31 January 2019
Do you want peer recognition for excellence?
Do you need evidence to show your effective engagement with volunteers?
If so, why not nominate your archive service for the ARA Archive Volunteering Award?
Winners will have a national platform to celebrate their volunteers’ contribution to the service and gain publicity for their archive’s role in supporting individuals and community through volunteering programmes.
2018 Award Winner was ‘Ancestors at Sea’, Lancashire Archives’ project to engage new volunteers to create a free, online name-rich index of maritime records.
The judges said:
“’Ancestors at Sea’ was the clear winner in an outstanding field. The new index gives details of over 70,000 seamen from Lancashire, the UK and Ireland and includes a significant number of European and international sailors, too. This is a first-class example of a local project with wider national and international relevance that could not have taken place without the strong support of partners and the commitment of the 17 volunteers that took part, generously giving over 2,300 hours of their time. We were particularly impressed that the volunteers were given challenging roles, for example working on a large number of documents and many with difficult handwriting, as well as being trained (and well managed) by the professional staff at Lancashire Archives.”
The Archives and Records Association seeks to celebrate the role of volunteers in supporting archive services, and to collect good practice case studies to inform the wider sector. This award is a key strand of the work of ARA’s Volunteering in Archives, Action Plan, bringing to life the recommendations the ARA report Managing Volunteering in Archives. The award is also supported by The National Archives, the Welsh Government’s Museums Archives and Libraries Division, and the Scottish Council on Archives.
This award is open to archives across the United Kingdom and Ireland. Awards will be publicised widely throughout and beyond the sector.
We welcome nominations for the award. A short nomination form is available from the ARA website
http://www.archives.org.uk/careers/volunteering/volunteering-awards.html
Completed nomination forms need to be returned to volunteeringaward@archives.org.uk by the end of National Volunteers Week – 7 June 2019
If you have any queries about the award please contact Sally Bevan, Volunteering Awards Administrator, (020 7332 3820) or via volunteeringaward@archives.org.uk