigration tribunal cases. This prompted a move to public service archives at Birmingham in 2003, where he could work more directly with communities. Jim worked on the flagship Connecting Histories project as project archivist. This was a major project for Birmingham City archives, as it aimed to uncover and make accessible some of the stories relating to the diverse experiences of communities in Birmingham and the West Midlands which were hidden in archive collections. Jim learned outreach techniques from specialist colleagues and was able to adapt and transfer these back into the archive environment, a skill which he has shared with colleagues through his subsequent career.
Through Connecting Histories, Jim learned both the ability of photographs to capture individual stories and their role as ‘gateway’ archives for communities whose circumstances had not yet permitted the development of traditionally accepted ‘archives’. He became Photographic Archivist working on the renowned photographic collection held by Birmingham City Archives. From 2007 – 2015, he cared for and made available this rich resource, supporting both academic and community researchers, for exhibitions, publications and projects such as the Liberty Box, an Anti-Slavery educational initiative organised by Birmingham City Council. This was the period when the Library of Birmingham was designed and constructed. For the photographic collection, Jim undertook detailed benchmarking for storage of nationally significant collections, he was trained in photographic conservation principles and practice and in conjunction with Harwell Restoration, he developed a methodology for separating photographic negatives of differing formats, whilst maintaining essential archival order. For this and for his work on photographic material as hybrid records in the heritage sector, Jim was awarded an Associateship of the Royal Photographic Society and was Accredited by the RPS for Imaging in the Creative Industries.
Building on his work with Connecting Histories and photographic collections, Jim was appointed as part-time Research Fellow for the University of Birmingham’s Suburban Birmingham project. From 2009 -2013, Jim was part of a multi-disciplinary team including academics, librarians and museum curators, researching suburban development and its impact on individuals and communities. Jim focused on the growth and impact of adult education on the City’s communities, reflecting his personal and professional commitment to lifelong learning and Continuing Professional Development.
In 2015 Jim left Birmingham Archives and Collections (as Birmingham City Archives had become) and promoted misunderstood and sometimes isolated communities through their archives. Working on two complementary, part-time fixed term contracts, Jim used the archives of respectively Ben Uri Museum of Jewish Art and the Union of the Sisters of Mercy, a Roman Catholic religious order to celebrate key anniversaries and their community legacies. For Ben Uri, Jim was project archivist for the Centenary commemoration of the Museum’s founding. As well as providing content for exhibitions at Somerset House and Christie’s Auction House, both in London, he undertook public lectures at these venues. Twin objectives were to promote the archive to the Jewish community and to break down barriers between communities through outreach and promotion of shared migrant experiences.
For the Sisters of Mercy, Jim provided maternity cover for the Union archivist. As well as dealing with Data Protection and general enquiries, he organised displays and led tours of the heritage centre connected with the 175th anniversary of the founding of the Order in Britain. Jim also wrote a history of the convent where the order is based, published to coincide with the anniversary. As with Ben Uri, twin objectives were to promote the archive and to break down sectarian and cultural barriers. In this context, demystifying the nature and practice of women’s religious orders in a secular society was essential, which presented Jim with a very steep learning requirement for cultural sensitivity.
Drawing on his experience with the Sisters of Mercy, Jim gave a presentation to the Catholic Archives Society Conference in 2017, this forming the basis of ‘Perspectives on Archives for Pastoral Work’ an article published in the CAS Journal in 2018. Jim served on the CAS committee 2016-2017 and, as well as organising the 2017 conference, he led a study tour to the secular and religious archives of Malta later that year. This built on his previous attendance in a personal capacity of a study tour of the religious archives of the Vatican City and Rome, which was recorded in ‘The Joy of Archives’, an article published in ARC, the ARA newsletter in 2010.
In addition to ‘The Joy of Archives’, Jim has contributed many articles to ARC and other publications on aspects of archives and records management from 2004 onwards. Most recently is ‘To Buy, or Not to Buy? Market Forces and the Making of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s Collections’ (in ‘The Pre-Modern Manuscript Trade and its Consequences, ca. 1890-1945’, published by ARC Humanities Press, 2024, forthcoming).
For ARC, Jim coordinated an annual issue devoted to maps and cartographic practice in archives, from 2006 – 2016 – see attached. This reflected his longstanding service since 2016 (to date) as ARA representative on BRICMICS, the British and Irish Committee on Map Information and Cataloguing Systems, hosted by the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford. Jim has ensured that the archive, records management and conservation perspectives are represented, most particularly the local and regional voices in a forum dominated by the national institutions and libraries of legal deposit. He has achieved this through discussion, representation in consultation with ARA and through regular reports from across the archive sector. Since 2018, Jim has organised the BRICMICS X / Twitter account and has ensured that map related initiatives from archive services are well represented on social media. Professionally, he has ensured that archival implications have been considered for developments including digitisation, digital preservation, G.I.S. and LiDAR surveys and most recently the emerging area of artificial intelligence for digital representations of original source maps.
From 2016 Jim has been archivist at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust where he has continued to use his experience from previous roles developing new work with communities to share stories relating to the local Irish, Polish and South Asian communities with the wider audiences of the Trust. Through a combination of outreach engagement and volunteer led work, he has encouraged community members both to identify existing collections relevant to their interests and concerns, to identify gaps in our collections and to offer new material to begin to fill these gaps. Through the Proud Shakespeare commitment from SBT to the local LGBTQIA+ community, Jim has laid the foundation for a long-term partnership to strengthen the visibility of Queer people in our collections and to begin to address historic negativity encountered by them in the archival record Just commencing in Spring 2024 is a long-term decolonisation project ‘The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and the Global Bard’, which Jim has embraced at a policy level and supported practically by providing access to collections and supporting dialogue through workshops. As the project progresses, Jim’s primary contribution will be through his evolving work on inclusive cataloguing, again influenced by his related experience below with Archives West Midlands.
In 2019 Jim Ranahan was nominated as a trustee and secretary of Archives West Midlands (AWM) in addition to his role at Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Archives West Midlands is a charity comprising 18 member archives services which provides a coherent voice for them across the West Midlands. It has delivered several projects to support and enable members to improve the quality of their offer and tackle challenges such as digital preservation and diversity within the sector. During Jim’s time as trustee, he made a very significant contribution to the work of AWM particularly as part of the No Barriers project. In 2020 AWM was successful in gaining a National Archives Networks for Change grant to deliver a project to improve diversity within the sector workforce and look at language used in describing archive collections.
Jim managed the No Barriers trainees who were hosted by Shakespeare Birthplace Trust along with Wolverhampton Archives. Jim was a supportive manager who advocated strongly for the trainees’ needs and was empathetic to the challenges they faced and successfully navigated during the project. He continues to mentor the trainee beyond the project timeframe. Experience and insights gained through No Barriers have also supported Jim’s work with the Proud Shakespeare initiative at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, helping LGBTQAI+ communities to share their stories found in the archives of the Trust. They have also supported Jim’s role as an ARA Diversity Ally, in support of colleagues in the expanded Northern Region.
Through Jim’s work on the No Barriers project and his own experiences of working with and for communities and archives, he single-handedly came up with the concept of a self-assessment tool for archive services in relation to Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging: Archives West Midlands launches its Self-Assessment Tool for Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging | News | Archives West Midlands. This EDIB SAT is the first maturity modelling tool of its kind dedicated to archives but has relevance across the heritage and information sectors.
He developed the EDIB SAT with Elizabeth Oxborrow-Cowan, AWM trustees and member services. Even though it was only launched in September 2023, is already being eagerly adopted by the profession across the country. It is recognised as a key tool for helping to assess and frame EDIB work. It has been warmly welcomed by The National Archives (TNA) and is included in their guidance for Archive Service Accreditation.
Jim has made invaluable contributions to the two workshops AWM has run on the EDIB SAT by sharing his detailed thinking in developing each ‘capability’ which has made for valuable sessions for participants and enabled an update to the SAT to capture that detail for any use. His commitment to the tool is such that he is already contributing to the first revision of the SAT.
At all times he is professional, welcoming and sincere. He is a great advocate for the work he has done, for AWM and for the archive profession as a whole.
James was nominated by Joanna Terry, Head of Archives & Heritage, Staffordshire Record Office