Why access to archives matters

Like many members of the AM team, Ana Attrill-Klein, who recently joined our Customer Experience team, has a background working in libraries and archives. In this blog, Ana shares how these experiences have developed her commitment to making archival materials accessible to all.

I love understanding the why of things and that includes the places I live. Why are places the way they are? What is the context that makes your hometown so interesting or quaint or strange?

Southampton is the home city of my past; Bristol, my future. Wanting to know the why of these cities, I’ve spent time volunteering in the archives of both. Let me tell you what you probably already know: your hometown is so much more interesting than you think.

At Southampton Archive, I had the opportunity to prepare the metadata for a collection that made me fall in love with my home city. Southampton has a significant past as a port city, including the lion’s share of fame for the Titanic. However, it was my interaction with incredible primary sources detailing the daily ins and outs of life in Southampton that brought the city to life.

The archive had a huge stack of prints, negatives and descriptions as part of a local history project undertaken in the 1980s. Working through the collection, I was privileged to learn about crystal radios, the true impact of Southampton’s bomb damage, Peanut Joe, sun ray lamp treatment, the time elephants walked down Southampton’s high street and Morgan 3 Wheelers. All while following born-and-bred Sotonians from birth to death through photos and accounts.

Before I had the chance to finish preparing the metadata, I had moved to Bristol to undertake librarianship studies. I spent the next four years working in a further education library and a year volunteering at Bristol Archives on the side. My time at these institutions nourished me in different ways.

At the archive, I got the chance to prepare the metadata for a big collection detailing the history of Gay West, the south west's largest LGBT+ advocacy and social group. This hidden history was incredible to delve into. Communications included warnings about police stings, rallying for workers who had been fired for their sexuality and protest flyers, but also holiday snaps, amusing newsletters and social events that went ahead despite the immense pressure of public opinion. No stone of local queer history was left unturned and it was a humbling experience.

At the library, I had access to countless resources. My library was one of a few across campuses that fell under the college’s umbrella, and two of the libraries specialised in art. Monographs and art books that were rare and out-of-print were at my fingertips.

This is the part where I pivot into my current role at AM. I’ve only worked with AM’s digital collections platform, Quartex, for a few weeks and I can’t stop thinking about my past archival volunteering and the potential impact of these collections on users using software like this.

Not only is it easy to learn how to ingest assets and metadata (I would know – I’m already fluent!) but it’s just as easy to build collections and publish them. One feature that stands out is creating relationships between assets. A Southampton local history collection would have many assets from one person’s life. I love that it’s possible to view one item, say a photograph of a young girl in a garden, then scroll down… What’s that? A metadata heading called ‘related assets’ where you can click on links to exactly that: related assets. Maybe a photograph of the same girl inside a house, or all grown-up on her wedding day, and eventually as a grandmother. There were some amazing sets of photographs that spanned people’s lives and the thought of being able to easily follow their stories in this kind of digital system is amazing to me.

I never thought I’d step just outside of the library and archive life, but here I am journeying on the peripheral, looking at what I’ve done and reflecting on what others could do with the rich resources we have, just waiting to be discovered by everyday users.