Heritage and cultural services are facing many pressures for change such as resourcing, governance, audiences, technology and collection development. Services need to be flexibly and constantly assessing their approach to collection management, service delivery and stakeholder management.

I have worked with numerous archive services across the UK in the public and private sectors, both as stand-alone organisations and as collaborative teams. I provide support and direction to development services and partnerships. I am very familiar with working with archives set in other organisations including libraries, museums and businesses.

Through my associates I provide an expert team tailored to the individual needs of the client, bringing in skills such as conservation, museum curation, business planning and architectural design.

Recent projects

• Undertaking strategic reviews for numerous professional organisations and archive services such as Film Archives UK (FAUK), Dorset History Centre (a joint local authority archive and archaeology service) and the National Records of Scotland
• A major stakeholder review for a national institution and development of a large scale strategy for stakeholder engagement.
• Developing a strategic development plan for a maturing archive service of a university in Hong Kong
• Developing a strategic plan to establish an archive for the first time for a major international engineering company which enabled the company to appoint their first archivist and establish an archiving operation
• Evaluation of a major online initiative focused on community archives, looking at purpose, operation, governance and impact.
• Assessing the nature and significance of the archives of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, developing an options appraisal on its future management and providing recommendations on next steps to take forward care of the  collection
• Assessing the feasibility for a new national archive institution.

   

Services include:

• Current state reviews of service delivery, collections and their management, audiences, partnerships and stakeholders
• Reviews of current strategic direction
• Options appraisals and feasibility studies e.g. for new buildings and collaborative working
• Supporting the development of bespoke Vision and Mission statements
• Action planning with clear resource analysis
• Facilitation for the establishment and development of collaborative networks including a shared Vision and Mission, realistic collaborative projects with costed action plans, governance models