Agenda item

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 largest deposits of this period were plans of Ayresome Ironworks (Gjers Mills) and plans from British Railways Property Board. The plans covered varying time periods and required conservation before they would be accessible to the public. The listing of the records of the Teesside Federation of the WI that were received following the closure of the St. Mary Centre in Middlesbrough had been completed

 

The annual accession return had been completed and submitted to the National Archives in January.

 

Restore had confirmed their intention of moving the collection to a new facility in County Durham. The Place of Deposit Manager at the National Archives was required to visit the site to ensure it could be appointed as a Place of Deposit for Public Records. The visit was scheduled for 11 March and included the Archives Manager and Conservator and the National Archives Engagement Manager for the region.

 

Public Access and Outreach

The service had continued to be busy.  The Community Engagement Officer had been successful in securing some small grants and had provided a wide range of events and activities that appealed to a broad audience.  The Archives Supervisor who managed the volunteers had completed her MA in Curating with Teesside University and had assisted with engagement sessions.  The volunteers were valued and provided a great deal of assistance to the service

 

Conservation and Preservation

The Conservator had been working on a number of collections, reacting to new collections and also to the requests from members of the public and staff.  Work completed included;

·        Assessed and repackaged a collection of 20 photograph albums and almost 800 photographs showing the ICI Nylon works.

·        Three large maps of the Teesside area were fully cleaned and repaired prior to being digitised.

·        The Federation of the Women’s Institute had deposited their large collection of documents, scrapbooks and photographs, many of which required stabilising and repackaging to protect them for the future.

·        A large collection of rolled engineering drawings created by Gjers Mills which showed Ayresome Ironworks had been received. All required extensive cleaning and some required full conservation.

·        Disaster planning training for the Archive staff had been led by the Conservator

·        The Conservator attended a Symposium at Durham on ethics and decision-making. Talks with demonstrations of conservation work had been given to groups of 11-12yr olds with a future careers theme, which showed options for their future.

 

Marketing and Communication

There had been requests to include material from the collections in exhibitions in Rome and South Georgia, illustrating the wide reach and appeal of the archives. Teesside Archives had supplied images for use in association with the recent royal visit and maintained a regular presence through content shared on social media.

 

Key Performance Indicators

 

The following Key Performance Indicators were presented:

 

In person visits to the archives from September 2024 – January 2025:

Local Authority	No. of Visitors	% of total
Hartlepool	16	3.1%
Middlesbrough	259	49.8%
Redcar & Cleveland	100	19.2%
Stockton	60	11.5%
Other UK	84	16.2%
Rest of the world	1	0.2%
TOTAL	520	100%

 

Total number of document issues (Sep 24 – Jan 25): 924

Total number of enquiries (Sep 24 – Jan 25): 1,717

 

Engagement Activity delivered by Local Authority from September 2024 – January 2025

Local Authority	No. of People	% of total people
Hartlepool	25	3.1%
Middlesbrough	343	42.0%
Redcar & Cleveland	218	26.7%
Stockton	97	11.9%
Tees Valley	133	16.3%
Other	0	0%
TOTAL	816	100%

N.B Stockton Reference Library exhibition numbers (Last Orders) had been removed from the figures as only library user numbers (9,009) were known.

 

AGREED that the report be noted.