Agenda and minutes

Name of Member	Type of Interest	Item / Nature of Business
Cllr C Cooke	Non-pecuniary	TVCA Cabinet Member
Cllr S Nelson	Non-pecuniary	TVCA Overview and Scrutiny Member

 

The minutes of the Joint Archive Committee held on 19 October 2023 were submitted and approved as a correct record.

The Head of Culture and Archives Manager were in attendance and presented the Executive report to the committee.

 

The report outlined the following:

 

Collections

The service had taken significant records of Women’s Institute Teesside Federation, as they had to unexpectedly vacate their premises. Other deposits had included: deeds from Stockton Council including plans for Thornaby Aerodrome, Cricket Club material from Hartlepool and Wolviston, sketch books by Baker Hudson; librarian and curator of Dorman Museum (1889- 1920’s), records from Guisborough Town Hall including title deeds from Brotton Estates.

 

Public Access and Outreach

The service had continued to be very busy and had worked to develop sessions that covered a wider area. It was noted that improved links with libraries had been developed.

 

Conservation and Preservation

It was noted that the following archives had been cleaned, packaged and repaired:

·         ICI Billingham Nylon works photographs

·         Large collection of W.I. records covering the whole region

·         U/BLM photographic collection covering mostly Middlesbrough

·         U/GTH early parchment documents with two examples of Royal seals from the Guisborough area

·         Redcar and Cleveland Planning Department photographic collection

·         Original building plans for The Crown in Middlesbrough

·         West Hartlepool building plans

 

The Archives Manager reported that the dispute with Restore over the increase in fees to the service has been satisfactorily resolved and credit notes had been issued by Restore to cover the excess charges for which there wasn’t provision in the 5-year contract.

 

 

Digital Preservation

A way forward with respect to Digital Preservation had been discussed at the Archives Lead Officers meeting on 24 July. At the meeting, it had been agreed that there were three key actions for the Archives Service to progress:

1.    To provide Local Authorities with clarity on what records need to be transferred to the Archives

2.    To agree a plan for how long-term digital preservation is done across the four Local Authorities

3.    To decide if the Archives Service is committed to born-digital preservation.

 

Marketing and Communication

The service had celebrated its 50th birthday on Friday 5 April with an event at the Dorman to which all heads of service and elected members were invited. The event received some press coverage and was attended by three Teesside Mayors as well as a representative from the Arts Council.

 

Key Performance Indicators

The visits to the archives from April to August 2024 were presented as follows:

 

Local Authority	No. of Visitors	% of total
Hartlepool	24	3.7%
Middlesbrough	269	41.8%
Redcar & Cleveland	77	12%
Stockton	77	12%
Other UK	189	29.4%
Rest of the world	7	1.1%
TOTAL	643	100%

 

Total number of document issues (April – August 2024): 1,739

Total number of enquiries (April – August 2024): 1,327

Total number of volunteer hours (April – August 2024): 794

 

The Engagement Activity delivered by Local Authority from March to August 2024 was presented as follows:

 

Local Authority	No. of People	% of total people
Hartlepool	3	0.2%
Middlesbrough	332	21.9%
Redcar & Cleveland	372	24.6%
Stockton	316	20.9%
Tees Valley	306	20.2%
Other	185	12.2%
TOTAL	1,514  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24/35
24/36	Teesside Archives Budget PDF 687 KB Minutes: The Archives Manager presented the Teesside Archives budget which included: ·        Income ·        Employees ·        Premises ·        Transport ·        Supplies and Services   The 2024 / 2025 Budget Contributions per Local Authority were also presented.   A discussion took place in respect of the Middlesbrough allocation as the Middlesbrough figures were missing from the budget line.  It was noted that this was due to Middlesbrough being the host Local Authority, therefore holding the budget.  A note to explain the budget breakdown would be provided on the next Teesside Archives Budget Report.
24/37	Any other urgent items which in the opinion of the Chair, may be considered Minutes: It was agreed that an additional meeting of the Joint Archives Committee is to be scheduled for mid-January 2025, to enable the TVCA Feasibility Study to be considered and review the work done to better understand what any disaggregation of the service would look like, ahead of budget planning.