Fewer, Bigger, Better
User groups are lobbying Plymouth City Council for a pledge to safeguard Plymouth and West Devon Record Office. A consortium led by David Holman, chairman of the National Federation of Family History Societies, Dr. Tod Gray, chairman of the Friends of Devon’s Archives and Maureen Selley, chairman of Devon Family History Society argues in a recent
press release that the future of the record office and its collections is at risk through years of neglect by the council, with the disaggregation of collections looking possible.
Vivien PengellyAt a public meeting, the leader of the Plymouth City Council Vivien Pengelly stated that a replacement building or History Centre was the second priority of the council, after a so-called Life Centre.
SQA examined the record office’s
score in the 2008 self-assessment exercise carried out by the National Archives. The scores (row 84) are highly creditable, except for buildings, security and environment which score 37% (*). The other scores are governance and resources 59.5 (**), documentation of collections 67.5 (***), access 51.5 (**), preservation and conservation 60% (**) and overall 52.5 (**)
In terms of its status for holding Public Records, the record office is not recognised as an
Approved Repository by the National Archives under the Public Records Act 1958 but instead has Place of Deposit status for local classes of Public Records. These constitute only a minority of the record office’s collections and include such records of local branches of central government as magistrates’ court records. The council’s own records together with deposited and donated unofficial, parish, business and charity collections, etc., are not necessarily affected as they are not Public Records but withdrawal of Place of Deposit status in 2013 as reported would entail loss of prestige for the city council such that it would be hard for it to justify continuing the service at all, thus in fact endangering all other collections.
We asked outspoken Ellison Millinocket, SQA’s chief spokesman on conservation and security, based in nearby Taunton, Somerset, to assess the situation.
It’s typical really, the authority has the makings of being a responsible parent authority capable of running a full spec BS5454 record office. It is clear they have benefited from good staff who have not lost the opportunity to advance the service as far as they can within their governance limitations. It comes down to under-investment in the premises in this case. If the council can grasp the nettle, by achieving the same standards in buildings as in archival professionalism, they could end up with a high calibre record office. However, even high professional standards are threatened in future if the proposed service name comes about, “History Centre”. This is yet another instance of blurring archives by changing an easily recognised service name like Record Office. Perhaps too there will be a blurring of the role of chief archivist. Will there even be a qualified, professional archivist in charge?
Next we asked Benedict Crumplethorne, principal spokesman for SQA, to put developments in the wider context.
Reading the consortium’s press release and the local newspaper articles, the whole issue might seem to be a storm in a tea cup, especially as the press garble the National Archives’ official line. However, there are considerable forces at work which are not even hinted at by the press and consortium.
Firstly, we should look at the National Archives (TNA)’s consultation on a revised government policy on archives, entitled Archives for the 21st. Century. This envisages “fewer, bigger, better” local government record offices thus implying the closure of record offices and the creation of regional offices. It is therefore quite plausible that TNA is using Approval and Place of Deposit status as the catalyst for part of this process, a process by which some observers are anticipating regional record offices in place of county record offices. It will therefore be entirely down to the people of Plymouth and West Devon to campaign for the survival of their own local office. In doing so, they will be making a stand for the status quo nationally. SQA has been vocal for several years in alerting users to the impending closure of record offices and the disaggregation of collections, which now looks like it’s beginning. It is possible their collections could be relocated to the regional capital at Taunton, Somerset.
It is rather interesting that TNA is reportedly willing to take back the local classes of Public Records, because previous off the record comments by TNA senior staff have warned that in such circumstances, Public Records would be burned rather than taken back. This is quite an important point upon which the consortium quite apart form Plymouth City Council should obtain definite clarification.
I am very interested that Plymouth and West Devon Record Office is the first office to fall victim to this tortuous process but not surprised. You see, it was in Plymouth City Council that the threat of Common Purpose first became public, as revealed by the investigations of a retired naval officer and local businessman, Brian Gerrish, whose online documentary videos you will find both fascinating and alarming, if you have the time. So it seems the New World Order-Communitarian-Common Purpose-Fabian agenda against archives as documentary evidence of the making of our Common Law and democratic society is finally coming to fruit, along with other plans at the national level, as reported in our previous blogs about TNA and the National Archives of Ireland.
One final point. I notice that Councillor Glenn Jordan, the Plymouth City Council cabinet member for culture, leisure and sport has described the collections as a 'sub-regional' asset, but one for which Plymouth was forced to bear the entire cost. Perhaps I should explain this regional terminology for the benefit of readers not familiar with EU structures. Under EU arrangements, the nation states will be disbanded, to be replaced by regions controlled direct from Brussels. Plymouth is in the EU South West Region of the UK. The regions break down into sub regions and sub sub regions. A sub region is a group of counties usually, while sub sub regions are unitary authorities, into which all areas throughout the UK are gradually and furtively being divided. Plymouth is a unitary authority and therefore a sub sub region. When Cllr. Jordan describes the collections as having sub regional status, he presumably means they are a significant research asset in the context of Plymouth and West Devon and Administrative Devon and possibly as far afield as Cornwall and Somerset. One assumes that when Plymouth and West Devon became unitary, those lobbying for unitary status lobbied also for a separate local archive service rather than a continuation of Devon branch status. If they did, they must assume full responsibility for maintaining their archive service.
We thanked Ellison and Benedict for their contributions.
Further readingMuseums, Libraries and archives
press release Archives for the 21st. Century (courtesy MLA)
This is Exeter 28 November 2008
This is Plymouth 12 January 2009
CPExposed offering videos on CP
Stop Common PurposeBrian Gerrish, courtesy YouTube
Shoot-out over Cornish pasties
Devon Record Office in bed with Global Warmists
Nuts 2 us All
At the funeral of Jean Monnet in 1979, one of the founding fathers of the EU, Edmond Rothschild was quoted as saying "The Europe of Jean Monnet is a Europe in which there would no longer be any states but only federated regions. We shall no longer say that we are French, German or British but we shall say 'I am a European and a Bavarian or I am a European and a Scotsman'.
Who controls the past, ran the Party slogan, controls the future
SQA reacts with despondency to recent expressions of outrage following the UK National Archives'
announcement of closing its public areas on Mondays and the shedding of expert staff. The merits of such a policy decision by TNA, such it would appear to be (rather than a need to make savings) can be debated but the inadequacy of user groups' response is almost conspiratorial. It is as though all our efforts in alerting the world of archives, professionals and researchers alike, over the last few years, have been wasted (see our previous post
Common Purpose) However, the optimists we are, we will persevere in explaining developments in a more strategic context, so lacking in all other analyses of this and other related events.
The UK National ArchivesLet us begin by reminding ourselves of the function of the National Archives, formerly the Public Record Office, established in 1838 and originally situated in Chancery Lane, London but which completed its move to Kew in 2004. Their
web site states:
The National Archives (TNA) is the UK government's official archive, containing almost 1,000 years of history, with records ranging from parchment and paper scrolls through to digital files and archived websites.
We give detailed guidance to government departments and the public sector on information management, in order to ensure the survival of records, and advise others throughout the public and private sectors about the care of historical archives. We also publish all UK legislation and advise upon and encourage the re-use of public sector information.
Note archives as evidence is not mentioned. Information and evidence are not the same thing.
TNA is distinct from the pattern of local government record offices throughout England and business, financial, university and charity archives, not to mention the National Archives of Scotland and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. The archives held by TNA are known as Public Records and the TNA's activities and collections are defined by the Public Records Act and other legislation.
Opening hours are currently Monday and Friday 09.00-17.00, Tuesday and Thursday 09.00-19.00, Wednesday 10.00-17.00 and Saturday 09.30-17.00. The new opening hours represent a 16% reduction on the current ones.
Righteous indignation abounds. Protestors include Saul David, Antony Beevor, Professor Jane Ridley, Jonathan Foyle, A.N. Wilson and Nick Barratt. Professor David is quoted in
The Independent on Sunday on 19 July 2009 as saying "the future history of our country is at stake". Presumably he means access to archives as evidence is at stake as there is no stated limitation on the nature of independent historical research leading to the publication of new history text books. It is uncertain whether this is intended irony on his part or whether like all other commentators it is through ignorance of the agenda behind the changes.
The newspaper goes on to slavishly quote TNA briefing notes which typically of modern newspapers lacks the investigative and critical analysis skills to go beyond them: "the changes come as part of an ongoing drive to digitalise [sic] records so that they can be accessed directly
online." The critics of TNA's proposals have questioned either the maths or efficacy of the proposed changes. No-one so far appears to have looked behind them for an agenda. SQA understands this agenda all to well.
Nick Barratt, a former employee of TNA and well known as a consultant on the BBC TV series
Who Do You Think You Are?, makes his views felt in a letter to
The Times and in the Action4Archives web site, see below.
A humbler researcher, Ruth Wilcock of Brentwood, Essex, writing to
The Daily Telegraph, offers a savings argument to explain TNA's proposed changes even though making savings is not actually given by TNA as their reason, and states "in the current economic climate, it is inevitable that some cuts will be necessary," a superb example of how the recent economic downturn, believed by some to have been part engineered by Common Purpose and the Communitarian inspired government, can be used to justify change in policy. TNA's own statements make it plain the changes are not brought about by Government imposed cuts, they are entirely self-directed and have been given the nod by the relevant Government minister. This is an important point, one we shall come back to.
So much for setting the scene.
We asked Garth Bland, benighted County Archivist of Loamshire for his analysis of the situation, honed by decades of work in the archives sector.
I think we should for a moment look above the fog of war that is already obscuring the landscape. The teaching of history beyond Year 3 has been discontinued so will there be a constituency of historical researchers in future years and if so, how big and how well trained? Latin has already fallen by the wayside. The National Archives of Ireland is merging with the National Library of Ireland. Throughout the UK, archivists are seeing fewer academic historians and students in their searchrooms. The EU backs only cross-border projects, in the form of Interreg, to bolster support for a fabled Common European Heritage. The Heritage Lottery Fund will not support the cataloguing of archive collections and in any case their resources are being siphoned off to support the London Olympics. Local Government archive services are not included among the National Indicators in the Government's Local Area Agreements
Multiculturalism continues to undermine and embarrass the indigenous population in its striving for self expression and the preservation of its cultural identity. National archives legislation has not appeared. Three archives organisations, the Society of Archivists [sic], National Council on Archives and the Association of Chief Archivists in Local Government are proposing to merge. Politicians mislead the general public by manipulating history. The Community Archives Project challenges the collecting policies of local government record offices. Do you think these simultaneous developments are accidental, or could there be an agenda?
In the local govenment archives sector we note the obvious contrast between TNA's revised opening hours and the importance attached to our own, as measured in their annual or biennial survey of our services. As some wags have remarked, by their own benchmark TNA has now become a three star service thus presumably repudiating any pretension to leading the wider archives sector, which could indeed be part of the plan. This will be seen as an undermining of a collective approach to archives but few will understand why.
We asked Benedict Crumplethorne, principal spokesman for SQA, to develop Garth's suggestion that there is a hidden agenda.
Yes, indeed there is an agenda. It's called Communitarianism and it's often found to be associated with graduates of the crypto-Communist management training organisation Common Purpose. These so-called graduates are either trained in post or move from one post to another after graduating. In returning to their existing posts or taking up new ones, the Communitarian agenda can be more thoroughly established in the public sector, in readiness for the imposition of EU compliant government in what is now commonly termed the post-democratic age.
In layman's terms, Communitarianism is a diluted form of Communism, but not much diluted. Crucial Communist features are present most obviously totalitarian government, lack of accountability, manipulation of the economy and corruption, achieved through an elite high echelon of management and employees' uncritical acceptance of political correctness. A critical part of this process is control of elected politicians by civil servants associated with the merging of the policies of the main political parties.
Common Purpose makes clear its goal:
we develop leaders who can lead beyond their authority, beyond their direct circle of control.
TNA represents a huge threat to this Communitarian goal by supplying source material evidencing parliamentary democracy and has been identified as a target. More is to come. Replacing hands-on access to archives by digitisation ensures database oriented researchers are enabled only to navigate archives randomly without learning to apply academic research techniques, especially those involved in correlating different classes or series. The absence of staff and researchers skilled in navigating finding aids and hierarchies of archives will be a feature of the future, with inexpert researchers floundering around databases unable to unlock, relate and analyse evidence. Intuition will be insufficient.
While family historians figure prominently in the present discussion, it is the academic users who are the actual target. And by the way, please can we know what TNA personal visit statistics are for recent years? Have they really fallen enough to justify an emphasis on digitisation?
We thanked Benedict for his contribution.
We next asked Ellison Millinocket, SQA technical adviser and consultant conservator and repairer to comment on TNA's variable car parking fees, based on engine size.
This is the usual Government ruse to mobilise public opinion behind the case for Global Warming, which the alarmists say is caused by carbon emissions. In fact, while carbon emissions are increasing, there is no evidence to connect carbon emissions with global warming, apart from which we have been experiencing global cooling since 2001. If there is global warming, whether long term or short term, it could be caused by fluctuations in sun spots or ocean currents. The warmists are believed to be pursuing their agenda, along with the second strategy of a global war against a barely existent terrorist threat, in order to promote world government. The idea being that people, once suitably propagandised, will accept both draconian legislation on the one hand and regional or world government on the other. Regrettably therefore TNA has stooped to playing the Warmist card. This development provides an insight into how the different strands of the New World Order agenda are combining and converging in practice.
Further reading or viewingAction4ArchivesCommon Purpose Exposed: a video courtesy of
YouTube Robert Peston denies undermining Northern Rock
BBC NewsRobert Peston denies undermining Northern Rock in an interview, video courtesy
YouTubeNigel Farage MEP, Leader of the UK Independence Party, takes apart Gordon Brown, UK Prime Minister, for selling the UK Gold Reserve at less than its market value, courtesy
YouTube (another video you haven't seen!)
Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone?National Archives of Ireland falls victim to the EuroDemos and David CameronVideo on the Iluminati, courtesy
YouTubeArchivists Against Global WarmismThe Madeleine Foundation [web site suppressed, see instead WikiLeaks below]
What Really Happened to Madeleine McCann: 60 Reasons which suggest she was not abducted , courtesy WikiLeaks (scroll down, click fastest (Sweden))
Miserable cursPosted on Britannia Radio - Cameron on Lisbon and no referendum
This is the consequence of the all the hot air which has been created by all those groups who claim to be opposed to being incorporated in the EU. At no time, other than the proposed action of A Few has there been anything other than hot air - all talk and no do! If this country finishes as a province of the authoritarian Franco/German Empire it is entirely because there is no will among the people of this country to be and remain part of a sovereign and independent democratic Britain. It means the end of our 1000 year history of independence. It will go down in history as the destruction of the most remarkable and productive nation which has ever existed on this earth. It will be recorded as the history of a Junk Generation of no good layabouts and degenerates who are in no way worthy of their illustrious ancestors. The suffering which will be visited on the future population of this country will be terrible but wholly deserved. Those who cannot determine their own fate are completely in the hands of others and history amply describes the excesses which follow. Worse this nation has been amply warned of its fate by those who have written to warn them of the future most particularly by the works of
George Orwell.
I am a Canadian - you suckers who are British deserve all that will happen to you. You are a nation of miserable curs. I fought for your freedom. My friends died for that freedom you do not value.
In utter disgust.
Hugh Jones.
National Archives of Ireland falls victim to the Euro
When Michael Collins excused his forces' destruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland at the Four Courts in Dublin in 1922 by saying
better a state with no archives than an archives with no state, it is doubtful that he anticipated current developments in the Republic of Ireland, now suffering under the thumb of European Union.
The Irish government has announced plans to merge the
National Archives of Ireland in Bishop Street, Dublin with the
National Library of Ireland.
For the Irish state to be overseeing the disbandment of a national institution is doubly ironic: that the national archives should again be disinvented when there is no obvious threat to Irish statehood and for it to be done by the political successors to the founding fathers of the Irish state.
The mining of the Public Record Office, Dublin, 1922Observers of Irish archival provision will be both bitterly disappointed and bemused. The present National Archives was a much heralded step forward for a service once split between the Public Record Office of Ireland and the State Paper Office at Dublin Castle. It also means the Republic of Ireland falls behind the example of Scotland whose
National Archives of Scotland, formerly the General Register House, even preceded the establishment of devolved government there. Thus the Republic of Ireland, a fully independent state (except for being a member of the EU) has no national archives while Scotland, a minor part of the United Kingdom, producing 20% of the UK's GDP, does have a national archives.
The National Archives of Ireland, Bishop Street, DublinSo what has brought this sorry state of affairs into being?
In the words of the
Bruges Group:
The Bruges Group’s detailed examination of the severe strains facing the Single Currency .... finds that the entirely ‘man made’ problems that confront the eurozone today have their origins in the fatally flawed notion that one exchange rate and one interest rate are appropriate for economies with very different and disparate histories, structures, performances and sovereign governments.
The euro was meant to bring convergence to the economies of the European Union. Yet it has caused even greater divergence.
This much applies to all of the Euro Zone. What about Ireland? Writing in
The Daily Telegraph of 28 February 2009, Gordon Rayner says:
Irish government bonds are rated as the riskiest in the EU and there has been panicky talk of Ireland being the next Iceland. On the streets, there is a whiff of revolution, with 120,000 people staging Dublin's biggest mass rally in 30 years ... to protest at the government's handling of the economy and its decision to impose what amounted to a pay cut on public sector workers.
Businesses in the north of the Republic are on their knees because competitors in Northern Ireland are undecutting them by as much as half. Thousands of workers who have lost their jobs in other sectors have been allowed to set up as cabbies, meaning that Dublin now has 16,000 licensed taxis. New York, with a population 17 times as large, has 13,000.
Crucially, the Irish government is powerless to act because, as a member of the eurozone, it has no control over interest rates or currency devaluation.
Further readingCould the EU invade Ireland?Archives and the stateAnyone give a damn?O Minister, Minister! wherefore art thou Minister?New EU working laws will be disaster for NHS The Sunday Telegraph 18 January 2009
Ditching the euro could boost our failing economy
Independent.ie
John Black, president of the Royal College of Surgeons has issued a dramatic warning that the National Health Service will not be able to cope with the effects of the controversial European Working Time Directive.
Mr Black is meeting Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, in February to propose a "speciality opt-out" and an upper limit on surgeons ' hours of 65 to 70 hours a week.
"I have no doubt we will be told that it is impossible to alter or bypass the European law. I do not believe this. All manner of EC law must have been bent or ignored in nationalising a bank in 24 hours. The Government can do it if it has the political will," Mr Black said.
Sleep you stinking cowards
Philip PullmanAre such things done on Albion's shore?
The image of this nation that haunts me most powerfully is that of
the sleeping giant Albion in William Blake's prophetic books. Sleep,
profound and inveterate slumber: that is the condition of Britain today.
We do not know what is happening to us. In the world outside, great
events take place, great figures move and act, great matters unfold,
and this nation of Albion murmurs and stirs while malevolent voices
whisper in the darkness - the voices of the new laws that are
silently strangling the old freedoms the nation still dreams it enjoys.
We are so fast asleep that we don't know who we are any more. Are we
English? Scottish? Welsh? British? More than one of them? One but not
another? Are we a Christian nation - after all we have an Established
Church - or are we something post-Christian? Are we a secular state?
Are we a multifaith state? Are we anything we can all agree on and
feel proud of?
The new laws whisper:
You don't know who you are
You're mistaken about yourself
We know better than you do what you consist of, what labels apply to
you, which facts about you are important and which are worthless
We do not believe you can be trusted to know these things, so we
shall know them for you
And if we take against you, we shall remove from your possession the
only proof we shall allow to be recognised
The sleeping nation dreams it has the freedom to speak its mind. It
fantasises about making tyrants cringe with the bluff bold vigour of
its ancient right to express its opinions in the street. This is what
the new laws say about that:
Expressing an opinion is a dangerous activity
Whatever your opinions are, we don't want to hear them
So if you threaten us or our friends with your opinions we shall
treat you like the rabble you are
And we do not want to hear you arguing about it
So hold your tongue and forget about protesting
What we want from you is acquiescence
The nation dreams it is a democratic state where the laws were made
by freely elected representatives who were answerable to the people.
It used to be such a nation once, it dreams, so it must be that
nation still. It is a sweet dream.
You are not to be trusted with laws
So we shall put ourselves out of your reach
We shall put ourselves beyond your amendment or abolition
You do not need to argue about any changes we make, or to debate
them, or to send your representatives to vote against them
You do not need to hold us to account
You think you will get what you want from an inquiry?
Who do you think you are?
What sort of fools do you think we are?
The nation's dreams are troubled, sometimes; dim rumours reach our
sleeping ears, rumours that all is not well in the administration of
justice; but an ancient spell murmurs through our somnolence, and we
remember that the courts are bound to seek the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth, and we turn over and sleep soundly again.
And the new laws whisper:
We do not want to hear you talking about truth
Truth is a friend of yours, not a friend of ours
We have a better friend called hearsay, who is a witness we can always rely
on
We do not want to hear you talking about innocence
Innocent means guilty of things not yet done
We do not want to hear you talking about the right to silence
You need to be told what silence means: it means guilt
We do not want to hear you talking about justice
Justice is whatever we want to do to you
And nothing else
Are we conscious of being watched, as we sleep? Are we aware of an
ever-open eye at the corner of every street, of a watching presence
in the very keyboards we type our messages on? The new laws don't
mind if we are. They don't think we care about it.
We want to watch you day and night
We think you are abject enough to feel safe when we watch you
We can see you have lost all sense of what is proper to a free people
We can see you have abandoned modesty
Some of our friends have seen to that
They have arranged for you to find modesty contemptible
In a thousand ways they have led you to think that whoever does not
want to be watched must have something shameful to hide
We want you to feel that solitude is frightening and unnatural
We want you to feel that being watched is the natural state of things
One of the pleasant fantasies that consoles us in our sleep is that
we are a sovereign nation, and safe within our borders. This is what
the new laws say about that:
We know who our friends are
And when our friends want to have words with one of you
We shall make it easy for them to take you away to a country where
you will learn that you have more fingernails than you need
It will be no use bleating that you know of no offence you have
committed under British law
It is for us to know what your offence is
Angering our friends is an offence
It is inconceivable to me that a waking nation in the full
consciousness of its freedom would have allowed its government to
pass such laws as the Protection from Harassment Act (1997), the
Crime and Disorder Act (1998), the Regulation of Investigatory Powers
Act (2000), the Terrorism Act (2000), the Criminal Justice and Police
Act (2001), the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act (2001), the
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Extension Act (2002), the Criminal
Justice Act (2003), the Extradition Act (2003), the Anti-Social
Behaviour Act (2003), the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act
(2004), the Civil Contingencies Act (2004), the Prevention of
Terrorism Act (2005), the Inquiries Act (2005), the Serious Organised
Crime and Police Act (2005), not to mention a host of pending
legislation such as the Identity Cards Bill, the Coroners and Justice
Bill, and the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill.
Inconceivable.
And those laws say:
Sleep, you stinking cowards
Sweating as you dream of rights and freedoms
Freedom is too hard for you
We shall decide what freedom is
Sleep, you vermin
Sleep, you scum.
From an article to mark the Convention on Modern Liberty, published on and then pulled from Times Online
Further reading
click here
A new twist to multiculturalism
Farhad Hakimzadeh, a wealthy Iranian businessman who went on trial in November 2008 for stealing and mutilating manuscripts at the British Library, London and Bodleian Library, Oxford, has been imprisoned for two years. Mr. Hakimzadeh had a special interest in western European experiences of travel and colonisation in the Middle East from the 16th to 18th. Centuries.
Rather like another thief of archives convicted recently,
Oliver Fallon, Hakimzadeh had the cover of a reputable organisation, in his case the Iranian Heritage Foundation of which he was founder and director.
Iranians in Britain have mixed reactions to their fellow countryman's activities, some seeing his criminal activities in the context of conflict between Islam and the West, others a conflict between the Persian and non-Persian sections of Iranian society.
Farhad HakimzadehHowever, of concern to SQA is the ease with which Hakimzadeh committed his theft and vandalism, over the lengthy period of 1997-2005 or 1998-2006, according to different reports.
We asked Benedict Crumplethorne, principal spokesman of SQA, to offer his thoughts on the episode.
It seems the national institutions are not quite on the ball as regards security procedures, exemplified in this instance by the British Library. It is axiomatic in the heritage professions that no matter how trusted researchers are, the same standards of security should apply as for the general public. This is common sense, of course. I tend to suspect that the heavier presence of academic types among the curatorial staff of such institutions causes them to lack the same orthodoxy of qualified archivists, who are almost certainly not to be found at the upper levels of British Library management. Instead, they empathise with their fellow researchers.
The founder of our profession, Sir Hilary Jenkinson for whom the physical security of archives was the paramount objective, would be turning in his grave. In referring to Jenkinson, I am reminded of his injunction that archivists' judgment should not be clouded by engaging in their own original research.
I must next address some of the odd statements made by the British Library and the police. Firstly, I quote a British Library spokesman:
Theft from the British Library is an extremely rare occurrence. Because we are a research library, not a museum, we are committed to making our collections available in the interests of scholarship and research: to facilitate this an element of trust is necessary. Hakimzadeh fundamentally betrayed this trust. I don't quite see how being a research library makes security issues different to those in a museum...say the British Museum. Do museums not make their collections available for research? Is the BL saying museums don't have security arrangements? Are they also saying they recognise different tiers of researcher, all ostensibly card carrying readers, but some more equal than others? In any case, all archive repositories exist to make their material available for research. However, the crucial sentence is the second last sentence. This seems to suggest BL staff took a calculated decision to favour Hakimzadeh, or to trust him as they put it. This policy is at best mysterious and at worst negligent.
Secondly, I refer to a comment made by Detective Chief Inspector Dave Cobb of the Metropolitan Police, that:
It is extremely difficult to detect the absence of these pages as Hakimzadeh took care to select material that only an expert would be able to identify, as early printed books are unique. The original owner might have commissioned additional illustrations, or pages might have been missing when the libraries acquired them.This carries forward the mysteriousness of the BL's own statement and indicates careful briefing of the police by the them. All archives are unique and the material stolen or damaged in this case is no different from archives at a county record office, insurance archive, business archive or university archive. That is to say, archives are descriptively listed so as to securely identify them precisely so the documents can be identified by a researcher. Quite often these descriptions are published in the form of online databases. Unwittingly, Mr. Cobb is acting as the BL's apologist. Any use of archives requires more mental capacity than taking a lending or reference book down from the shelf in your local library, assuming they still have such things as books.
We then turned to Ellison Millinocket, our security and conservation spokesman, based in Taunton, Somerset, for some practical insights.
Documents are retrieved from secure storage areas by staff rather than taken down from the shelf, as might happen with an open access book in a local library, and should then be inspected prior to being handed over to researchers and inspected again on return by issuing staff. There is no harm in repository staff also checking material, in the repository, we all have a responsibility. In the case of bundles of loose papers, these should be counted out prior to issue and counted back by issuing staff. I query whether this happened at the BL. The process of counting out documents and then counting them back in also allows searchroom or issuing staff to visually inspect the contents and intactness of the material. Some offices weigh documents, which even allowing for absorption of water from the atmosphere, is remarkably accurate, quite apart from being effective as a deterrent.
I note The Daily Telegraph states
British Library staff believe he smuggled a scalpel into the building and positioned himself out of the sight of security cameras to commit his crimes.I am flabbergasted that Hakimzadeh perpetrated his crimes out of sight of CCTV cameras. No part of a searchroom should be uncovered by camera or the human eye or at any rate such researchers should be required to sit in clear view of at least one camera.
We thanked Benedict and Ellison for their contributions.
Further readingThe Daily Telegraph 21 November 2008
British Library
press release 16 January 2009
The Daily Telegraph 16 January 2009
The Daily Telegraph: 8000 items go missing from British Library 28 February 2005
The Daily Mail 16 January 2009
The Daily Telegraph 21 January 2009
The Guardian 21 November 2008
What drives people to steal precious books Financial Times 6 March 2009
Long-lost manuscript available to historians Derby Evening Telegraph 5 March 2009
Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know
Donald Rumsfeld February 2002
Archivists Against Global Warmism
In a letter to
The Daily Telegraph of 9 January 2009, John McGibbon of Cambridge advises anyone unable to heat his home properly during the present cold snap
to spend a day at their local council offices, perhaps researching their ancestors. As the temperature holds a sultry 75F, be prepared to strip down to not much more than underwear in order to blend in with the staff.
We asked Benedict Crumplethorne, principal spokesman for SQA, to comment on this apparent suggestion that local government record offices' public searchrooms are not only swelteringly hot but staffed by women wearing only bras and nickers.
You hint that the majority of local government record office staff are women. This is indeed the case, so we may deduce that the office Mr. McGibbon has visited to obtain this impression is typical of the trend, confirmed in various national surveys. As to a public searchroom being 75F, this gives very great cause for concern. We expect temperature and humidity in searchrooms to be controlled in broad conformity with BS5454 to ensure that documents temporarily relocated for research purposes from the strongroom to the searchroom will not be subjected to widely varying atmospheric conditions.
Devon Record Office: in bed with the Met OfficeWe also asked Ellison Millinocket, conservation spokesman for SQA, based in Taunton, Somerset to comment on the technical implications of searchrooms being heated to 75F.
Benedict is quite right. And may I say how heart-warming it is to see Fahrenheit used, instead of the fiendish metric Celcius system. Most British people prefer Fahrenheit, despite Met Office bullying. I would prefer a searchroom to be air conditioned so as to ensure documents are less subjected to microscopic mechanical wear through hydrolysis. There are other threats of course including photo-degradation but fluctuation or variation in temperature and humidity between or in document storage areas and searchrooms is something to avoid. And finally, may I enquire where these scantily dressed women archivists and archive assistants are to be found, I find I am free for the next few days and would like to pay them a visit....
We thanked Benedict and Ellison for their contributions.
However, still curious as to why a letter writer to a national newspaper should seem to want to grouse about the temperature in a local government record office searchroom, we invited Dr. Pochin Sturge of Wigston, Leicestershire, honorary consultant anthropologist to SQA, to offer some explanation.
Well, I rather regret this current obsession with global warming is behind the criticism. Local government has nailed its colours to the mast on this one, slavishly implementing EU directives on waste disposal and fining miscreants, so that any council is bound to be associated with the global warming phenomenon and become a target for disgruntled members of the public.
Even the national Archives has swallowed the bait. Their web site states Projects will soon be underway to understand the issues surrounding the impact of climate change on local environments in The National Archives, and archival collections globally. Existing models such as life-cycle costing, risk assessment and predictive modelling protocols will be applied to evaluate and define sustainable energy solutions and to optimise current preservation practices.....A climate mapping exercise has been carried out in all storage areas. The results will be used to develop The National Archives´ environmental monitoring programme as well as to improve the hardware and the Building Management System.
The significance of this for the tax-payer is that it may all be unnecessary.
The great shame is that there is no such thing as global warming. The evidence is that temperatures are cooling rather than warming and the ice caps are expanding. I have studied the origins of warmism and have deduced that the theory has been developed by the United Nations and its collaborators as a means of establishing world communist government. I am particularly fascinated by the tendency for Warmism to replace religion, especially Roman Catholicism, as being subject to inflexible doctrine and for anti-Warmists to be treated as heretics.
So you see, there is a very complicated social and scientific background to a brief and facetious comment in a daily newspaper. But whichever record office is in question, I wouldn't mind betting their visitor statistics are up at this time of year, hey what?
Further readingGlobal Warming Petition ProjectGlen Beck interviews the founder of the Weather Channel
click hereWattsUpWithThat2008 was the year man made global warming was disprovedGreat Global warming SwindleBlizzard of mad proposals descends Wind Energy The Truth More Hot Air From the Met Office BBC Devon News Taxpayers' AllianceCustomer care training for women archivists and archive assistants
click hereNational Archives
Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more of expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be nationalized, and State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to communism.
Karl Marx, 1867
Take Note
We believe some colleagues in the archives profession will be chastened to read the following notice published in the British Weights and Measures Association annual report for 1907. The information is perhaps still as relevant now in the computer age as it was then.
Most progressive people now-a-days use card indexes of some sort or other, and with these obtain the necessary drawers, etc, for filing them. The standard sizes of these cards are 3 x 5, 4 x 6, and 5 x 8 — cabinets being sold to fit. We would warn all our members to make sure in purchasing these cabinets that the drawers will fit these sizes of cards. There are some cabinets on the market at present with drawers presumably of the standard size, but on looking closely at the circular or catalogue describing them, you will find the word “approximately”. These cabinets are not made in England, and are made to take cards according to millimetre sizes, which are incommensurable with British sizes.
If you should unfortunately get this make of cabinets in your office you will find yourself tied to obtain your future supplies of cards from the firm, or pay extra if you go elsewhere, as a drawer 75 x 125 millimetres will not take a 3 x 5in standard card. The difference is slight but just enough to tie you to one firm for supplies at their prices. We don’t want tied houses in the stationery trade, neither do we want confusion introducing into our sizes, which are based on the Imperial standard inch. There are excellent makers who supply cabinets to British standard sizes, and our members should insist on having these sizes.
Further readingBritish Weights and Measures Association
Vivien Pengelly
