Archiving 101 with The Poetry Archive: What I Learned from Today’s Workshop 📚✨

Today I attended Archiving 101: Catalogues and Spreadsheets, the first session in The Poetry Archive’s “Archiving the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival” workshop series. It turned out to be an incredibly insightful session — full of practical advice, shifting perspectives in archival practice, and reflections on the state of archiving today.

The workshop was led by:

• Dr Tracey Guiry – Director of The Poetry Archive

• Clare Wood – Archivist and postgraduate lecturer at Dundee University

• Hosted by Devi Chatterjee, Producer at TPA and my former Volunteer Manager

It was the perfect blend of theory, lived experience, and practical guidance.

🗂️ What the Session Covered

Meet the Archivists

Tracey and Clare began by sharing their career paths — both winding, interdisciplinary, and reassuringly non-linear. Their backgrounds reflected something I really appreciate about the GLAM sector: archiving welcomes skills from all directions.

Archiving Today

We explored how the field is changing, shaped by:

• Evolving understandings of who archives are for

• The influence of movements such as Black Lives Matter, shifting institutions toward more inclusive practice

• Increasing demand for public accountability and freedom of information

• A boom in interest in genealogy

Clare also noted that the roots of modern archival practice are relatively recent — grounded in 20th-century approaches such as those of Hilary Jenkinson, who framed archivists as “neutral custodians” of government records. That idea of neutrality is being actively questioned today.

The Impact of Technology

We also looked at how technology continues to reshape the profession:

• Spreadsheets, databases, and email

• The complexities of born-digital archives, which need structured care from the very beginning

• The rise of DIY archiving, which really resonated with my plans for a Sheffield family archive

• The challenge of AI generating unreliable or untraceable “sources”, which is already impacting how archives are used and perceived

We briefly touched on Records in Contexts (RIC-CM), a developing international standard trying to address the reality of complex digital collections and relationships between records.

Archiving in Practice: The Poetry Archive

Tracey then explored what it means to archive something as living and rights-heavy as poetry:

• Rights and permissions sit at the heart of the work

• The Poetry Archive owns around 80% of its recordings

• Poets typically record for an hour, with curated ten-minute selections made available online

• “Death plus 70 years” still shapes copyright duration

• Files need to be stored in multiple secure locations and formats

• Each recording carries its own permissions, legal context, and documentation trail

She described this as navigating “the BLOT” — the messy, complex world of rights, contracts, and ethical responsibility that underpins public access.

Getting Started in Archiving

The final section was especially encouraging. Clare stressed that there is no single “right” pathway into archival work. Skills from the following areas are all valuable:

• Museums and galleries

• Libraries and information services

• Education and teaching

• Arts and cultural practice

• Technical, data, and administrative roles

She also shared helpful resources and networks:

• The National Archives

• Community Archives and Heritage Group

• Archives-NRA listserv (including tips for DIY archives)

• GLAM networks and ARA special interest groups

Her practical advice was simple but reassuring: keep inventories, use acid-free enclosures, embrace spreadsheets, and lean on your networks.

🥡 Takeaways I’m Bringing Forward

This workshop landed at exactly the right time for me, as I’m deepening my experience in collections and documentation work. A few key takeaways I’m carrying with me:

• Archiving is alive and changing. It responds to social movements, politics, and technology; it isn’t just about “old paper in boxes”.

• My museum skills are strongly transferable. Cataloguing, documentation, public engagement, and data work all sit comfortably inside archival practice.

• DIY archives matter. Community, family, and personal archives are valid, powerful, and increasingly supported — which is exciting for my own future Sheffield family archive.

• Rights and ethics sit at the core. Especially with creative work, access is always balanced with permissions, consent, and long-term responsibility.

• There is space for people like me. Interdisciplinary, GLAM-adjacent, and lived-experience-based routes into archiving are not just tolerated — they’re welcomed.

I also really appreciated hearing that new volunteering opportunities with The Poetry Archive may open next year, depending on what can be made available beyond staff. It’s something I’d be very keen to explore again.

✨ Final Thoughts

Although my original plan for today was to attend the Volunteers’ Christmas Event at Weston Park Museum, this workshop became a different kind of gift — one that reinforced why I’m so drawn to archives in the first place.

It combined everything I care about: careful data management, ethical decision-making, inclusive practice, and making cultural memory accessible. A brilliant start to the series, and I’m already looking forward to the next session in January.

---

📝 Check out The Poetry Archive's Website

💻 Check out The Poetry Archive's Eventbrite

---

💡 Enjoyed this post? Subscribe!

✨ Learn more about my work and aspirations here: My Portfolio