Volunteering at Archives - a mapping of volunteer management at archives in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden

Abstract

This report constitutes a first attempt to map volunteer management practices in the  Nordic archives sector, that is, in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. We have  unfortunately not been able to include Iceland in this study, but it would be relevant  to include in future studies. This has been done through a survey broadly distributed  within the archive sector, as well as additional in-depth follow-up interviews. The  main purposes have been to achieve a better understanding of how and to what  extent archives in Scandinavia engage with volunteers, different attitudes towards  volunteer work and what it entails, and perhaps most importantly, identify needs  within the archive sector in the purpose of developing educational material and other  types of useful resources. We have also been examining the reasons why some  archives have not started working with volunteers, and what would be required to  help these archives take the first step in case of expressed interest. Through the  results, some comparisons between countries can be made. However, it is important  to highlight that, while we received 121 answers to the survey (Denmark: 33, Finland:  21, Norway: 44, Sweden: 23), there were of course many archives who did not  answer. Comparisons and analysis need to be made carefully, and certain  interpretations will be tentative in nature. This is a first attempt at mapping the  volunteer landscape at archives in Nordic countries, and we hope it can serve as an  inspiration and basis for further research