History beyond the archive

Both texts are newly written practice sources about invented local-history projects.

Text One: An original report about a travelling display.

A local archive took a display of photographs and objects to three small libraries over ten weeks. Eighteen afternoons were planned, and sixteen went ahead because two had to be cancelled when staff were unavailable. Across the afternoons that ran, the display received 384 visitor visits.

The archive counted one visitor visit each time a person came to the display, so someone who returned on another afternoon was counted again. It also asked people leaving the display to complete a questionnaire. Of the 40 respondents, 31 said this was their first visit to a local-history exhibition, and 29 said the nearby venue had made their visit possible. The questionnaire was voluntary and was collected at only two of the three libraries.

The report said that taking the material closer to where people lived had brought local history to a new audience. It also noted that visits were not the same as different people and that it had no information from people who did not attend.

Text Two: An original report about oral-history listening booths.

A local-history group set up listening booths at village events over the same ten-week period. The booths played recordings of residents describing changes in the area. The group recorded the following use:

The group recorded one visitor visit each time a person used a booth, including repeat users. Seven of the nine event organisers who completed a survey said that people who rarely visited the central archive had used the booths. The organisers were not asked to estimate how many different people used them, and no visitors were surveyed. Two events were cancelled because the venues became unavailable.

Synthesise what both texts reveal about how far the projects widened access to local history and how confidently their results can be compared.