English local records: problems and proposals, 1880-1920

摘要

The preservation of local records, especially municipal and local ecclesiastical records, became a subject of concern within the historical and antiquarian communities in the later part of the nineteenth century. Numerous suggestions and recommendations, both informal and official, were made about how to address problems associated with the preservation, management and use of these records. Many of the concerns, and the solutions put forward, will be remarkably familiar to current practitioners. Ideas about legislation for local records, national standards and central oversight of repositories, and appropriate training for archivists continue to be discussed, while information security scandals seem the only sure way of arousing general concern about good record-keeping. What are now often regarded as pioneering suggestions for joint services and partnership working were being made in the 1890s, while other ideas -notably regional centres for archives - remain as controversial now as they were when first aired over a century ago. The model of archival provision in the English counties, which emerged after World War. Ⅱ, was not necessarily along the lines proposed or predicted by the well-informed 'archival stakeholders' of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.