Lancashire Archives: Keeping East Lancashire in the Picture - Winner ARA Archive Volunteering Award 2025
Keeping East Lancashire in the Picture
Lancashire Archives
Funded by: The National Lottery Heritage Fund (£192K funding) and The Friends of Lancashire Archives (£30K funding)
Keeping East Lancashire in the Picture is the winner of the ARA Archive Volunteering Award 2025 - the judging panel said of this project:
The outputs of this project are very impressive, and the project has clearly been effective in reaching groups that are under-represented as users of archive /heritage collections including school children, young people, and people of South Asian Heritage. As well as the engagement aspects of the project, the conservation aspects, and the commitment to long-term preservation of the content add strength to the application. It is a good example of archive services working with colleagues in libraries to increase access to collections and improve the standard of care.
I thought this was an exciting and ambitious project that aimed to tackle the challenges of diversifying volunteers (and ultimately users) and that has directly fed into the diversification of the archive's holdings. I was impressed with the commitment to reaching audiences who were geographically distant from the record office and with the inclusion of county library services as project hubs - a great way of making the archives accessible to all and fostering belonging. While this project clearly benefited from considerable investment, the outcomes demonstrate the potential of a well targeted volunteers project to reach non-traditional audiences. I thought the testimonies from volunteers spoke volumes.
A major funded project with real local significance in strategy and future planning for the archive service. It actively sought diversity of participants and approach, and is feeding into longer term relationships and collections. It is also a great write up with strong reflection and some brilliant tips for other projects.
This is a vibrant, people-powered project that’s brought together 75 volunteers from all walks of life to help preserve and share local photographic history. Volunteers are gaining valuable skills and contributing meaningfully to the archive. The project has boosted Lancashire Archives’ reach and resilience, strengthening partnerships and supporting inclusive, sustainable ways of working across local libraries. Working with schools and community groups has helped better reflect local histories in the collections. Events and exhibitions have welcomed new audiences, with online access making the archive even more accessible.
Ambitious project really trying to bring the attention of under-represented communities to photographic archives and local heritage. The repository has developed a larger volunteer group exhibiting greater diversity as well as developing skills and experience in volunteer management as well as the digitisation and preservation of photographic materials. It is an expensive project though and the volunteer aspect but one element.
Project case study
The Keeping East Lancashire in the Picture (KELP) project began in October 2023 and will conclude in October 2025. It has brought together volunteers, of different ages and backgrounds, to make the historic photographs stored in four Lancashire libraries (and managed by Lancashire Archives) more accessible, inclusive and sustainable.
54 volunteers across four libraries are currently engaged in digitising and cataloguing the photographs, supported by a project archivist and project assistant. Over the course of the project there have been an additional 21 volunteers. To date, volunteers have scanned 47,500 images and this is rising. These will be made available to people to be able to view free via Lancashire Archives’ Red Rose Collections.
KELP has worked closely with eight primary schools, one secondary school and two South Asian heritage community groups to create new photographic content for the collections, with many people volunteering their time to assist. New digital images are being added with significant collections of local photographs donated by local voluntary photographic societies, families and other community projects.
The project has delivered a programme of talks by guest speakers (including volunteers) about local history and photography, family fun days and public 'drop in' days to meet volunteers and view photographs – plus a range of photographic exhibitions across all four libraries to engage new audiences.
The project aims to improve access to photographic collections in East Lancashire but with a focus on developing audiences for volunteering within:
South Asian heritage community groups - to work collaboratively to update the photographic collections to reflect the diversity of the communities in East Lancashire.
Younger people - to increase their interest in historic photographs and to help them understand the impact of digital photography on the availability of photographs moving forward, and the lack of images in the collection after 2000.
People interested in the history of their local area, in a part of the region without a geographically nearby archive service, but with varied local and community history interest groups.
The project aims to:
Digitise 50,000 historic photographic collections in four large libraries in East Lancashire and make them freely available on Red Rose Collections for the local community to enjoy.
Preserve the images digitally where storage conditions are not optimal.
Increase the number of volunteers for Lancashire Archives & Local History, acknowledging the limitations of a single-site service and working with Lancashire Libraries as project hubs to widen the service reach.
Help volunteers develop IT and organisational skills, heritage collections skills and to enrich the lives of volunteers contributing to preserving their photographic heritage.
Ensure the library photographic collections reflect the diversity of the communities in East Lancashire, addressing the imbalance through working with community groups and recruiting volunteers with South Asian heritage.
Involve more people of South Asian heritage and young people in archives.
Engage schools in celebrating the value of their local photographic heritage.
Help Lancashire Archives to become more resilient through learning how to manage and develop the historic photograph collections from the lessons learned and the challenges met during the project, which can be applied to the rest of Lancashire.
KELP is a key project in Lancashire Archives service objectives to develop the local history offer in Lancashire Libraries and ensure collections are better cared for and access to them improved. As a result of this project, the service will have achieved:
A project legacy of greater organisational resilience in terms of the development of processes for managing photographic collections across the county and widening access to these resources.
A substantial contribution to the service's objectives to ensure diversity and inclusion in the collections and collecting practices – to reflect the diversity of communities in East Lancashire which is not reflected in collections in the service's care. The project has achieved this through work with South Asian Heritage community groups, recruiting South Asian Heritage volunteers and working with schools with a diverse intake. KELP has allowed the service to develop new connections and links with organisations and groups, building trust and visibility that will be allow for future collaboration.
A large increase in the number of volunteers working with the service. Through the scale of volunteer participation and enthusiasm displayed by the volunteer team, KELP has generated local history interest and engagement and created meaningful positive opportunities for people to work with collections.
Some project statistics:
From December 2023 to February 2025:
Volunteers gave 5,489 hours of their time, with 1,743 visits to the libraries to volunteer.
There are currently 54 active volunteers, with a further 21 who have volunteered during the project
School 'Explore' sessions have involved 448 primary school pupils. 30 secondary school pupils also worked on a collaborative project over the course of six weeks sharing experiences and taking photographs of the sessions with elderly residents of care homes.
Historic photographs provided to a local newspaper during 2024, resulted in 92,902 views.
Over 8,300 people have engaged with the exhibitions in the four libraries participating and attendees at KELP events is over 6,900.
Lancashire Archives’ collaboration with Aawaz (South Asian Heritage Women's Group) involved 337 visits from volunteers to contribute their time over 278 hours.
A joint engagement project with Hyndburn District Council in the Enlighten project resulted in 5,000 attendees over the weekend event.
The project has significantly increased the number of volunteers for Lancashire Archives and introduced archive volunteering in East Lancashire. Volunteers include people of South Asian heritage, two younger volunteers have secured full-time work since finishing a volunteering role, and volunteers have enjoyed organised trips to Lancashire Archives, Queen Street Mill and had the opportunity to meet the Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire.
The work the services is currently undertaking with Aawaz, Building Bridges and Respect and Dignity in the Arts, as well as with various schools at which most students are of South Asian heritage, will lead to much higher levels of engagement with the Asian community than have existed in the past and the collections are beginning to reflect the diversity of the communities
Many of the digitisation volunteers have benefitted by increasing their digital literacy. As part of the volunteer baseline survey, each volunteer was asked to rate their knowledge in digitisation processes, collections care and research. As the project has progressed, volunteers have developed knowledge in most of these areas.
Volunteers researched collections to add context to images and assisted in the creation of exhibitions across the libraries. Some volunteers have delivered talks to the local communities about their research or in photography.
Lancashire Archives has developed a better understanding of the challenges of managing and developing photographic collections and has begun to draft policies and procedures which will not just work for the project, but also in the rest of the county, into the future.
A thorough final evaluation will happen after the project has finished, within the framework established at its outset, with reference to the ongoing qualitative and quantitative data monitoring.
The work done by the volunteer teams directly supports Lancashire Archives’ project targets in terms of additional engagement with the wider community and the service believes they are on track to significantly exceed these.
In terms of the central volunteering strand, there are very strong indications of success:
Meeting the target number of volunteers very quickly – within a couple of months.
Meeting specific targets of 10% volunteers to be of Asian heritage and 10% volunteers to be aged 16-24
Feedback from volunteers has been that training has been of a high quality
Most importantly, the volunteers have expressed how much they have enjoyed being involved and the benefits they have felt:
"A couple of years ago, I could never have seen myself as a volunteer. On Thursday the penny dropped on how rewarding being a volunteer is. I have given my time to Keeping East Lancashire in the Picture (KELP) and it has been so rewarding in so many ways. Putting the displays . . . has been a delight, as has being able to share photographs of yesteryear with people of today . . . it is so rewarding in meeting superb people and giving something back . . . Thank you to everyone at Lancashire Archives and Local History you are truly wonderful people."
"The most important thing for me was being able to speak in Urdu. So that I truly understood everything and could ask questions"
"As a genuinely computer illiterate, I feel I have gained some skills . . . We have both felt a sense of community, meeting like-minded people. Our overall experience of KELP has been, and no doubt will continue, to be positive and enjoyable. By contributing in our small way to a greater project, we have gained a sense of renewed love of our own heritage"
“I was quite nervous to begin with because I was not really good at history, but Aawaz really made this heritage project alive, colourful and interesting”
“Through the journey of the project I have learnt how to digitise images and realised how important it is to preserve our history and culture for our future generations”
“I have been having conversations with my grandchildren about heritage items, they were very keen to know about the project. Lots of questions from my granddaughter and I have been telling stories about my childhood and how important these items are”
All this positive feedback is despite some IT problems which have meant our volunteer procedures are unduly time-consuming, with too much scope for error and need for re-work. Our volunteers have stuck with us – 70% of those who started are still going strong and keen to know what comes next.
The Lancashire Archives team, reflecting on the project, has the following tips for others embarking on similar projects:
Train key volunteers to become the volunteer 'gurus' on the process, as the first point of reference for volunteer questions and involve them in the training of new volunteers. This will enable the freeing up of project staff to focus on other aspects of the project.
Have patience! Many volunteers will forget between one session and the next the steps they need to complete in the process. Make instructions as simple/clear as possible – with small steps in each process that cover the process from start to finish.
It is important to work closely with target audiences in advance of the project starting to build relationships, awareness and trust, and to understand any factors likely to limit engagement. It is challenging to develop relationships with groups if your project is unknown to them or you do not know anyone in the group before approaching to collaborate.
Agree the IT strategy regarding equipment, networking, storage capacities, to avoid data loss and loss of time in the project. IT issues can delay the effective start of the volunteers, time that cannot afford to be lost on a time-limited project.
Ensure project staff have computers/laptops with graphic cards (GE Force equivalent) that are strong enough to view high resolution images and a higher RAM to allow quicker retrieval/processing of high volumes of images (along with strong wifi).
Be realistic about the amount of time that can be spent on outreach and engagement activities for the public. Ensure they are well publicised via a wide range of methods by the group that you are working for and in an effective manner to widen participation and increase attendee numbers.
One of the key propositions put forward by the service when they applied for funding was that this project would celebrate volunteering and have a clear and enduring legacy which would make the organisation more resilient. Their intentions are:
To share the digital images created by the volunteers online and offline:
Offline - a month-long exhibition in each library during Aug 2025, with accompanying activities and events; volunteers will be involved in the planning and delivery.
Online – during the same month, the tens of thousands of new images will be launched online, with full credit to the volunteers who created them.
To ensure that when the current project ends the volunteer contribution is properly recognised and celebrated.
To finalise the policies and procedures around managing historic photographic collections that the volunteers have helped "road test" and roll this out to manage similar collections in other libraries.
Retain a number (to be decided) of the existing volunteers to work on new projects in the same libraries. All other project volunteers will have access to other volunteering opportunities within the county council
Look to recruit more volunteers in other libraries to work on photographic collections there.