1. Describe who you are
I'm Becky, one of the archivists based in the library. We are a small team with an FTE of 2.6. We're responsible for the management and promotion of more than 130 deposited collections relating to all areas of education and the Institute's own archive.
2. Describe what you do
Our team works to collect, preserve, catalogue and promote our collections to all researchers. We're also responsible for developing the Institute's own archive and work with staff across the IOE to advise on good records management. We work with our academics to open up collections to our students and support the IOE's research activities by advising research staff, supporting projects and contributing to major international events such as ISCHE2014.
3. Describe why you are unique
Researchers from all over the world visit us to access our collections and visitor numbers have increased by 50% year on year for the last four years. There is no other archive service in the UK that has the breadth of collections on education that we do. We are the first choice for organisations and individuals looking to deposit their collections and have recently taken in the archives of the GTCE and TLRP. We take in, on average, 10 new collections a year and currently we are seeing a increased demand from IOE staff, donors and users for us to take in, and make accessible, purely digital collections.
4. Describe your immediate goals
We're very excited by this new opportunity and in the past have secured external funding to help support this work by undertaking small pilots. This has meant we have been able to recruit staff for short periods to cover core activities whilst we develop new skills. We now need to embed what we have learned in our core activities, developing new procedures and building skills and knowledge so we are able to continue to accept and make accessible our digital collections. We estimate that if we were able to concentrate on this work, with additional staff to cover core work, over a 12 month period we would be in a position to do this.