| 1 | Welcome |
| The Chair extended a warm welcome to all to Aberystwyth for the first meeting of the Council under its new name (Archives and Records Council Wales). In view of the poor attendance at previous meetings, the Chair was pleased to see so many members present. |
| 2 | Apologies |
| C. Richards (Powys); G. Evans (NMGW); E. Bennett (UW Swansea); H. Malaws (RCAHMW). |
| 3 | Minutes of last meeting |
| The minutes of the meeting held on 19 November 2004 at the Aberconway Building, Cardiff, were approved. |
| 4 | Matters arising from the minutes |
| 4.1 | New constitution |
| A draft list of invitees to meetings of ARCW had been circulated by the Secretary. GJ emphasised that the list was for discussion only and should not be viewed as a final, definitive list. Decisions would need to be taken locally as to who the representative should be - the archivist in charge of the particular service or the individual operationally responsible for the service. Some matters discussed in ARCW meetings were specific in nature, others would be more general and strategic in nature. Ultimately, the representative must have the necessary authority to decide on important strategic matters. Whilst it was obvious in most cases who the representative should be, there was some doubt with some authorities as to whom should be sent. A letter with a tentative list of suggested invitees would be sent to each authority represented on ARCW. | |
| 4.2 | Wales Records Management Group |
| There had been no developments regarding an all Wales Records Management Group. | |
| 4.3 | Strategy |
| A Welsh translation had not been prepared, partly due to Glyn Parry's absence. No funding was available for the translation work. | |
| 4.4 | CILIP Conference |
| The conference held on 3 March at the Metropole Hotel, Llandrindod, proved extremely successful, and the high standard of the presentations was welcomed. | |
| 4.5 | Mormons (microfilming / digitisation of parish registers) |
| The meeting at NLW on 28 February raised more questions than answers. More information was required from the Mormons as to their precise objectives. A letter from GJ was therefore sent to the Mormons suggesting a two phase approach to the project: the first phase involving the digitisation of the registers with DVD copies (or microfilms in some instances) being provided to the appropriate archive services; the second phase would involve the question of access to the digital images over the world wide web. This would require investigation to discover the most effective method for this. Web access was undoubtedly seen as the sticking point. Nigel Yates was happy with the proposal of a two phase approach. |
| 5 | Chair's Report |
| 5.1 | CyMAL Meeting |
| KM attended a meeting at CyMAL on 27 January which saw the launch of the Action Plan and CD. The meeting included presentations on grant schemes awarded and Inspire for Learning, together with presentations from different sectors, including ANW. Comments regarding the strategic document were generally supportive. CWLIS KM also attended CWLIS's last meeting. A similar advocacy body could possibly be revived at some future date. Cymru'n Creu SE also reported on her attendance at a meeting of Cymru'n Creu. Presentations were made by the Welsh Books Council, and by Glamorgan University on work evaluating cultural experiences. Further work on Inspire for Learning and measuring functions was recommended. The presentations included several references to archives. |
| 6 | Vice-chair's Report |
| The Vice-chair was not present at the meeting |
| 7 | Secretary's Report |
| 7.1 | Newsplan |
| GJ reported that the Newsplan Cymru website (http://www.newsplancymru.info/), though not entirely complete, had been launched. The setup of the website was similar to that of ANW's website. | |
| 7.2 | Their Past Your Future |
| The exhibition funded by BLF and put together by the Imperial War Museum, with assistance from NLW, was at present to be seen in Merthyr Tydfil. It would then move to Haverfordwest. Two archive services in Wales had indicated that they would be interested in receiving direct funding for undertaking digitisation work. |
| 8 | 'Logjam' |
| The question arose as to who should take the initiative for Logjam (a project to quantify and prioritise the cataloguing backlog across Wales). It was felt that both ARCW and CyMAL should shoulder the responsibility. The suggestion had been made that the work could be undertaken by some of the ANW team under the control of ARCW, with the project commencing in January 2006 and completed in June of that year by two archivists and one project manager. A bid to be submitted to CyMAL had been drafted, although it would have to be revised to include a project manager. A centrally managed project, such as the one proposed, would produce evidence to justify the extra resources needed to reduce the cataloguing backlocks throughout Wales. Other issues raised regarding the bid included the question of in-kind contributions from partners - some services would have the information easily at hand, others not; would the contributions have to be equal?; would recruitment be open? EJ confirmed that the grant would cover salaries, travel costs, and subsistence, and that contributions (financial or in-kind) would be equivalent to 25% of the cost of the project. Whilst NLW could locate and employ the Logjam team, CyMAL funding could not go direct to NLW. An archive service would therefore have to manage the grant. Subject to confirmation, HP suggested that the money could be received by the Ceredigion R. O. Also, there was room for flexibility regarding locating the team - one individual could be based in another part of Wales, possibly in the south east. The re-drafting of the bid (to include provision for the funding of a project manager) would have to be completed by Monday, 14 March, so that the bid could be submitted the following day. On approval of the bid, a project management team would have to be set up. It was agreed that the bid would not list the repositories to be included in the project. |
| 9 | Any other business |
| 9.1 | CyMAL |
| It was reported that the Archives Grant Scheme for the first year had worked well. A Grants Review Seminar was due to be held on 4 May. A list of grants distributed to archive services had been sent out. ME also drew attention to objective 1.6 of CyMAL's Action Plan, namely 'develop research activities including evidence gathering'. The intention was to look at baseline statistics across the three domains. The programme of gathering information was to include core performance indicators for local authorities. Performance indicators suggested for archive services had been rejected by local authorities. CH was to be included in the group discussing this issue. CyMAL would be pleased to receive suggestions from ARCW regarding research programmes of benefit to all three domains. ME expressed CyMAL's support for the work of the PSQG and noted that the number of Welsh local authorities participating in the Group's surveys was falling. Support was given to CyMAL's intention to pilot work on behalf of the PSQG to survey virtual users. Statistics giving the number of virtual users were needed in order to balance the drop in numbers of people visiting search rooms. Discussions regarding the review of Section 60 for archive services were needed. An analysis of training requirements for the library and archive domains will be undertaken by Denise Lavis, CyMAL's Training and Development Adviser. A report will be issued in September. In response to a question from PS regarding the baseline statistics, ME noted that these statistics could be published. | |
| 9.2 | Gregynog meeting |
| S.McI, on behalf of the Society of Archivists, was in favour of continuing to hold annual meetings of Welsh archivists at Gregynog. It was agreed that a meeting should be held again during this year, but that further investigation was needed as to the venue and date. Various themes for the meeting were suggested including issues regarding access to documents, contributions discussing specific classes of documents, a 'document roadshow', 'hands-on history', and so on. |
| 10 | Date of next meeting |
| The next meeting will be held on 8 July at the offices of CyMAL, Aberystwyth (venue to be confirmed by ME). [The date was subsequently changed to 6 July]. |
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