Out of the box: enabling access to archives

The day after the charismatic connecting course, I went on a very different day. This was held at Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives, and was themed around the issue of accessibility to archives. I'd thought we were doing OK on accessibility where I work (as a couple of people who use wheelchairs had been able to use our collections with no problem) until a dyslexic student with a looming coursework deadline had arrived needing help with some handwritten autobiographies and I didn't know where to start.

This was a free day organised by THLHLA as part of the "out of the box" project, with support from The National Archives and a local disability arts organisation, Film pro. It started with seven 10 minute case studies (with a break halfway through!) from a range of organisations, demonstrating accessibility projects they had worked on. These included:

• Out of the box project (Tower Hamlets)
• Film pro
• Royal Air Force Museum - which had won an Autism Access Award. Their information packs are available to download from their website.
• Hackney Museum, which actively encourages people to say how the museum can be made more accessible.
• Sara Griffiths from The National Archives talked about their There Be Monsters [pdf link], which built a permanent legacy in the grounds, and Prisoner 4099 projects.
• Surrey Heritage about how they try to be accessible by having a guide on their website, working with groups to tailor a particular approach (e.g. they have records from asylums that have since closed, and they worked with Woking Mind to identify the places and people in photographs), have different mice and keyboards available, have a handling collection for use by people with visual impairments and produce tactile books based on stories from the archives. All the staff have been trained in being dementia-friendly and they are holding trial coffee mornings to try and help stimulate the memories of people with dementia.
• Chris Haydon from Freewheelers Theatre talked about their work producing a series of films about the history of disability in Surrey and on the Epsom Cluster of mental health hospitals.

A free (and very tasty) lunch was then provided, with plenty of time to talk to other participants about accessibility in their archives and special collections, plus an opportunity to look at the exhibition in the foyer area of the library.

The afternoon kicked off with a poetry reading by one of the Out of the box participants, Sarah. Her poetry was very funny and gave a great insight into how she had felt about using archival collections. As with the There Be Monsters project at The National Archives, it was good to see different, creative, outlets for research in archives, rather than an academic article etc.

The participants then divided into three groups to discuss topics of interest to them from a suggested three:
a) Improving access to the archives searchroom and catalogues
b) Access to collections for people with learning disabilities
c) Use and promotion of archives as artistic/creative stimuli
I opted for a), as I felt this was the most pertinent to my own situation. Ideas that came out of my discussion group included:

• Having "creative enablers" around to help on targeted days, much like a "buddy" type system. The creative enabler can help to remove those barriers to research.
• Implications of the Care Act 2014, which encourages co-production between health and social services, service users and providers. It may be that there are funding sources available from adult social care as the key is personalisation - that it's geared to the needs of the individual service user.
• Have an "access group" with the aim of demystifying a visit to archives/special collections and building confidence to help get people through the door. This might suit a volunteer who is already a keen user of collections.
• Running a new user induction session, which would apply to any user, not just someone who is disabled.

We also talked about the problems of making archive catalogues accessible. Archives Hub is very clear and easy to use, but specific archive catalogues tend to be much less so. The catalogue at The Keep was recommended as particularly good though. We all agreed that one of the huge problems is lack of resources - everyone had a cataloguing backlog, which then makes it hard to justify spending time doing things like transcribing records.

At the end of the day each group reported back to all of us. I really enjoyed my day on this workshop. There was a lot to think about, and I also made some useful contacts. My thanks to the organisers.

Training: Charismatic connecting

I'd spotted that our Staff Development department at work was running a day's training on networking skills, which I thought looked interesting and useful.  The day was led by Russell Wardrop from Kissing with Confidence, an organisation that offers training in public speaking, networking, coaching, influencing and negotiating.

I had wondered in advance whether we were going to spend the day learning how to shake hands etc, and, whilst we did do a tiny bit of that, there was a whole lot more to it! The day was split into four chunks, and at the beginning we were each given a reflective sheet to fill in, to note specific skills we'd learnt each time, plus what we should start and stop doing, do more of and change. This helped me to think about what I'd learnt in each section and reflect on it.

We started off by talking about self-confidence, where it comes from and how you can develop it. It is connected with both skills and self-awareness, so being aware of a skills deficit and taking action to acquire those skills, will help you to develop self-confidence. Simple preparatory measures, such as looking into who the other delegates are in advance of a conference and thinking about who you would like to talk to, all help.

Then we worked our way through the seven principles:

1. Self-awareness
This covered self-regard and resilience, optimism, happiness and assertiveness. We looked at practical ways of building optimism and happiness.
2. Accentuate the positive
No one wants to hang around with someone negative, so think about your personal narrative and how you can focus on the positive.
3. Be a chameleon



A chameleon. From Wikimedia Commons

When networking, you need to adapt to the other person's style. Every word they say is a clue to their lives and really good networkers really listen to what is being said. We then went on to discuss the different types of listening (active, passive, selective) and how to be a good active listener, which means making it obvious that you are listening. One of the great things about the day was the opportunity to keep practising what we'd been learning by engaging with the others on the course. At one point I had to be a deliberately very passive listener, which was actually quite hard!
4. Be appropriately memorable
I could think of so many ways to be inappropriately memorable... But that wasn't the point. We talked about dress, body language, small talk and knowledge and how, whilst you can show your personality, it's important to demonstrate respect for the other person and show that you have made an effort. Think about how you would like people to remember you after your meeting. We then did an exercise working on small talk and swopping partners as we added in different aspects to work on. It was helpful to try out different postures, and think about how each makes you come across. I also found this section useful as we had a diagram of a room at an event, with various people identified on it, and we discussed the pros and cons of approaching these people.
5. Mastering modern manners
This section started with us brainstorming in groups the top ten things that annoy us. A lot of the annoyances seemed to be about the appropriate use of mobile phones(!), but the general theme was behaviour that seems to indicate someone isn't thinking of others, such as poor timekeeping, being unreliable or failing to say please/thank you. Again, much food for thought, as the lists were individual to each of us, although with significant crossover, and it made us think about how we come across to others, and simple things to do to help people think well of you.
6. Guard your reputation
Related to this was guarding your reputation. Once people are thinking well of you, you want to it stay that way! We talked about what we'd like to be known for, including professionalism, discretion and knowledge of our specialism. We also talked about our three levels of network: our personal networks, which consist of our friends and maybe social activities/clubs we belong to, our operational networks, which are our colleagues at work, and our strategic networks, which are the people with the bigger picture, and include our coaches and mentors.
7. Follow up
Finally, we learnt about following up. How many times have you taken someone's card or email address at a conference and promised to be in touch, and then not followed through?! Yet, without follow up, there's no point doing all the previous six principles. We discussed being assertive in following up, how to end a conversation with a promise of a future meeting, and then how to go about arranging that. For example, you are far more likely to get someone to agree to spend 20/30 minutes meeting you for a coffee, than suggesting a lengthy meeting a long way from where they work.

This is only a brief overview of the day's course, but I learnt a huge amount from it, plus a lot which I can hopefully put into practice at events I'm attending over the summer for work.