Chairman's Statement 2009-2010

The Chairman's statement to the 2010 AGM, November 2010

The Business Archives Council and the Strategy for Business Archives

Your Council has been active in launching and promoting the National Strategy for Business Archives, in association with The National Archives, the Society of Archivists [since June part of the Archives and Records Association], MLA, CyMal, and the Economic History Society.

The Strategy was launched at an impressive reception held at the House of Lords in July 2009. Hosted by the All-party Parliamentary Group on Archives, the speakers were Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Stuart Rose, then Chairman of Marks and Spencer, and Dame Stella Rimington. Our thanks to Sara Kinsey and Katey Logan for their leading roles in initiating and developing the Strategy.

What has your Council achieved in relation to the Strategy? 

First of all, the Council and its members featured prominently in the Strategy publication Corporate Memory. A Guide to Managing Business Archives. However, despite our producing a documented framework to monitor strategy implementation, we are concerned that the strategy monitoring group is not yet functioning as we had hoped. Of course, it is a difficult time to monitor implementation when professional bodies are changing roles and responsibilities, but be assured that the BAC's own focus has not changed, and we are working towards a resolution of the current problems. We intend to work with the newly-formed ARA to push for a more co-ordinated approach to strategy implementation.

In the meantime there are areas of strategy in which the BAC is able to take the lead. One of our early contributions was to organise an outreach event in the Isle of Wight in September 2009, timed to coincide with our 75^th Anniversary. The aim was to introduce private sector businesses and other bodies to the business archives strategy. To that end we invited former trustees and representatives of the founder members of the Council in 1934 to a Strategy meeting, hosted by Sam Twining (Vice President and past President ), at Brading and Ventnor. We also received an archives presentation by Richard Smout at the Isle of Wight Record Office in Newport.  Our thanks to Sam and his family for his generous hospitality, and to Richard Smout, Katey Logan, Judy Faraday, and Alex Ritchie for their presentations on the day. This outreach event has encouraged us to consider holding similar events in England and Wales as part of our strategic response.

We have also entered an agreement to collaborate with The National Archives on the Architecture, Building and Construction Records Project - a survey of the archives of architectural practices and the building and construction industries in England and Wales. The National Archives has awarded the Council a grant of £35,000 to carry out this project.

We are also playing an active part in the work of the crisis response team set up to act more quickly whenever collections are threatened. Richard Wiltshire and Peter Scott are our representatives on the team, which has been busier than usual this year with an increase in mergers and acquisitions activity. And we have continued to lobby vigorously whenever collections are at risk.

Finally we have instituted a special grant to support cataloguing, distinctive in that it aims to support the cataloguing of business archives held in either the public or private sector, and with institutional, corporate or government owners. Initial applications were strong, and the Council decided to make two awards. I should like to thank Richard Wiltshire, Mike Anson and Alison Turton for judging our winners.

And we are also making progress with support for a new Bibliography of Business History, edited by John Orbell and Richard Storey, drawing on the resources we have in our Library Fund. More information on these further examples of our work in progressing the strategy will be provided next year.

Publications

Our regular issues of Business Archives were published: Volume 98 (Principles and Practice) and Volume 99 (Sources and History). Number 98, edited by Valerie Johnson, contained articles by Ellen Collins on Museums, libraries and archives and knowledge transfer; by Joan Heggie on the British Steel Archive Project: new kinds of partnerships to preserve significant business archives; by Katey Logan on Let's change the record: how the National Strategy for Business Archives can deliver a better outcome for commercial and industrial heritage in the UK's archival record; by Reto Tschan on Out from the stacks and into the limelight: the archives of HBOS plc and the Museum on the Mound; and by Richard Wiltshire on Business archives in the public sector: strategies for promoting collections at Guildhall Library and London Metropolitan Archives. This journal also included the select bibliography of new publications in 2008, compiled and edited by Emma Stagg. Number 99, edited by Mike Anson, contained articles by David Bricknell on The interpretation of business archives; by Felipe Tâmega Fernandes on Telegraphs shrinking economic distances? A preliminary enquiry, 1870s-1912; by Terry Gourvish on The British popular music industry, 1950-75: archival challenges and solutions; Niall MacKenzie on Bigger isn't always better: the British Government, Invergordon and the expansion of aluminium smelting in Scotland, 1968-82; and by Aashish Velkar on Trade journals as primary sources: constructing histories and deconstructing knowledge. This journal also included the 2008 editions of the bibliography in business history, compiled by Richard Hawkins; the list of business records deposited, compiled by Mike Anson; and journal reviews edited by Roy Edwards. We are extremely grateful to Valerie Johnson and Mike Anson, to Emma Stagg, Richard Hawkins, Roy Edwards and all the contributors for this very productive programme. This year Valerie Johnson retired as editor of Business Archives: Principles and Practice. The Trustees thank her warmly for her expert care of the journal over the last six years and welcome Mariam Yamin as the new editor of Principles and Practice.

Once again, four editions of the Newsletter have been produced by Alan Gall. The website has been further enhanced thanks to the work of Claire Twinn and the oversight of Moira Lovegrove. My thanks to Alan as editor, and to everyone concerned in this work. 

AGM and Conference 2009

The AGM and Annual conference were held on 24 November 2009, and the hosts were The National Archives, Kew. The theme was Delivering Results: Collaboration and the Exploitation of Business Archives. We were welcomed by Natalie Ceeney, Chief Executive of TNA, and her colleagues Alex Ritchie and Rene Kinzett spoke on the National Strategy for Business Archives and the role of advocacy in the sector. Sarah Mahurter gave a paper on the Innovation Fund, and Stefan Schwarzkopf, in his paper on funding research in business archives, highlighted the role of the Council's bursary award. In the afternoon session Vicky Parkinson spoke on Making the most of your collection, while Alan Booth's paper on Connecting Cornwall was a study of telecommunications, locality and work in the South-West, with special reference to the Porthcurno Trust archives. Liza Giffen and Kirsty Shields discussed the collaboration between the University of Leeds and Marks & Spencer in placing the latter's archives at Leeds. We are grateful to the speakers; to the National Archives for their hospitality; and to Judy Faraday for planning and convening the conference.

Wadsworth Prize 2008

The prize was awarded to Dr Geoffrey Tweedale and Dr Jock McCulloch for their book Defending the Indefensible: The Global Asbestos Industry and its Fight for Survival, published by Oxford University Press. The prize was presented by our President, Sir Geoffrey Owen, and our hosts were The National Archives, whom we thank once again for their hospitality.

Bursary 2009

There were two winners of the bursary in 2009. They were: Dr Adrian Bailey, of the University of Exeter Business School, to support his research on Regulating the Supermarket in 1960s Britain: exploring the changing relationship of food manufacturers, retailers and consumers through the Cadbury archive; and Dr Kevin Tennent, formerly of LSE, now of the Open University Business School, for his work on A Retailing Revolution: changes in music distribution and retailing in the UK, 1950-80. The winners were announced at the Association of Business Historians Conference in Liverpool. I should like to thank Roy Edwards for organising the Wadsworth Prize and Peter Scott for organising the bursary judging.

Other Activities 

Our contribution to training continued in 2009-10. We ran a business archives training day at The Baring Archive in January, which was attended by students from University College London, Aberystwyth and Dundee.

Vote of thanks

Our thanks to Susan Snell and the Freemasons Hall for their generosity in hosting both the AGM and the Conference, and later on in the day, the Wadsworth Prize reception.