Special Collections Manager Katharine during the 2017 Explore Your Archive campaign
It’s November which means … it’s nearly time for Explore Your Archive!
Explore Your Archive is a campaign that showcases the best of archives and archive services in the UK and Ireland. The campaign is owned by the sector itself and delivered by the Archives and Records Association (UK & Ireland). By providing a range of marketing and information templates and materials, it aims to help professionals, volunteers, interns and students celebrate the unique potential of archives to excite people, bring communities together and tell amazing stories.
The campaign aims to open the phenomenal archival collections held by organisations – public and private – across the UK and Ireland, whatever their size and scale, and wherever they are. The campaign week is 17-25 November 2018.
This year DMU Special Collections has chosen to celebrate our institutional collection in particular, coinciding with our forthcoming 150th anniversary and the launch of our Appeal for Archives.
We will be contributing to the campaign’s social media hashtags with blog posts and Twitter posts. The overall hashtag is #ExploreArchives and the daily schedule this year is:
Saturday 17 November 2018 – #MusicArchives
Sunday 18 November 2018 – #ReligiousArchives
Monday 19 November 2018 – #ArchiveAnniversaries
Tuesday 20 November 2018 – #HairyArchives
Wednesday 21 November 2018 – #MaritimeArchives
Thursday 22 November 2018 – #DiversityArchives
Friday 23 November 2018 – #ArchiveAnimals
Saturday 24 November 2018 – #SportingArchives
Sunday 25 November 2018 – #InternationalArchives
Look out for our blogs on these interesting topics – each one will have some connection to our theme of the history of DMU!
Artwork by student Julian Gould, killed during the First World War
We will also have a travelling pop-up display commemorating the contribution of DMU’s predecessor to the First World War. The display will be available at the following locations:
Monday 12th to Sunday 18th: Kimberlin Library Foyer
Monday 19th to Tuesday 20th: Hugh Aston Atrium
Tuesday 20th to Wednesday 21st: Vijay Patel, outside the Gallery
Thursday 22nd to Friday 23rd: Campus Centre foyer
Sunday 25th: Trinity Chapel during Meet the Archivists event (open to the public, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.)
Sunday 25th is the last Heritage Sunday of the year. As well as the Meet the Archivists event mentioned above, we’ll have an activity trail and crafts for children in Leicester Castle and a chance to see the current Heritage Centre exhibitions: the Art of Healthcare and A Heritage of Healing .
Craft activities on Heritage Sunday 2017
We hope to engage with many of you during Explore Your Archive week – although we are of course available any other week too!
Katharine
