A few of my completed commissions

Since going freelance I have been fortunate to secure a wide range of commissions. Some of the work is ongoing and not appropriate to share at this stage but those I can share include:

Critical Cataloguing for Digital Preservation Project evaluation, University of Southampton, March-July 2024
I was commissioned by Dr James Baker to undertake the evaluation of his research project, funded under the AHRC’s Arts and Humanities-led Research Commercialisation opportunity. The project sought to establish the Southampton Digital Preservation Advisory Unit as a commercial activity; to enhance the digital preservation landscape through a digital humanities lens informed by a cohort across the GLAM sector and to reflect on the challenges and opportunities of commercialisation. Through the review of the project, its methodology and its outcomes and my own consultation with the cohort I concluded my report by drawing together a number of observations and recommendations. 

Revising Archival Descriptions, Archives Council Wales, November 2023 – April 2024
I undertook a review of archival finding aids to identify terms that somebody might consider offensive. The project adopted the methodology identified by the University of Leeds in its archives testbed project (2021) processing the content using AntConc linguistic software and using the Brotherton list of offensive terms. Working with 12 Welsh archive services and with assistance from colleagues at the Archives Hub we were able to process over 29,000 catalogues – representing over 58 million words. A report detailed the methodology, the results and consideration of some possible next steps including the implementation of content warnings.

Large cultural infrastructure projects, The National Archives, February – April 2023
I was commissioned by The National Archives, to undertake research and create guidance to support archive services involved in large cultural infrastructure projects including City of Culture and London Borough of Culture. I consulted widely across a range of large cultural infrastructure projects – past, current and future. Working closely with colleagues at The National Archives the guidance seeks to foster collaborative working, with suggestions on how to engage and involve colleagues and how activities support institutional objectives and priorities. Conversation with the Greater London Authority resulted in the reference to the creation of an archive as part of the application process and it is hoped this will prompt early collaboration in this area.

The Glass-House, October 2022 – ongoing
I am currently providing support for this team bringing together over 70,000 historical and current digital assets into Dash (a digital asset management system). The definition and application of metadata and tagging allowing staff to identify links between past projects with their current work.

Digital skills and Plugged In, Powered Up, The National Archives, July – December 2022
Evaluation of the digital capacity building strategy, Plugged In, Powered Up  included an online survey featuring over 60 questions including repeating some questions from a 2019 survey to allow direct comparison over time. Over 170 responses to the survey were received in total along with three online focus groups I then produced a report featuring detailed analysis of this data and recommendations to guide future strategy.

University, June-July 2022
I prepared a report, following a series of online conversations and an onsite visit, to recommend how the service could take its first steps with digital preservation including strategic, technical and practical steps based on the service’s DPC-RAM self assessment.

Changing the Story, University of Leeds, May – September 2022
The Changing the Story research project considered how arts, heritage, and human rights education could support youth-centred approaches to civil society building in places that have experienced conflict across the world and in particular the Global South. As the project drew to a close the team wanted to make the project website and research outputs, including articles, blogs, films and toolkits,  more widely accessible. I worked with colleagues to use the Document Library Pro WordPress plugin, 400 items were tagged into a ‘resource archive’, this metatdata supported access and discovery. Bringing the physical resources together allowed the digital archive to be deposited with the White Rose digital repository.

Doncaster MBC, August 2021 – ongoing
I started working with colleagues in Doncaster to co-ordinate the return of all the service’s collections from offsite storage into purpose built archival facility. With the return of the collections to Doncaster I have continued to support the team as they have established the service in their new location and now working towards securing archives accreditation. I have also supported the Council through a project, funded by a Resilience Grant from The National Archives, which engaged content creators alongside colleagues from Information Governance and ICT to establish a business case for digital preservation 

Non-profit organisation, May 2021 – ongoing
I was approached by this organisation who were aware they had a large quantity of digital content but were unsure of what steps they could or should take to preserve the content for the long term. I have written papers on archives and digital preservation to highlight the issues and continue to support the organisation as they look to formalise their move to being a digital archive.

Local authority, December 2020 – ongoing
I started working with this local authority to increase staff confidence to work with, and talk about, born-digital archives. To date we have talked about some of the theory and created a digital asset register to secure intellectual control of the digital content already held by the service. We are also working on advocacy skills to engage colleagues with the challenges and opportunities of digital archives.

Archives Revealed, The National Archives, June – September 2020
I undertook research to review the Archives Revealed Cataloguing Grant programme. I looked into the geographical and subject spread of applications with analysis of the application experience through a mix of interviews and an online survey with both successful and unsuccessful applicants. I produced a written report with insight and a series of recommendations for consideration.

Mapping Jewish London, August 2020 – October 2021
I managed this project for the AIM25 consortium to collate details of collections of Jewish heritage held in archives, libraries, museums and galleries across London. It was hoped that over 250 collections would be submitted to this European-wide initiative. Leading a small remote team, searches were undertaken to identify relevant collections for possible inclusion before engaging services to seek their participation. Collection level entries were collated in AtoM, eventually 800 collections from 44 different contributors were submitted. The Yerusha portal was launched in June 2022.

GMAC Film, June 2020 – January 2021
I undertook an Archives Revealed Scoping Grant review of its film collections which included a considerable quantity of digital material. I engaged staff through a series of zoom calls to find out more about the organisation and the archive. I provided remote support for a member of GMAC Film who was undertaking the sorting of over 160 boxes of material and the creation of a box list. In October, when covid-19 restrictions allowed I visited the archive in Glasgow and was able to undertake the assessment whilst observing social distancing guidelines. I then submitted a report with a series of recommendations relating to the collections and possible next steps.

European Molecular Biology Laboratory, February 2020 – July 2021
I assisted the Archivist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, due to lockdown restrictions this work was undertaken remotely but through regular discussions we were able to look at a range of tools including Archifiltre and DROID. I supported a review and update of a number of policies including The EMBL Archive and IT needs and use which was designed to increase awareness and collaboration with IT colleagues.  

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