Campbell launches new website for Community Archives

Culture Minister, Gregory Campbell has today launched the Northern Ireland Community Archive website www.niarchive.org

Speaking today at the launch on the Lagan Legacy Barge, the Minister said: “This is an innovative new website which makes it easier to find photographs, documents or oral history information on local communities.

“Community archives represent a bottom-up approach to documenting our heritage, they are the grass roots activities of recording and exploring history. In other words, they are created by communities and are held in communities, often outside the formal heritage sector.

“The recent growth in community archives and a new realisation of their value and importance has made it necessary to find a way of bringing them together into a web portal so that stories can be shared,” the Minister said.

The community archive project as it develops will help promote the use of the rich collections of material in museums, libraries and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. Collections of material, written, visual and oral, are what constitutes a community archive which complement the formal historical record and bring to life individuals, communities and events that would otherwise lie dormant.

The Minister concluded: “Many of us have family documents stored in boxes in the attic. Community groups are now collecting and digitising such information so that the local history and personal stories are not lost.

“A community archive brings together people of all ages, experience and ability to understand and celebrate the communities to which they belong. In doing so, contributors not only learn new skills which can be used for the whole community but they are leaving a legacy for future generations to come.”

Notes to Editors:

1. The project is being led by a steering group of key stakeholders from across the cultural sector - Causeway Museum Service, Belfast City Council‘s Culture and Arts Unit, the Northern Ireland Museums Council, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, BBC (NI), and NI Screen.
2. Media enquiries to DCAL Press Office on 028 9025 8902 or email: press.office@dcalni.gov.uk.
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