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The decisions as the council's minutes record them. A plain-language summary follows once it has been written.
AGREED to note the contents of the report.
AGREED that:- · A sub-group is formed to discuss and recommend actions to the next Gwent Archives Joint Committee meeting to include the appointment of new co-optees and the attendance of existing co-optees; and · The Chair of the Gwent Archives Joint Committee contact Co-opted members unable to regularly attend to confirm their continued membership.
1.1 Councillor David Williams was elected as Chair for the municipal year.
2.1 Apologies were received from Councillors John Morgan (Blaenau Gwent) and Julian Simmonds (Caerphilly), and Mr Jack Hanbury Tenison.
3.1 No interests were declared.
4.1 The minutes of the meeting held on 16 June 2023 were confirmed as a true and accurate record.
Decision as recorded
AGREED to note the contents of the report.
5.1 The CA presented her report, pulling out key points. Following, she responded to questions from the Joint Committee as follows: · The most dangerous pests that caused a risk to the archives were those that ate paper. There weren’t many in the archive stores. Of those that were present, they had Silverfish which loved paper, but most archive services were susceptible to them. They were able to beat most pests by having good procedures in place, making sure everything was clean from dust and not having items laying around. They also had to ensure that damp was being prevented, one of which measure was to not have any cracks near the windows. It was all about looking after the building and having good housekeeping. They were able to do more housekeeping during the pandemic but they also had a volunteer helping from Cardiff University who was doing a conservation course, so it helped the service as well as offering lots of benefits to the student. · She had been accepted on a Continuing Professional Development course by Dundee University which was funded by the Archives and Records Council Wales. They had made four applications this quarter which were all successful. One of those was to work with a consultant to review their collections management processes, making sure they were doing what they should. · The Education Room had continued to be used by the NHS, which was through an agreement with Blaenau Gwent as the landlords. The notice period was coming up to the three months and so they would know soon as to whether they would continue to use it. It was a yearlong lease with a six month break. They would be able to report an update to Committee in December. · There were minor ongoing issues in relation to building maintenance and they still didn’t have access to the building maintenance system. It was difficult for them to commit to the Committee pushing the agenda forwards as they were in regularly contact with Blaenau Gwent, who were responsive in terms of what they reported. In relation to the building management system, this was something they continued to push for. Things were moving forward but they didn’t get resolved quickly; they needed to keep a watching brief. Quarterly meetings were taking place with Blaenau Gwent and so the CA suggested that perhaps they would see at their next meeting whether they needed something from the Committee in order to try and push things forward. Relationships were very good and there was a will on Blaenau Gwent’s side to make progress, so they would see. · Their Education and Outreach Archivist had returned from maternity leave and had restarted their Discover walks. They did a lot of them pre-pandemic. They used their email list of contacts to advertise events. These included people who had visited or engaged online who had said they would like to know about their events. They also used their social media sites for advertising but weren’t producing leaflets or posters as much due to the size of the area they covered. They were hoping to start producing a leaflet with a programme of events. This used to be produced annually, so were planning to do this in future. Information was sent to local authorities for advertising. It was important to get a balance in disseminating information so it hit parts of the community who weren’t online. Ultimately, people had their preferred way of getting information, they needed to use a varied approach. · There had been an increase in engagement with teachers but the response from their survey in schools was poor. Ysgol Bryn Onnen from Cwmbran had visited the centre and it was a great success. They would be looking at other ways to engage which might help, but this was very much stage one. There was also a lack of applicants for work experience at the centre. They hadn’t been approached since before the pandemic. The target used to be 10 which was quite resource heavy. Since, they had started doing things differently and so they were able to give a stronger offer as the student would be able to do more. They needed to find the right time to approach schools. There was a lot going on in schools in Newport around Chartist Heritage and how they wanted to use it within the curriculum. Gwent Archives needed to find out what resources schools needed, in what format and in what context; was it a resource pack or them visiting the centre. As soon as they knew they were able to progress it. · They needed funding to carry out any project work around the 50th anniversary of the evolution of Gwent. They had signed up for an account with the People’s Collection Wales. Perhaps a travelling exhibition might be something of interest, but there wasn’t any progress to date. 5.2 The Joint Committee AGREED to note the contents of the report.
Decision as recorded
AGREED that:- · A sub-group is formed to discuss and recommend actions to the next Gwent Archives Joint Committee meeting to include the appointment of new co-optees and the attendance of existing co-optees; and · The Chair of the Gwent Archives Joint Committee contact Co-opted members unable to regularly attend to confirm their continued membership.
6.1 The CA presented her report, highlighting key points. The Joint Committee made the following points: · Co-opted members provided a huge benefit when they attended due to their vast experience and expertise. · Commitment was needed and a full understanding of what the archive is. · There was a clause that should co-optees not attend for three meetings then their membership should cease, but this didn’t seem to have taken place. · Setting up a sub-group of around four Members was a good approach in order to make progress. 6.2 Councillors Peter Strong, David Mayer and David Williams, and Mr John Evans volunteered to sit on the sub-group. The Chair asked the Joint Committee to consider potential people they could approach to join and if any were identified, to make contact with the CA. 6.3 The Joint Committee AGREED that:- · A sub-group is formed to discuss and recommend actions to the next Gwent Archives Joint Committee meeting to include the appointment of new co-optees and the attendance of existing co-optees; and · The Chair of the Gwent Archives Joint Committee contact Co-opted members unable to regularly attend to confirm their continued membership.
Part of an issue followed across 2 meetings
7.1 The Joint Committee raised concerns in relation to copyright, potential abuse of copyright laws and missing items. The CA responded as follows: • Staff were responsible for advising people around copyright and what they could or couldn’t do. Photographs were allowed to be taken but they were asked to sign a copyright declaration which prohibited them from disseminating the information. This approach was taken across the industry and so they were complying with standards and not breaking them by allowing it. The form they used came in a standard format which was advised by the archive copyright exceptions. The wording shouldn’t change as this could mean that they were no longer compliant, but they could look into it. Staff advised and reminded people what they were signing as this was good practice. They had all received copyright training and part of this was the use of the form. [SL1] The Chair suggested that this be looked at in collaboration with other archive services in order to see what the scale of the issue was. The CA agreed to raise the issue and commented that the form had changed only around three years ago and so they were using the most up to date version. However, it was recognised that the form didn’t quite do what they wanted it to do because of some of the language used. She stated that any alterations could result in a sector change and so they would have to go to the National Archives to speak to the experts. • Missing items had been reported in the national press recently which highlighted the importance of collections being catalogued, but they had a backlog just like every other archive service. The collections they received were catalogued to a low (item) level. They would only take out requested items to researchers, rather than entire boxes, so there were precautions taken. In addition, they had security protocols around cards being issued, no bags being allowed, no coats etc. If something did go missing they would look for it and there were procedures in place to deal with it, one being a checklist of various places to look, checking who used the item last etc. All staff were trained and familiar with the processes put in place for finding missing items. [SL1]Could this be removed?
8.1 The date of the next meeting was confirmed as 15 December 2023. 8.2 Meeting ended at 11.25am.
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