{"id":135,"date":"2014-06-06T10:42:07","date_gmt":"2014-06-06T10:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/?p=135"},"modified":"2014-06-10T08:52:11","modified_gmt":"2014-06-10T08:52:11","slug":"ba2-memories-are-made-of-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/2014\/06\/06\/ba2-memories-are-made-of-this\/","title":{"rendered":"BA2: Memories are made of this"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BA2<\/a>Did you know that in an overlooked corner of the Library is a treasure trove of University history, which tells the story of our campus and its inhabitants over almost 50 years? Molly Conisbee finds out what\u2019s in\u00a0the University Archives and Research Collections.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Tucked away at the back of the University\u2019s Library is a veritable treasure trove: from photographs, magazines, old exam papers, student newspapers and letters, to official records, meeting minutes, payroll and pension files,\u00a0prospectuses and more. All of this is overseen by University Archivist, Lizzie Richmond, who, since 1998,\u00a0has been the guardian of this fantastic repository.<\/p>\n

\"University<\/a>
University Archivist Lizzie with assistant Adrian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lizzie is responsible for managing, maintaining and properly cataloguing the University\u2019s archives. In doing this she must draw on her training as an historian to make decisions about what actually constitutes a valuable and \u2018archive worthy\u2019 object or document. \u201cThere are certain routine official documents that must be kept for legal, regulatory or operational reasons,\u201d explains Lizzie, \u201cbut we also get sent lots of more unusual things that need to be sifted and assessed, to establish their value as an historical record of the institution.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the hardest things to capture in an archive is some of the more ephemeral paraphernalia that might seem trivial at its moment of production, but can actually tell you volumes about how life on campus felt during\u00a0certain eras. Amateur photographs, protest posters, information about gigs and concerts and sporting events, leaflets, flyers and student magazines are often amongst the best expressions of their zeitgeist.<\/p>\n

An exciting new project hopes to digitise and catalogue a collection of old footage of campus life, mainly taken from former student TV recordings. These offer fascinating glimpses \u2013 not just at the fashions and phraseology of yesteryear \u2013 but also the changing physical features and landscape of campus as we have aged and expanded. As Lizzie remarks, \u201cUnderstanding the experience of being a student here 20 or 30 years ago is much better expressed through a few short moments of fi lm than any number of meeting minutes. That\u2019s one of the reasons I\u2019d love to track down the keen photographers and fi lm-makers within our alumni community, to see if they have footage or pictures we can add to the collection. They offer an amazingly evocative glimpse of the campus through its history. And every year the student magazine had an \u2018official\u2019 photographer, so we know you\u2019re out there!\u201d<\/p>\n