Developing an evidence based culture for documentary heritage collections

Purpose: This paper will present the main findings of a 12- month research project supported by The National Archives UK and Northumbria University’s I-School. The overarching aim of this study is to understand better the... [ view full abstract ]

Purpose:

This paper will present the main findings of a 12- month research project supported by The National Archives UK and Northumbria University’s I-School. The overarching aim of this study is to understand better the value of documentary heritage collections in an increasingly networked society where content is accessed and used by an increasingly diverse community of users. This transformation is blurring the boundaries between collections and user interfaces, and challenging the notion of a ‘collection’ as an intrinsically valuable physical asset, a place of learning and memory. To build resilience for a sustainable future, understanding how these collections are valued and the benefits they provide socially and economically is essential to building a critical evidence base.

This paper will report the findings of our research broadly and will highlight existing value added services captured in a value chain model. Particular emphasis will be given to a proposed approach to building an evidence based culture in the sector, including but not limited to:

• an evaluation of a values took kit by sector professionals; 

• ‘advocacy evidence’ fact sheets to support professionals in advocating on behalf of the sector;

• referencing critical research gaps, as a basis for an evidence research strategy for the documentary heritage sector. 

Design, methodology or approach:

The findings of this study build on existing methodological literature across disciplines, think-tank reports over the last 30 years. In addition, semi-structured interviews with professionals representing the documentary heritage domain were undertaken, and testing existing valuation models with user groups, and ‘advocacy packages’ with different user groups.

Findings:

The key findings of this study underlined the conspicuous absence of documentary heritage collections from government funded evaluation studies undertaken over the last 30 years,  a dearth of published evidence demonstrating the economic or social value of documentary heritage collections.  The reasons for this are various. Archives and libraries have different missions from museums, different funders and the absence of critical data to support advocacy, to change practice or defend budgets. What strongly emerged from this study is a critical need to build an ‘evidence based culture’ in the archive and library sector, to develop skills and knowledge to effectively capture critical evidence to improve performance, and the need for research to develop nuanced methods that capture the value of these collections economically and socially.

Originality and value: 

Extensive studies of the cultural heritage sector, including the movable and immovable heritage have been subject to significant evaluation over the last 30 years. Archives and libraries are noticeably absent