Agenda and minutes

www.swansea.gov.uk/disclosuresofinterests

In accordance with the Code of Conduct adopted by both Authorities, the following interest was declared: -

 

Officer

D Michael – Minute No 7 – Personal – Committee Member of the Neath Antiquarian Society.

To approve & sign the Minutes of the previous meeting(s) as a correct record.

 

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the West Glamorgan Archives Committee Meeting held on 17 June 2016 be approved as a correct record.

 

The County Archivist presented a report which outlined the work of the

Archive Service during the period June to August 2016. 

 

Archives Accreditation Standard

 

The County Archivist reported that the Service had been awarded accredited status under the above standard for its Swansea service point. Award of the Archives Accreditation Standard defines good practice and agreed standards for archives across the UK and is indicative of good governance and proper collections care.

 

The Review Panel in particular commended the use of the archive collections in outreach work, including some good work with schools, and believed the Service is well equipped to address the challenge of relocation in the near future. The award lasts for a period of 5 years and is reviewed after 2 years.

 

He indicated that that a separate application would need to be made by the Neath Antiquarian Society if they wished to pursue accreditation in the future and that WGAS would support them in this should they choose to do so.  Members welcomed this proposal.

 

Neath Antiquarian Society Archives(NAS)

The County Archivist reported that as of 1 August the archive facility in Neath had moved to its new opening hours, with the operation being covered by staff from Swansea working alongside NAS volunteers.

 

He outlined that early indications were that the new arrangements were working well and detailed actions to make the collections and family history resources held there more accessible to the public, which could be achieved at no cost through improved online publicity.

 

He outlined that working in conjunction with the NAS, the ongoing issue of the fluctuating humidity in the archive strongroom was being addressed.

 

West Wales Regional Archives Partnership

 

The County Archivist reported that there have been no further meetings of the partnership following agreement on the content of the second consultant’s report.

 

All future work will be progressed by a new Swansea University Strategic Project Board which will commence meeting in the autumn.

 

Use of the Service - Statistics for June – August 2016

 

The County Archivist reported on the use of the Service for the quarter.

 

He indicated the statistics for the electronic visits to the web pages etc had

not been available at the time of printing, but he would forward these figures

to the Committee.

Service Outreach

 

The County Archivist reported on the various areas of outreach work that staff

had been involved in during the quarter.

 

He outlined that the service has continued to participate in the Swansea University led project ‘Visions of Steel’, it has created exhibitions relating to the Townhill (Swansea) and Sandfields (Port Talbot) estates which had been on display during the recent Welsh Government ministerial visit to Swansea, and had together with Swansea Libraries hosted the BBC Radio 4 programme ‘The Listening Project’ at Swansea Civic Centre.

 

Professional Meetings and Partnership Working

 

The County Archivist referred to the professional meetings and training

attended by staff during the last quarter.

 

Archive Collections

 

A comprehensive list of archives received during the period June to August 2016 was attached for information at Appendix 1.