Expression of Interest – Craigmillar archive project

Craigmillar Archive Project

Expression of Interest Information

Scoping and cataloguing

hard copy materials of the Craigmillar Festival Society

December 2008

Introduction

Castle Rock Edinvar Housing Association would like to receive expressions of interest from suitably qualified archivists,either on a self employed or seconded basis, to sort and catalogue the archives of the Craigmillar Festival Society with a view to later storage and scanning in a digital format of the records where appropriate.

Thisbrief provides some background information on the projectand our requirements. Interested parties are requested to submit a response by Monday 2nd February 2009.

Short listed candidates will be then be invited to bid for the work following initial interviews in February 2009.

1.0Background and Context

The Craigmillar Festival Committee was born in 1962, when Peffermill Primary School Mother’s Club in the south-east side of Edinburgh, created a Festival to celebrate local talent. In 1970 the Craigmillar Festival Committee gained official recognition, charitable status and changed its name to the Craigmillar Festival Society (CFS). By 1976 the Society was employing 600 people and involving 500 volunteers. That year, 7000 people either took part or attended the annual festival. By this time, it had received a major anti-poverty research grant through European Funding. After much success over many, many years the funding was cut in 2002 and the organisation is no more.

One of the founder mothers was Helen Crummy MBE, who was organising secretary of the Society for 23 years. During that time she has accumulated and saved many papers, articles, slides, negatives and films about the world renowned organisation. It is this information that we wish to digitise and create a searchable database of this material. The aspiration is that this material will form the basis of a wider collection of material to be displayed and stored in the Craigmillar Room in the new Craigmillar Library and the Edinburgh Room in the Central Edinburgh Library.

2.0The Commissioners

Castle Rock Edinvar Housing Association is commissioning the work on behalf of the local community. Funding has been received from the Heritage Lottery Fund to complete this work.

3.0Further information about the work to be completed

The current records are stored in the home of Helen Crummy, Newcraighall, Edinburgh. The records are located in small room filed in a reasonable date order. The records include a variety of material including newspaper cuttings, minutes, reports, photographs and video film over at least four decades. Records will need to be sorted and catalogued at this location.

The following key tasks are required to be completed;

  1. Review the records stored in the home of Helen Crummy.
  1. Define an overall structure for the classification of the archive and agree this with the steering group. This structure will need to be suitable both for manual searching and for a web based database system.
  1. Identify those materials which are suitable for scanning and those which will need to be viewed as hard copy items only.
  1. Provide an assessment as to the perceived value and quality of the records from a historical perspective and identify those materials which you feel will be of particular interest to visitors to the Craigmillar and Edinburgh Library.
  1. Identify and report any issues around permissions required for use of the materials providing suggested solutions where appropriate to the steering group.
  1. Compile an end of project report identifying outlining the methodology for the catalogue, the complete contents of the archive and suggested next steps to progress the archive to digital format. An indicative budget for the next stages of the work should be compiled as part of the report.

As part of your response to this brief we would be interested to understand what resources you will require to conduct this work.

The successful candidate will be expected to work closely both with Helen Crummy and her assistant to help increase their personal knowledge of the archiving process and to ensure that the project respects Helen’s wishes and aspirations for the archive at all times.

All work must be completed by the end of July 2009.

4.0Budget

The total budget available for this work is £10,000 including any VAT

5.0Submitting an expression of interest

If you are interested in being considered for this workthen please send a copy of your proposal containing :-

  • an indication of your general approach to the work, including reference to previous work of a similar nature
  • your cv
  • a method statement outlining the specific work to be undertaken
  • expected time-scale for delivery of the project given that the work needs to be completed by the end of July 2009
  • the staff who would be involved in the project and their qualifications and experience
  • an indicative cost, with an explanation of how this is arrived at such as the number of days at set rate plus additional costs no greater than the budget of £10,000 inclusive of any VAT
  • an understanding of the equipment you will require access to remembering that if you do not have your own equipment this will need to be identified and costed.
  • confirmation of insurances

by first class post, or no later than noon, on Monday 2nd February 2009 to Heather Macnaughton, Head of Neighbourhood Regeneration, Castle Rock Edinvar, 1 Hay Avenue, Edinburgh, EH16 4RW

A panel will select those proposals which they believe meet the brief and will interview any successful applicants in February 2009.

If you wish to discuss any aspect of the brief then please phone

Heather Macnaughton on 0131 657 0633 or e-mail

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