This month we were delighted to host the International Council on Archives, Section on University and Research Institution Archives (ICA-SUV) annual conference for 2024 in the Technology and Innovation Centre.

Speakers from around the world, including Egypt, Wales, India, the US, Canada, Britain and South Africa, grappled with what diversity meant to them in their professional capacities as research institution archivists. 

Seventy delegates were welcomed on behalf of Strathclyde by Jennifer Ba, Senior Race Equality Officer, who shared some diversity-related initiatives at the University. 

Speakers on day one discussed topics such as: how to deconstruct white-ness within archival collections and institutions; how to ensure a diverse narrative of the past and fill in gaps; the need to actively invite diverse voices into the archive and practice participatory record-keeping; the importance of international relationships between archival professionals to open up collections; and enriching the language we use in archival descriptions to better represent diverse communities. 

To close day one of the conference, delegates were invited to a Glasgow City Civic reception in the City Chambers. Glasgow Bailies welcomed the conference to the city and recognised the importance of the archives profession, as well as efforts to address inequality and promote diversity in our collections and practices. 

Day two saw presentations around the diversifying of collecting practices. Oral histories were suggested as an effective way to capture underrepresented voices for the historical record of the future. The importance of collaboration on an equal footing with communities was highlighted and our powerful position as custodians of historical collections, who have the ability to surface stories of hitherto hidden individuals, was reflected upon. It was recognised that any attempt to diversify collections and archival practice cannot be done alone, and that many institutional stakeholders must collaborate to embed the process. In the afternoon, speakers shared case studies for projects including a sensory map of an academic library and how to design fair and useful volunteering projects.

Day three explored reaching diverse users. The fresh perspectives of artists in residence were shared, as was the importance of welcoming students from a variety of disciplines into the archives to demystify and encourage future visits. Surfacing multi-language materials can be very inspiring for underrepresented communities of users, and working with creative writers can bring new narratives to collections. The day ended on presentations related to the importance of accurately recording the context in which archival records were created and the importance of tracing historical provenance and including this information on our catalogues. 

The conference concluded with delegate visits to the Glasgow School of Art and the Scottish Jewish Archive and Heritage Centre as well as our reading room. It was great to share some of our treasures with delegates as well as discuss the conference!

The conference was an excellent platform for exploring how we might embed diversity into our practice, and how we might begin to uncover our hidden stories. Inviting diverse audiences to use collections bring fresh perspectives. Diversifying collecting practices from now on will be vital in documenting diversity for future generations, and in tackling underrepresentation found today.

As part of the University’s Jubilee celebrations this year, the Library collaborated with colleagues in Events to create and mount an exciting and interactive oral history trail around campus.  

The trail is based on 'The University Experience' oral history project: a fascinating set of interviews conducted in 2002/03 by researchers in the Scottish Oral History Centre.  Those interviewed were members of academic and support staff and students who were at the University of Strathclyde and its antecedents during the period of post-war education. Staff interviewees include cleaners, administrative staff, and professors. Students studying engineering, science and the arts are all represented.

Clips and quotes have been selected from five of the interviews that give an insight into Strathclyde’s history and development. They have been installed in locations across the city centre campus- including at the entrance to the Library- and you can listen to the sound clips via QR codes at the stops along the trail.  Follow the trail to learn more about Strathclyde through the decades, and to discover corners of the campus you’ve never explored before!

Find out more about the locations and the quotes themselves on the oral history trail website.

You can read (and listen to) more clips from the collection on The University Experience 1945-1975 webpage.

Enjoy your wanders around campus! 

Each year, the University of Strathclyde confers a small number of honorary degrees upon exceptional people who have made a tangible difference in the world. To mark Black History Month, our display on Level 3 of the Andersonian Library highlights the first people of Ghanaian, Malaysian, Pakistani and Thai heritage to be awarded an honorary degree from Strathclyde, as well as the University’s first honorary graduate of Scottish-Nigerian heritage. Those featured are:

• Professor Robert Gardiner (1914-1994), who received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1973. Gardiner was a Ghanaian academic and civil servant who served as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa from 1962-1975. He was also a Visiting Professor of Economics at Strathclyde from 1970-1975.
• Hamzah Sendut (1927-1996), who received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1976. Sendut was a Malaysian regional planner and academic. He served as a United Nations consultant on urbanisation and urban development and, from 1969, as Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Sains Malaysia: the first science and technology university to be established in South-East Asia. 
• Bashir Maan (1926-2019), who received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1999. Maan was a politician and judge. Born in Pakistan, he came to Glasgow in the early 1950s, where he studied at two of Strathclyde’s antecedents, the Royal College of Science and Technology and the Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Commerce. In 1970, he became the first local councillor from an ethnic minority group to be elected in the United Kingdom, winning the Glasgow Kingston seat for the Labour Party. He subsequently became the first member of his community to stand for parliament, to be a Justice of the Peace, and to be Deputy Lieutenant.
• Professor Krisana Kraisintu (born 1952), who received the honorary degree of Doctor of Science in 2006. Born in Thailand, Kraisintu is a world-renowned pharmacist and a former student of the University of Strathclyde (MSc in Pharmaceutical Analysis, 1978). Her most notable achievement is the development of locally produced, affordable, generic anti-retroviral drugs to treat impoverished HIV sufferers in Asia and Africa.
• Professor Jackie Kay CBE (born 1961), who received the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in 2013. Born to a Nigerian father and a Scottish mother, Kay was raised in Glasgow by her adoptive parents. An award-winning poet, playwright and novelist, she was the Scots Makar (national poet of Scotland) from 2016-2021. In October 2023, she officially opened a plaza named in her honour at the University of Strathclyde.      

The display, featuring photos and documents from the University Archives and Special Collections, will be available to view until the end of October during the Library's opening hours.