Volunteer opportunity: British Orienteering Historian

Clive Allen, who has undertaken the role of Historian for a number of years, is now a well-seasoned orienteer in the M80 class and has decided it is time to pass the role on. He is happy to engage in a transition period to ensure that the activities that make up the role continue in a smooth and effective fashion.

Job Description

1. The permanent preservation of the historical records of British Orienteering
2. To liaise and be the contact person with the Special Collections Department of the University of Sheffield Library, and the Historian is the key contact person with the Department.
3. To make the archives available to members
4. To evaluate new information for retention for new items offered to the collection are relevant to be included.
5. To assist British Orienteering’s Head Office with queries of a historical interest
6. To digitize British Orienteering’s Photographic Library
7. To identify key anniversaries noteworthy of publication
8. To identify ways of protecting and preserving the collection
9. To work with the Communications Manager on future policy on archives on retention and destruction.
10. To advise on the ongoing organization and storage of material.

How to apply

Please email ceo@britishorienteering.org.uk if you would like to apply for the position. 

Additional information

British Orienteering has an extensive archive covering the period from the very start in the UK in the early 1960s through to the turn of the century and a bit beyond. It is housed in the Special Collections Department of the University of Sheffield Library, and the Historian is the key contact person with the Department.   

The archive consists of sets of national and regional magazines, governance documents of various kinds, event results and maps covering the period from the start through to 2009, a number of individual donations covering specific activities or projects, and many miscellaneous items. There is also a more-or-less full set of the books about orienteering published in the UK before the year 2000. Many of the items in the collection are of special importance or interest, going back to the very beginnings of orienteering in the UK and including documents and maps from major occasions such as the first British Championships and WOCs 1976 and 1999.

The webpage for the archive is https://archives.shef.ac.uk/repositories/3/resources/326, where you can click on Box List and Book List, under the heading External Documents, to see the full catalogue of the archive. Any member can book times for visiting the archive to inspect specific contents, which need to be listed in advance so that they are available in the Reading Room on arrival.

Offers of new items are made occasionally; these are often duplications of items already in the archive, but if not, decisions on relevance and importance for inclusion have to be made. As Historian, visits to the archive are needed only occasionally, but there is scope for working in the archive to rationalize and re-order some of the sections.  

The present Historian has kept various files at home that are used to try to find answers to queries received by the British Orienteering Office. He also holds the British Orienteering Photographic Library, which consists mainly of gloss b/w prints of individual or groups of orienteers from the 1970s. CompassSport occasionally asks for a photo, which is supplied as a scan. It is envisaged that all these items will be transferred to the new Historian.

The present Historian has for a long time worked with the BO Communications Officer to identify anniversaries and other occasions worthy of publicity. For example, British Orienteering’s 50^th anniversary was marked by a special edition of the magazine at that time, Focus, where the Historian contributed most of the text and illustrative material. Club 50^th anniversaries have been regularly marked online, where these have been known.

The Historian liaises with a nominated member of the British Orienteering Office staff as required. The contact here would cover future policy for the archive, in particular regarding digital records. At present all digital governance records are archived by the Office in British Orienteering back-up files, and not transferred or copied to Sheffield. There has been discussion between the Historian and the University staff about digitizing some of the archive content, especially where this is of special importance or interest, and other aspects of technological modernization, but no decisions have been reached.