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Course Descriptions (click on a title for more information)

MASTERS DEGREE

Students choose two compulsory modules (40 credits), optional modules worth 80 credits and complete a dissertation worth 60 credits.

Compulsory modules (to equal 40 credits)

Skills and Sources for Family and Local History in Scotland or England, 20 credits
and
Scots or English Palaeography and Diplomatic, 20 credits

CERTIFICATE

Students choose one compulsory module (20 credits) and optional modules worth 40 credits.

Compulsory module (to equal 20 credits)

Skills and Sources for Family and Local History in Scotland or England, 20 credits

OPTIONAL MODULES

Students may exit with a Postgraduate Certificate in Family and Local History after 60 credits, with a Postgraduate Diploma after 120 credits and after 180 credits, including the dissertation, with the Masters.

Alternative optional modules (available by prior agreement with CAIS)



Skills and Sources for Family and Local History in Scotland
  • Introduction to family and local history sources in Scotland
  • Location, type and uses of records
  • Reading and interpreting records
  • Local administration and records
  • Financial and fiscal records
  • Courts and the police
  • Church records, education and poor relief
  • Harbour and building records
  • Land, property and inheritance
  • Trade and business
  • Families and societies
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Skills and Sources for Family and Local History in England
  • Introduction to family and local history sources in England
  • Location, type and uses of records
  • Reading and interpreting records
  • Demography and local administration
  • Court records, taxation and registration
  • Ecclesiastical and diocesan records
  • Education and poor law administration
  • Land, property and inheritance
  • Occupation, business and trade
  • Maps and plans
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Scots Palaeography and Diplomatic
  • Introduction to Palaeography: history, abbreviations and languages within Scotland
  • Identifying letter forms and reading and understanding different document types
  • Personal names, reckonings of time, numerals, coinage, weights and measures
  • The feudal system and feudal conveyancing
  • The notary, sasine and registration
  • Heritable and moveable property and family settlements
  • Courts of law and civil process
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English Palaeography and Diplomatic
  • Introduction to palaeography and diplomatic: the value of palaeography and diplomatic; transcribing conventions; how to deal with dates, numbers, money; types of writing materials
  • Secretary hand: history of the script; letter forms; reading secretary hand
  • Manorial records: background to the manor, its court and its records
  • Italic writing: history of the script; letter forms;
  • Wills and inventories: formats; reading and interpreting
  • Court hands: history of court hands; chancery, common pleas and exchequer hands
  • Title deeds: land tenure; components of a title deed; title deeds relating to freehold/leasehold lands
  • Nineteenth century handwriting
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Scottish Local Government and Records
  • Country and parish before 1930: predecessors of the county council; county councils; education provision; the parish and the poor law; lieutenancy; militia and volunteers; special districts; sheriff courts
  • Burgh to 1930: reform; police acts; burgh records; incorporations
  • Developments since 1930: 1930-1975 and the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947; reform in 1975; district courts; local administration 1975-1996; reform in 1996; the Scottish Parliament
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Business Archives and Records
  • Introduction to business archives and the role of the business archivist
  • History of business and the development of business records and their research use
  • Appraisal, records management and access
  • Business archives overseas and current issues
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Ecclesiastical Archives
  • Ecclesiastical records, their location and their use in the context of the following areas
  • The established churches: their development and location of records
  • The non-conformist churches and the Episcopal and Catholic churches
  • The clergy: records created, their location and use
  • Church discipline and pastoral guidance including church courts
  • The parish including parish registers, poor relief, education and other local activities
  • The church fabric including plans and heritors
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Understanding and Reading Latin (can be taken as 2 x 10 credit modules: Basic Latin for Archivists and Researchers and Understanding Latin in Documents and Archives)
Basic Latin for Archivists and Researchers
  • An introduction to Latin and basic Latin grammar
  • Pronunciation, inflections, dictionaries, declensions, conjugations
  • Word order, nouns, verbs, adjectives
  • Formularies, the imperfect, adverbs
  • Proper names, pronouns, numbers, the accusative, the infinitive
  • Medieval and later Latin, the future tense, prepositions
  • To be, passive, the ablative absolute
  • Irregular verbs
  • Common Latin documents
Understanding Latin in Documents and Archives
  • Intermediate Latin grammar and understanding Latin in documents
  • Monumental inscriptions; gerunds and gerundives
  • Charters; subjunctives
  • Retour and inquisition; impersonal verbs and abbreviations
  • Bond and obligation and sasine; imperatives, infinitives in other tenses
  • Probates and wills; irregular verbs; comparatives and superlatives
  • Manorial roll and diplomas; conditional clauses and subjunctive

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Educational Archives
  • Record types, their identification, location and use in the following contexts
  • Historical background: medieval and early modern schools; nineteenth century educational legislation; twentieth century changes
  • Administrative records: school boards; managers’ minutes; correspondence; the school inspection system; central government sources; examination boards
  • Log books and other school records: types of record and their research use
  • Higher education: higher and further education educational records
  • Adult education and self-help: history and records
  • Workhouse and Industrial Schools: the poor law; industrial schools; reformatory schools; special schools
  • Ecclesiastical provision: church schools; Sunday Schools; other ecclesiastical provision
  • Other providers: charities; dame schools; ragged schools
  • Teacher training: history and records
  • Managing school records: appraisal, arrangement, description and access
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Sound and Vision
  • Historical Overview: development of cinefilm; development of video recording; sound recording; the growth and development of specialist film and sound archives
  • Origin, development and strengths and weaknesses of oral history
  • Management and administration: collection policies; appraisal; accessioning; cataloguing; and access in film and sound archives
  • Preservation: physical characteristics of cinefilm; video recordings; sound recordings; handling, conservation and restoration of sound and vision media; storage; copying for preservation; data mitigation; emergency planning and disaster recovery
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Outreach and Community Archives
  • The nature and role of outreach in archives and related professions
  • Different types of outreach and promotional activities
  • Community archives as organisations and as collections
  • Working effectively with local groups and individuals
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Heraldry
  • The role of heraldry in identification and status
  • The design, meaning and description of coats of arms
  • The origins of heralds and heraldry
  • Developments in heraldry from the middle ages to the present day
  • The role of heraldry in historical and genealogical enquiries
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House History
  • Techniques required to research the history of a house, locating and interpreting key sources
  • Dating houses and buildings: architectural styles, interiors and furnishings
  • Maps and land surveys, tracing community developments
  • Land and property law including manorial tenure, searching for title deeds, property inheritance and disputes
  • Finding occupants of houses and buildings
  • Social, local and national contexts
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Understanding and Managing Rare Books
  • History of rare books
  • Book production in the hand-press era
  • Bindings
  • Cataloguing and bibliographical descriptions
  • Managing collections and providing customer services
  • Developing access and promotional polices
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Public History – the module is still being developed but should include:
  • Meanings and Uses of Public History: what is history / public history?; public policy and history and current issues (government, citizenship, truth and reconciliation, memorialisation etc)
  • The Interpretation of History: The heritage industry; interpreting history by and for the public; public history in the archive; social media and public history
  • Writing Public History: selling history; magazines; fiction and non-fiction
  • History and the Media: television, radio, film and other media
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Military History – the module is still being developed but should include:
  • Historical development and structure of the army and airforce; records relating to the army and airforce
  • Development of the navy and merchant service; crew lists, maritime museums and archives
  • Service records
  • Death in service; memorials and wills
  • Campaign, service and gallantry medals
  • Overseas armed services
  • Prisoners of War
  • Honours and Orders
  • Practical case study
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Archive Theory and Management
  • Introduction to theory and practice: historical development of the record keeping profession; functions and responsibilities of archivists; differences and similarities between records and archives
  • Acquisition and appraisal: policy development; methods of acquisition; accessioning procedures; the theory and practice of appraisal
  • Arrangement and description: provenance; arrangement; descriptive and indexing standards; finding aids; archives, the internet and new technologies
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Archive Administration, Access and Preservation
  • Users and access: providing services to users; users and their needs; access restrictions and regulations; legislation
  • Outreach: reaching a wider audience; outreach strategies
  • Preservation: risks to archives; protecting archives; preservation policies
  • Resource management: components of management; managing resources; measuring performance
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Principles and Practice of Records Management
  • Organisations and records: nature of records; making, maintaining and managing records
  • Records management concepts: record life cycle; records continuum
  • Records management programmes – foundations: records management roles & responsibilities; records management policies; records systems development methodology; business analysis; records survey
  • Records management programmes – elements: records creation & capture; records classification; records storage; records retention; records destruction
  • Establishing a records management programme: developing a business case for a records management programme; selling records management
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Electronic Records Management
  • Electronic records and their management: key concepts and terminology; unique properties of electronic records; implications of these properties for their management; understanding and coping in hybrid paper and electronic environments
  • Incorporating electronic records management into the information fabric of your organisation: drivers for electronic records and information management; key elements of a successful electronic records program; mandates and policies; technical and social infrastructure; establishing collaborations with key personnel
  • Getting started: simple first steps to begin managing your organisation’s information; understanding your organisation’s information landscape; sources of information to help you manage information; gaining practical experience; learning from the experience of others
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Complying with Information Legislation: Principles and Practice
  • International, constitutional and legal context
  • Data protection
  • Freedom of information
  • Environmental information regulations
  • Importance of corporate frameworks to compliance
  • Implications for archivists and record keepers
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Cataloguing in a Digital Age
  • Computers and record keepers: the development of digital cataloguing; national and international developments and drivers; archival networks; how users search for information
  • Descriptive Standards Online: online access to archives; metadata schemes; indexing, thesauri and authority records; content standards for online description
  • Getting your catalogues online: simple web solutions; databases and proprietary software; Encoded Archival Description; publishing EAD finding aids; other solutions
  • Networks and interoperability: current projects and future developments
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Web 2.0 for Information Professionals
  • The nature of Web 2.0, the tools and the opportunities and risks for recordkeepers
  • The implications of social media for information policies (including privacy and copyright)
  • Web 2.0, the nature of the record in social computing and appraisal
  • Digital preservation, access and Web 2.0
  • Participatory culture and changing attitudes to information
  • The role of the recordkeeper in a Web 2.0 world
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Strategic Management for Information Professionals
  • Introduction to managing people and the legal considerations
  • Managing people: recruiting, selecting and managing staff
  • Managing money: finance and fundraising
  • Managing the service: processes, performance and monitoring
  • Managing the service: marketing and customer service
  • Managing the service: projects and change
  • Strategic planning and management
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Management and Preservation of Digital Records
  • Computer science basics for archiving and preservation
  • Digital archiving and preservation processes: comparing digital archiving and analogue archiving technologies
  • Systems to support digital archiving and preservation: current status and limitations; the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) standard
  • Metadata standards and metadata maintenance
  • Organisational and business considerations
  • The future agenda: how might the management and preservation of digital records evolve in future?
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Disaster Management for Information Professionals (can be combined with Preservation for Information Professionals)
  • Risk management and business continuity: designing a disaster plan; environmental control; identifying and understanding risks
  • Preparedness: appointing a disaster team; setting priorities; emergency operation plan; types of disaster; security; staff training and disaster simulation
  • Response and recovery: formulating systems for response and recovery
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Preservation for Information Professionals (can be combined with Disaster Management for Information Professionals)
  • Preservation theory: the principles of preservation; understanding archival materials; threats to collections
  • Preparing for action: storage and environment; archive surveys; archive formats; identification and storage
  • Preservation in practice: handling records; working with conservators and allied professionals; digital preservation and the creation of surrogates; special circumstances
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Comparative Concepts in Information Rights: Part 1
  • Framework of freedom of information legislation in Scotland, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand
  • Public interest test, introduction and general principles: the public interest test and the general law; the public interest test in freedom of information law
  • Public interest test, comparative case studies: comparison between Scotland, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand
  • Harm tests and freedom of information: role of harm tests in exemptions to general rights of access and the concepts of prejudice and substantial prejudice
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Comparative Concepts in Information Rights: Part 2
  • Vexatiousness: when can a request for information be considered vexatious and is this the same in different jurisdictions?
  • Commercial sensitivity and trade secrets: when can information be classed as commercially sensitive or as a trade secret?
  • The interface between human rights and information rights
  • Confidentiality: the nature and application of confidentiality law as it applies to freedom of information in different countries
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