CASBAH Project

Identifying and mapping national research resources for Caribbean Studies and the history of Black and Asian people in Britain.

Background

The CASBAH Project is an RSLP-funded demonstrator project which was started in January 2000 with the aim of identifying and mapping national research resources relating to Caribbean studies and the history of Black and Asian people in Britain.

Based at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, CASBAH has been run as a consortium, with 16 partners from higher education, local authorities, academic societies and public organisations representing some of the most significant national collections, academic bodies and professional interests associated with Caribbean studies and Black and Asian history in Britain.

HE Institutional Partners: Goldsmiths College, Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London Computing Centre, University of North London, University of Warwick (Centre for Caribbean Studies, Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations, Main Library, Modern Records Centre).

Non-HE Institutional Partners: British Library, Institute of Race Relations, London Metropolitan Archives, Public Record Office, Historical Manuscripts Commission, Society for Caribbean Studies, Black and Asian Archives Working Party, Black and Asian Studies Association.

Associate Institutions (who joined once the proposal had been submitted): British Film Institute, Lambeth Archives, Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies.

Project Development

The aims of the CASBAH Project have been developed through a series of five inter-related modules:

• Archive surveys

• Printed and audio-visual surveys feeding into recommendations for collaborative collection management initiatives between libraries, archives and other repositories collecting in the CASBAH subject areas

• Training, awareness and outreach activities

• Project web site and database

As a demonstrator project, CASBAH has now completed its funding period with RSLP and achieved its aims, as set out in the original proposal. The CASBAH web site (www.casbah.ac.uk) brings together the results of work conducted across each of these modules to provide a central resource. The database, which contains descriptions of some c.500 collection-level descriptions identified during surveys, is now accessible via the web site to the national and international research community together with all survey and project reports. During the life of the project, the web site has also acted as an important bulletin board for disseminating details of similar projects and events.

In addition to the web site, a CASBAH-RSLP email discussion group has been active since the project’s inception and this allows members to receive detailed updates about the work of the project, send in relevant information and discuss pertinent issues. To join the list, please send an email to casbah-rslp@jiscmail.ac.uk, or the CASBAH Project at casbah@sas.ac.uk.

Deliverables and Achievements

Archives

• the successful completion of on-site surveys at eight partner institutions and five regional pilot surveys, conducted between April 2000 and September 2001, during which collection descriptions pertaining to the history of black and Asian people in Britain and Caribbean studies were identified in the following repositories.

Regional surveys:

• Manchester - March 2001 [Labour History Archive at the National Museum of Labour History, Manchester, Documentary Photography Archive at the Greater Manchester County Record Office, Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Archive, University of Manchester]

• Leicestershire - June 2001 [Record Office for Leicestershire and Rutland]

• Glamorgan - July 2001 [Glamorgan Record Office, Butetown History and Art Centre, Cardiff, Cardiff Central Library]

• Belfast - August 2001 [Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Linen Hall Library, Belfast, Equality Commission Library, Belfast, Queens University Library, Belfast]

• Glasgow - September 2001 [Glasgow City Archives, Mitchell Library, Glasgow]

• A tested methodology and Survey Tool that can be used by the archive, library and research communities to identify archive resources in these areas - in printed and electronic format

Printed and audio-visual resources

• Questionnaire-based survey targeted at a sample of 184 national, academic and special libraries across the UK

• Printed and electronic report and analysis of holdings in UK libraries at collection level, identifying collection strengths and gaps. This report will feed into recommendations for collaborative collection management initiatives.

Outreach, Training and awareness

• Outreach and educational activities have been targeted at the research, library, archive, and public communities and have formed a key part of the project’s programme.

Project web-site and subject gateway - www.casbah.ac.uk

• From June, the CASBAH web-site brings together the work from all of the above modules and presents the results in the form of 15 survey reports and a searchable database containing a demonstration sample of c.500 collection-level descriptions collected during the course of the project

• Thesaurus of CASBAH index terms which will be contributed to other project’s developing national thesauri for subjects, names, places, etc. Terms are being submitted to the PRO’s UNESCO thesaurus for use by the UK archive community.

How you can help

As a demonstrator project, CASBAH has completed its original aims and all of the data is now available from our web site but there is still much work to be done in order to provide access for researchers to the valuable resources relating to Caribbean studies and the history of black and Asian people in Britain which are currently hidden and unindexed in archives and libraries across the UK. Continuing the survey work is essential if researchers are to have access to the primary resources in order to write inclusive histories which are reflective of the needs of the whole community.

If you are a researcher, academic, archivist or librarian, or represent a funding body, and are interested in helping to develop ideas to take CASBAH’s work forward, we would love to hear from you.

Project website

http://www.casbah.ac.uk

Content: Gill Davenport
Last updated 2 July 2002