Abstract
The acquisition of the internationally significant archive of poetry publisher Bloodaxe Books in 2013 was the starting point for a new collaboration between library staff at Newcastle University and researchers in the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics. An exploratory, and then a major, Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded project, ‘The Poetics of the Archive: Creative and Community Engagement with the Bloodaxe Archive’, became the opportunity to test new theories about archival practice, particularly through digital applications, and expand the audience traditionally involved with literary archives from humanities researchers, to poets, artists and film-makers. The project was realized through both following and subverting established foundations of archival practice: alongside traditional cataloguing, which provided the strong frame for other activities and the metadata on which it drew, an experimental digital interface was created, which could harness multimedia and creative outputs. It was also the aim of the interface to emulate an experience where users had the capacity to ‘browse’ the data alongside ‘search and retrieve’ discoverability, and make links that depended on the kind of serendipity on which creative activity thrives.
Highlights
In a first for Newcastle University, the University Library and the School of English Language, Literature and Linguistics (SELLL) jointly acquired the Bloodaxe Books archive in 2013
As we transferred the first tranche of the Bloodaxe Archive from its home in Northumberland to our archival standard stores in 2013, a preliminary project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), began
Tara Bergin’s poem ‘What We Found in the Archive’ ended presciently with the lines: We asked the archivist to make us copies
Summary
In a first for Newcastle University, the University Library and the School of English Language, Literature and Linguistics (SELLL) jointly acquired the Bloodaxe Books archive in 2013. Thanks to the foresight of its editor, Neil Astley, Bloodaxe from the start laid down the habit of keeping everything and its archive comprises extensive editorial, business and financial records, and correspondence. It is a continually expanding resource, with further accruals received by the Library on an annual basis. As we transferred the first tranche of the Bloodaxe Archive from its home in Northumberland to our archival standard stores in 2013 (see photograph), a preliminary project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), began. We attempted to support the researchers in our traditional role of ‘describer’ and ‘provider’, giving clues as to what was in the boxes, while ensuring legal requirements under Data Protection and Copyright legislation were adhered to
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