University Radio York - Organisation of University Radio York’s Stores and Vinyl Project - Case Study Archive Volunteering Award 2026

The project by University Radio York worked with Yorkshire Air Museum and Borthwick Institute for Archives and was funded by University of York Student’s Union. The project started in 2018 and is ongoing until 2027.

An ongoing cataloguing and organisation of University Radio York’s physical documents and record stores. The items in question date from the founding of the station in 1967 to current. Prior to the current cataloguing, no attempt had been made to organise the items since 2008.

The aim of the project is to organise and count the names and numbers of the vinyl LPs, CDs and physical documents collected over URY’s history. The project was undertaken due to calls from alumni of the station from the 2000’s for documentation and recordings of their old radio shows. Prior to the current cataloguing, no attempt had been made to organise the documents since 2008 and the majority of them were in disarray or severely damaged due to neglect. There have been seven volunteers involved in the project to date.

Process:

The process began with cataloguing the more delicate items such as the vinyl. This has proven to be a lengthy endeavour and though it was first started in 2018 is still ongoing. In 2025  an overall cleaning of the building known as ‘Stores’ was begun which uncovered masses of documents which had been lost for decades. Due to the fact that this was an operation undertaken solely by students there were limited funds so many of the materials used to store the documents were leftovers from the University’s History department. The whole spending so far equates to £10 that was used to purchase a disc reader to catalogue the vast CD collection. At an estimate the whole CD collection stands at about 10,000 articles.

Impact and outcome of the project:

One of the documents that was rediscovered detailed the ‘adoption’ of a military aircraft from Elvington Air Field that was initiated by an alum of the station. This information had been all but forgotten to the current members. However we were able to reconnect with the cohort of 1996/97 and the airfield itself. In addition to this the reasonings for the initial adoption were uncovered which allowed the society reestablish friendships with other media societies at the University. This has proved beneficial to all parties as we now collaborate frequently on shared events which is a rare phenomenon within student media. We as a society are also beginning to foster better connections with the Borthwick Institute for Archives who have greatly helped us by storing some of our more delicate items in their purpose built stores.

Evaluation:

Due to the fact that the lead positions in this project are full time students, progress has been slow. This hasn’t been helped by the low number of volunteers. As always more space and funding could have greatly improved the pace and productivity of the volunteers but seeing as this is a student run organisation it is not likely that these factors will change in the near future. Despite this the project will be continued indefinitely until it’s finished or when all volunteers leave.

The experience that the volunteers have gathered from this project has allowed at least one of them to be recognised with the internal ‘The Above and Beyond Newcomer’ award from University Radio York’s 2024/25 management team and has opened up pathways within various heritage organisations within the city of York.

Tips:

A more organised approach could have been taken by the lead member at the beginning of the main project along with an improved volunteer recruitment scheme. A string of dedicated goals would have also proved beneficial but was unreasonable due to the ratio of participants to workload.

Ideally the project would be conducted in a building that’s fit for purpose and would allow us to repair and conserve items and documents without the worry of them being damaged again. However the main building that the archives are stored in was not purpose built and is not suitable for long term storage.

Future Developments:

In the future the work would ideally be continued but with a larger number of participants and designated time slots for volunteers to come and work. We are also looking into applying for more funding to purchase fit for use storage units. Inevitably University Radio York will have to move properties and it is the hope that when this eventually happens we will be situated in a purpose built residence that will allow for a more suitable environment for the delicate documents and vinyl. This would also include more storage space for the ever growing collection of CDs as currently we are running worryingly low.