Nicholas Blake
Nomination:
Nick had been employed as a full-time library assistant at the University of Nottingham’s Manuscripts and Special Collections for over a decade when he began his part-time distance learning qualification in Archives and Records Management in September 2023. He is due to complete this course within the next few weeks, having successfully juggled full-time employment with part-time postgraduate studies.
During the last 18 months, Nick has made two significant contributions to Manuscripts and Special Collections, far beyond what is expected from an archives student.
He has chosen to research the description of born-digital records for his dissertation, identifying current practices and issues, and suggesting solutions. This is of direct relevance to us and the wider sector, as we have multiple collections that are a hybrid of traditional paper records and more recent born-digital records. His research discusses how to improve visitor experience by clarifying what they have requested, how they can access these materials, and what potential obstacles to access there may be. His findings will have a direct impact on how staff approach cataloguing born-digital records and ensure consistency across all the collections. This research compliments a wider project undertaken by his colleagues on improving digital access to collections, for which a poster presentation ‘Discovering the Digital’ was delivered at DCDC 2025. Nick’s research will also feed into the requirements for new discovery and digital preservation platforms once we move away from our existing providers.
In September 2025 he was appointed as Project Archivist for the current Archives Revealed Cataloguing Grant ‘Spotlight on Community Youth Theatre’. He is cataloguing the archives of two small, community-focussed theatre companies based in the East Midlands. These collections document the creative outputs of young people including those with disabilities, who are underrepresented in archive collections. Nick is consulting with the Social History of Learning Disability Research Group at The Open University to ensure the terminology used in the catalogue record is accurate and respectful. As a result, we will be holding a session with all our archivists to discuss inclusive language use in our catalogues and outputs, with Nick sharing his learning, and updating our guides.
Whilst cataloguing one of the company’s archives, Nick realised that there were very few administrative records. He took the initiative to arrange oral history interviews with former staff, which is an addition to the original scope of the bid, to capture this information.
Nick has already made a lasting impact on how Manuscripts and Special Collections operates despite having been employed as an archivist for less than a year, and whilst still a student. He has shown real aptitude and initiative with his cataloguing work, and a genuine commitment to increasing representation of minoritised voiced in the archive and access to collections.
Evidence: Article in Manuscripts and Special Collections’ magazine Discover: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/mss/documents/discover-magazine/discover-issue-27-may-2026.pdf
Nick digitising Betacam cassette tapes
Nick with Janet and Steve Strikely from Footprints Theatre