Winter 2021

Gloucestershire Heritage Hub

What gains, if any, have there been from the covid-19 pandemic?

(A question that Gloucestershire Archives’ staff were asked to respond to by one of our volunteers)

This question is an odd one, at first glance, as the answer would appear to be, “Nothing!” But it deserves further consideration…

As some of you know, throughout the 2 national lockdowns, in 2020, Gloucestershire Archives’ staff have hosted weekly Zoom calls for any of our volunteers who wished to participate, and these were extended up to Christmas. One of our valued volunteers posed the question above, during one of the Zooms, and it was passed to me to attempt an answer!

I emailed several staff, and received very interesting responses from them, which I then shared at the next Zoom call with our volunteers, including the person who initially asked the question.

Despite the challenges posed to our service, by Covid-19, all those I talked to agreed that there had been lots of positives emerging from this difficult time for so many. We would like to share their responses with you, in this article.

The first is about the people – our staff, and customers (all comments from staff are either paraphrased or given verbatim where possible):

  • The team are unified in the approach we are forced to take due to Covid-19.  So, although all of us could do without the checking and quarantining and table assigning etc, there is a positive sense of us all coming together to do it, to get it right so everyone remains safe. 
  • Consequently, the team have been supporting each other when faced with a difficult situation, keeping spirits high, and focussing on solutions. I am really pleased and proud of their efforts.  

         

  • Also, fair to say that all of the archives’ staff have been working together more as a complete service.  The whole office is determined that Covid-19 won’t stop us archiving!  You only need to look at the lockdown activities pages to see how the service responded back in March, and since. We responded quickly, and remained positive and productive. www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/archives/lockdown-resources-and-activities/
  • The scanning project some of our staff were deployed to [opening, scanning and emailing post to GCC staff working from home], to keep GCC running during lockdown, involved re-deploying archives’ staff and they did us proud! The team was even featured in an online case study of good practice by the Local Government Association. (read article here)
  • Our future plans, re-accreditation application, 3 and 10 year visions, work with an external marketing agency, establishing the new outreach team are all in motion.  Covid-19 gave us time to fully assess ourselves, adjust, amend and plan for the future. Exciting times are ahead.
  • Our customers have been so complimentary about our Covid-secure service. Their kind words have really bolstered us up.

          

  • Their patience at having to make appointments; be assigned a locker and table; having to stick to document number restrictions; the need to wear masks; the need to deposit reference books in bins; the requirement to order carefully due to quarantine measures has been hugely appreciated by the Customer Services Team…so another positive would be that staff and customers have bonded over this challenging situation.

The second cluster of comments is all about processes (especially online), and day to day work behind the scenes, including lots of new opportunities:

  • It has been easier to attend training, and meetings, as these have been largely online – with no travelling, or car parking, and a better use of staff time.
  • Similarly, virtual [online] recruitment interviews have been beneficial to the interviewees, and for the managers who recruited new staff during lockdown (e.g. no travel expenses for candidates).
  • The increased focus on online offering allowed a creative response and a new appreciation of possibilities (for example, for digitisation).
  • We have had the opportunity to purge shared drives, personal drives and emails, especially during the first lockdown, saving valuable space on the servers, and is a task that cannot easily be done when it’s “business as usual”.
  • The lockdowns have highlighted the importance of what we call “the Hubness of the Hub”, as a community, and our role in this ( eg organising volunteers Zoom meetings)
  • It has given us the impetus to put our Hub training online (although to be fair, this was always in our For the Record plan)
  • We have also been able to do stock-checking, especially during the two lockdowns.
  • Covid-19 has been a good opportunity to collect digital material from our corporate bodies and learn new skills regarding the archiving of website snippets, for example.
  • We have had an opportunity to get on with 3 and 10 year forward planning, our re-accreditation application, policy reviews, and these have put us in the best possible position when we get to end of For the Record, and the changed post-Covid world, to deliver the best possible service we can in the future.
  • We have enjoyed new opportunities in engaging with new audiences on-line. It makes delivering an education service to Gloucestershire schools more achievable, as we can produce a particular resource once only, then share it again and again.
  • The Gloucester History Festival films – e.g. family history films – show what can be achieved when circumstances demand that we do things differently [the History Festival was largely online in 2020].
  • We have been able to use the space in the Dunrossil Centre for sorting a mammoth map series (Dowty), as we have had no room bookings.
  • We have been able to tackle data inputting and data cleansing backlogs.
  • We have had the opportunity to move materials into new strongrooms without having to shut the public service.
  • We have raised Gloucestershire Archives’ profile within the County and City Councils, and beyond, particularly through the scanning project.

So the question what gains (if any) have there been from the Covid-19 pandemic? Is, after all, a really quite interesting one, with a great deal to share and reflect on!

Sally Middleton – Gloucestershire Archives.

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