The Institute's decision to preserve its heritage was taken by the board at the beginning of 2005. This resulted in a letter to members from Monica Lemecha and David Peck appealing for items of historical interest to supplement the collection of photographs held in Stourbridge and the early historical material housed in the National Library Resource for Guidance at Derby.
The archive now comprises:
- A library of books, papers and pamphlets dating from the early part of the 20th Century.
- Films, films strips, slides and audio-tapes illustrating the work of the youth employment officers and careers advisors (some now recorded on DVD).
- An extensive collection of photographs of Institute members, careers conventions and young people at work, etc (many digitally enhanced by David Laytham).
- A number of personal collections including information on policy making in the 1920's 1930's, 1940's, and 1950's a complete 1970's careers library, examination papers for the Diploma in Vocational Guidance etc.
- A complete set of Institute magazines: Youth Employment, Careers Officer, Careers Quality and some editions of the Juvenile Employment Officers magazine, together with Policy statements and careers information.
In total the material now held fills a room in the Stourbridge office, with generous technical advice from the Institute of Education and the National library resource for Guidance, the archived material has been classified and recorded by volunteers and has already proved useful to a number of researchers. The archive has now reached the stages where it will be valuable to academics working in the fields of social and economic history, history of occupations, occupational psychology and social policy. Careers advisors and educationalists will also find much interest in them.
Donated material is welcome. Volunteers with interest and time to spare are always needed.
Please contact David Peck through the HQ office at Stourbridge on 01384 376464.
