defines the scope of a profession, provides a gateway (and barrier) for entry and
lays the foundations for career development.
Archival education in England began in 1947 when training schools for archivists
were established at the Universities of Liverpool and London and a practicum-
based programme started at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, followed by two
programmes in Wales (Bangor 1954 and Aberystwyth 1955). Since then it has
gradually become the norm for new entrants to the profession to complete a
practical traineeship and a one year, university based Diploma or Master of Arts
in archives and records management. Initially the training was practical and
lacked conceptual content. Theory and intellectual technique were focused in
the allied disciplines such as diplomatic, palaeography, and archaic languages.
There was no attempt to initiate graduates into the occupational sub-culture.
In the 1980s and 1990s greater emphasis was put on educating students in the
intellectual issues which underpin archives and records management functions,
and on the wider professional context. New specialist programmes emerged in
the 1990s in records management at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle
and in digital preservation at the University of Glasgow.
The need for formal training and examination for archivists had been recognised
at least since the publication of the Report on Local Records of 1902.19
It recommended that custodians of local archives be trained in palaeography
and records and that 'schools of palaeography should be encouraged at the
universities to create the supply of archivists', on the model of the Ecole
des Chartes in Paris. However, a report in 1912 concluded that, 'in England
appointments for archivists are at present few; local authorities deal with their
own archives in their own way and appoint their own curators; and a man who
spent several years in preparing himself for the position of archivist might, if he
failed to obtain a place in the Public Record Office, find himself stranded without
hope of employment'.20
In the period between the wars, university teaching of palaeography,
librarianship, local history and diplomatic developed. For example, the
first British School of Librarianship was established in 1919 at University
College London. The School provided a home for a new Diploma in Archive
Administration in 1947. The British Records Association had developed a scheme
for a graduate Diploma, which covered palaeography; languages (medieval Latin,
Anglo-Norman French); transcription and translation; diplomatic; English
constitutional and administrative history; sorting, listing and indexing; research
methods; publishing and reproduction of archives; the organisation of an archive
office; archival materials and storage; archives of other countries; and practical
work in a repository. The Diploma was launched at University College London in
October 1947.
For the next 25 years or so a steady stream of classically trained archivists
emerged from the remarkably uniform university schools. Later, new programmes
emerged, such as the Society of Archivists correspondence course (1980-2000).
ELIZABETH SHEPHERD ARCHIVISTS IN 21ST CENTURY EUROPE: EMERGING PROFESSIONALS?
20 Royal Commission on Public Records..., First ReportCd.636t London: HMSO (1912).
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