Agenda item

This report proposes a way forward for the future of the City Archive, following completion of the feasibility study that was authorised by the Executive in March 2008.

RESOLVED: (i)         That the following be agreed in principle:

a)The proposed strategy of retaining the City Archive in-house and creating a single Archives and Local History service within the Library Service.

b)The creation of two new posts in place of the former post of City Archivist, namely:

·        A post of Development Manager

·        An additional 0.8 fte post of Information Assistant.

c)The designation of at the Lord Mayor as Honorary Keeper of the Archive.

d)The creation of a Development Trust, with a one-off start-up capital grant of £30k, to support the work of the service and with responsibility for trading activity.

                                    e)         The provision of a one-off start-up capital grant of £30k to support the work of the service and of £32k additional staffing costs in 2009/10, both of these to be treated as one-off start-up costs, and to be considered as a budget growth item (one year only) as part of the budget process for 2009/10.

                                    f)          The funding of additional staffing costs from 2010/11 from within the LCCS budget through the identification of efficiency savings within the ongoing Leisure and Culture review.  These savings will be derived from additional income generation and more efficient use of staffing resources within the LCCS budget.

                        (ii)        That Officers approach the York Museums Trust over the capital investment required for the relocation of the Archive from the Art Gallery to York Library with respect to the Council’s existing Capital Programme.

REASON:      To secure a viable future for the City Archive.

Members considered a report which proposed a way forward for the future of the City Archive service, following completion of the feasibility study authorised by the Executive in March 2008.

The study had been undertaken by Richard Taylor, seconded from the National Railway Museum as a consultant.  His report was attached as Annex B.  Key conclusions from the study were that the City Archive had significant potential but currently had no leadership, management or financial capacity to unlock that potential and no capacity to develop outreach to new users.  Detailed recommendations from the study were summarised in paragraph 6 of the report.  Briefly, these involved retaining the Archive in-house within the Library service, merging the Archive and Local Studies into a single service, creating a Development Trust as a focus for fundraising, creating a new post of Development Manager in place of the City Archivist post and creating an additional post of Information Assistant at either 0.8 (Option 1) or 1.0 (Option 2) full time equivalent.  To reinforce the Archive’s return to its core remit, it was suggested that the Lord Mayor be designated Honorary Keeper of the City Archive.

It was recommended that Members agree to invest in development of the service, in line with the recommendations set out in Richard Taylor’s report.  The alternative was to do nothing and maintain the status quo; however, it had long been recognised that this was not an option due to the lack of adequate facilities to house and give access to the collections in the long term and the lack of funding for the former post of City Archivist.  Investment in the service would provide the capacity necessary to develop it in line with the vision previously agreed by Members.  A five year implementation timetable was proposed, key milestones of which were summarised in paragraph 12 of the report.  Budgetary implications were set out in paragraph 13.  If Option 1 were chosen, additional resources of £43k maximum would be required from April 2009.  For Option 2, the figure would be £46k.  In either case there would also be a one-off payment of £30k to the Development Trust.

Members thanked Richard Taylor for his report and noted the implementation timetable proposed, with the caveat that substantial investment would be required from the Heritage Lottery Fund at a time when its resources were stretched due to the 2012 London Olympics.

RESOLVED: (i)         That the following be agreed in principle:

a)The proposed strategy of retaining the City Archive in-house and creating a single Archives and Local History service within the Library Service.¹

b)The creation of two new posts in place of the former post of City Archivist, namely:

·        A post of Development Manager

·        An additional 0.8 fte post of Information Assistant. ²

c)The designation of at the Lord Mayor as Honorary Keeper of the Archive. ³

d)The creation of a Development Trust, with a one-off start-up capital grant of £30k, to support the work of the service and with responsibility for trading activity. ⁴

                                    e)         The provision of a one-off start-up capital grant of £30k to support the work of the service and of £32k additional staffing costs in 2009/10, both of these to be treated as one-off start-up costs, and to be considered as a budget growth item (one year only) as part of the budget process for 2009/10. ⁵

                                    f)          The funding of additional staffing costs from 2010/11 from within the LCCS budget through the identification of efficiency savings within the ongoing Leisure and Culture review.  These savings will be derived from additional income generation and more efficient use of staffing resources within the LCCS budget. ⁶

                        (ii)        That Officers approach the York Museums Trust over the capital investment required for the relocation of the Archive from the Art Gallery to York Library with respect to the Council’s existing Capital Programme. ⁷

REASON:      To secure a viable future for the City Archive.