Evaluation of the BRONKS archiving system

At the request of the BRONKS theatre, Het Firmament and PACKED vzw evaluated its archiving system. On the basis of this evaluation, recommendations were drawn up and practical actions proposed to improve the archiving system.

Status

• Knowledge-gathering meeting: August 2014
• Development of tools: September 2014
• Audit of archiving system: October 2014
• Delivery of report with recommendations: December 2014

Issue

In June 2014, PACKED vzw organised an event together with Het Firmament on the occasion of the launch of the TRACKS toolbox. Various artists and arts organisations from Brussels and Flanders attended.<reference>Read the report here: http://projecttracks.be/nl/nieuws/intern/item/verslag-lancering-tracks-website-op-18-juni</reference> This event made BRONKS think about their archiving strategy. It became clear to them that a good, structured approach was necessary. BRONKS wanted to create a lasting archive, but didn’t know how best to do it. Was it already being done properly? How could it be improved in the future?

In addition, Oda Van Neygen, artistic director and founder of BRONKS, was retiring in October 2014. She was the person who until then had taken care of the archive. With her departure a great deal of the knowledge about the archive and also about BRONKS itself would disappear.

BRONKS was looking for a way to resolve this problem. So they contacted PACKED vzw in July 2014 and asked them to provide information about the importance, approach and possible steps in the area of archive management. The organisation wanted to create a good archiving structure. Het Firmament and AMVB were also asked to get involved because of their expertise and geographical focus.

Method

1. Knowledge-gathering meeting
2. Development of tool and method
3. Evaluation day at BRONKS
4. Report with advice and recommendations

Knowledge-gathering meeting

On 12 August 2014, AMVB, Het Firmament and PACKED vzw went to the site. In order to get an idea of the current approach to archiving, there followed a discussion about the system used at the theatre and the archive that had hitherto been created. This provided a picture of the various documents and objects circulating within BRONKS and the way it dealt with the archive (it is both a physical and digital archive).

• There are three productions every year. Archive material resulting from these (physical and digital) included: photos, videos, promotion material, reviews and press articles. Oda Van Neygen also had conversations with various writers and directors. Reports of these conversations were made. In addition she checked the writers’ texts and gave them feedback. There are various versions of texts in the archive. BRONKS also has a costume collection.
• Every season there are various guest performances. Related memos, flyers, reports of the conversations held by Oda Van Neygen, images, printed matter and promotion material from BRONKS are kept.
• There have also been three festivals in the last three years. The material from these is mostly promotional.
• BRONKS also has a studio for children and young people: StudioBRONKS. The archive material from this consists of memos, lists of participants and reports of conversations.
• In addition BRONKS organises neighbourhood activities. This happens on a last-minute basis which means that there is very little archive or tangible material.
• Finally, archive documents are generated from the general management of the organisation: annual reports, accounting, reports of staff meetings, conclaves, internal meetings, Board of Directors, etc.

The storage of the physical archive was also examined. This was located in a basement room sealed off from third parties. The archive was big (about 30 metres of shelving) and filled the whole space. Some of the archive was damaged. As a result of renovation work, there was a hole in the wall; in combination with heavy rain this caused water and mud damage to a small part of the archive, including a number of videotapes. There was also another room for the promotional material. This room is better sealed off from the street side.

From a conversation and guided tour of the archive it transpired that BRONKS had a number of concerns:

• Is the archiving system working well? How can the archiving system be improved?
• Is the archive being well preserved?
• Loss of knowledge due to the departure of Oda Van Neygen. Will access to the archive be lost?

This led to a number of plans:

• Transfer of the paper archive to AMVB: because the archive space was totally full and an archiving organisation can ensure the sustainable preservation of the archive, the archive was donated at the end of August to the AMVB in its entirety with the exception of recent printed matter and book-keeping. The archiving organisation will also ensure that the archive is accessible. To ensure access to the physical archive, AMVB, with Oda Van Neygen as a volunteer, will inventorise the archive. A rudimentary location list has already been drawn up.
• An evaluation of the archive by PACKED vzw and Het Firmament: both organisations jointly develop a tool for examining the BRONKS archive. On the basis of this evaluation, recommendations and practical action points are proposed and a short and customised training course is given to BRONKS personnel.
• To keep the knowledge held by Oda Van Neygen within BRONKS, an oral history project could also be arranged.

Below, the action taken by Het Firmament and PACKED vzw is discussed, namely the examination of the BRONKS archive.

Development of tool and method

In order to evaluate the archiving system, an instrument must first be developed. For this purpose Het Firmament and PACKED vzw jointly designed a questionnaire. The idea behind this was to measure all aspects of archive and collection management.

In addition it was decided that the interview should be supplemented with an inspection of the paper archive, the archive space, the digital archive and the folder structure and a group discussion with personnel.

Evaluation day at BRONKS

On 28 October 2014, Het Firmament and PACKED vzw visited BRONKS to examine the archive. The agenda was as follows:

• Voorstelling en vragenronde op de stafvergadering;

bestudering van de mappenstructuur en het digitale archief – omdat het papieren archief quasi volledig overgedragen werd aan AMVB werd dit niet bekeken;

• Interview met Oda Van Neygen over de archiefwerking bij BRONKS;
• Op de stafvergadering werd er bij de medewerkers gepolst naar de huidige problemen en vragen rond het archief. Het bleek dat er hoofdzakelijk vragen waren rond de omgang met het digitale archief: over bestandsformaten en codecs, naamgeving van mappen en bestanden, omgang met dubbels, versies en het hybride archief,… Er waren ook vragen over waardebepaling en het bewaren van promotiemateriaal van andere theatergezelschappen.

Daarna werd het digitale archief, de mappenstructuur en het gebruik ervan geanalyseerd. Er werd gekeken of de mappenstructuur logisch en duidelijk is:

• Is de structuur logisch opgebouwd?
• Zijn documenten eenvoudig terug te vinden?
• Is het archief mooi opgekuist? Of zit het vol dubbels en kladversies?

Na dit onderzoek werd artistiek leider Oda Van Neygen geïnterviewd op basis van de vragenlijst. De vragenlijst werd ruim op voorhand naar haar opgestuurd zodat ze zich kon voorbereiden en zaken die ze niet wist kon navragen. Oda heeft zich altijd over het papieren archief bekommerd. Ze had zelf een ordening opgesteld voor het productiearchief, maar dit is verwaterd en niet nagevolgd geweest.

Aanvullend werden nog enkele mensen binnen BRONKS bevraagd die meer op de hoogte waren van bepaalde zaken. Hiermee werd de evaluatiedag afgesloten.

Rapport met advies en aanbevelingen

Op basis van de vaststellingen tijdens de evaluatie werd een rapport opgesteld met een aantal aanbevelingen die BRONKS kunnen helpen bij het verbeteren van de archiefwerking. We baseerden ons hierbij op de rapporten van de Dance Heritage Coalition. Zij gaan in de VS langs bij dansgezelschappen voor een archiefevaluatie en geven aanbevelingen.

• Vaststellingen die door Het Firmament en PACKED vzw gedaan werden tijdens het interview en de twee bezoeken aan BRONKS.
• Gemotiveerd advies: hierin wordt uitgelegd wat de goede praktijk is en waarom de aanbeveling gedaan wordt.
• Concrete acties die BRONKS kan doen om de aanbeveling te realiseren.
• Relevante richtlijnen op de TRACKS-website per cluster.

Resultaten

• De archiefwerking van de organisatie werd doorgelicht. BRONKS kent zijn sterke en zwakke punten. Op basis van deze doorlichting kunnen zwakke punten aangepakt worden.
• Er werd een rapport opgemaakt met concrete acties waar BRONKS mee aan de slag kan om het archief op een goede en duurzame manier te beheren.
• Het papieren archief werd overgedragen aan AMVB. Oda Van Neygen zal AMVB helpen bij de inventarisatie, zodat de toegang tot het archief niet verloren raakt.

Auteurs: Eline De Lepeleire (Het Firmament) en Nastasia Vanderperren (PACKED vzw)