set of documents, we first spent an hour figuring out what the sources were, what they could tell us, and talking as a group about how to find a narrative from the pile of paper on our desks. That produced sur- prising, insightful, and original narratives, framing material in interesting perspectives beyond the confines of existing scholarship. In the next session we asked students to respond creatively to the sources in a variety of different ways: thinking about the mate- riality of the source, posing questions about the values and attitudes of people described, and situating themselves within the daily life of these historical character they were meet- ing for the first time. Afterwards, we brought it all together in a plenary discussion, think- ing about the material more broadly and the creative responses that were produced.
A living book
The conference was a success, and subse- quently plans developed to try to publish its outcomes. The papers themselves had been inter-disciplinary and present- ed in novel formats and so it seemed that any output from the conference should reflect this fact. This was when we discovered the ‘Book as Open Online Content (BOOC)’ format, published by UCL Press. They describe it as a “living book”, which is entirely open access and evolves over time, allowing for different formats of pieces to speak in conversa- tion. This seemed an exciting opportunity to establish a new publication focused on broadening engagement with archives and collections in new ways.
Exploring the opportunities of the format with the Press, we decided that the BOOC could be best organised around four streams of content, reflecting the types of material which we had seen at the conference and which offered opportuni- ties for innovation. Those four streams are:
1. Research Stories: which encourages a focus on research stories to invite a more reflective methodology, offering a more inclusive and engaged commentary on the work involved in researching, ordering, and preserving the past.
2. Co-Production: Outputs from projects in which non-academic, undergraduate and taught postgraduate audiences collab- orate with others (collection professions, academics, members of the public etc) to create new work that is based on research collections.
3. Collection Profiles: Shorter, descrip- tive or even narrative pieces that highlight items or collections of interest.
4. Engagement: Reflective pieces that focus on a broad range of engagement activities, from the professional’s perspec- tive. These can be case studies, or ‘think pieces’ on particular skills or techniques.
We took these ideas into another series 38 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Original documents presented for discussion at UCL Special Collections.
of conference and school workshops in 2019, again hosted by UCL Special Collections. We welcomed 12 speakers from Europe, North America, and around Britain to give papers which dealt with serendipity, our affective relationship to research, and the social life of archives and collections. We heard about margi- nalia, records at risk, tracing life stories across collections and countries, and the ways in which decisions about archiving can shape historical memory.
Creating our own paper trails Again, to ensure that this constituted more than an academic discussion, we once again welcomed students from Newham Sixth Form College to work with us on material from UCL Special Collections. This repeated the success of the 2017 event and generated a wave of enthusiasm for the proposed publication. We’ve now built an editorial board of archivists, librari- ans, and inter-disciplinary researchers and have started considering exciting submissions for the launch of the pub-
Will Pooley introducing students to documents at UCL Special Collections.
lication in 2021 (which will hopefully mean another conference in what is becoming a biennial series). We want to help build another forum for different communities to collaborate, which puts different engagements with the archive in conversation. The BOOC will appear three times a year from its launch, featuring material in all of these streams and helping to drive those new conver- sations and to forge new communities of learning and collaboration.
From a second-hand book to a living book, the project has generated its own Paper Trails, and the whole team is excited to see where they lead next. Paper Trails is accepting proposals for content with a deadline of 31st January 2020 to feature in the first issue, with a rolling deadline thereafter. Get in touch for more information, or find out more at:
https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-collec- tions/2019/08/23/call-for-papers-for-paper-trails-a- new-open-access-publication-with-ucl-press/ For an example of the first BOOC published by UCL Press, see: https://ucldigital-
press.co.uk/BOOC IP
January-February 2020 Paper Trails poster. Andrew leading a discussion with students.
Andrew Smith Booc
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