Archivist 'humbled' by prestigious award

An archivist for the superintendent registrar in Jersey has been recognised with a prestigious award for her record-keeping.

Catherine Kirby was awarded the distinguished service award at the annual Archives and Records Association (ARA) Excellence Awards on Thursday in Glasgow, Scotland.

The association said the awards were an opportunity to celebrate achievement in the record keeping sector in the UK and the Ireland.

Kirby said receiving the award was "very humbling" and that it was "very nice to be recognised" for her work.

She said: "I do feel very fortunate to have found a job that I really love and you feel like every day you are making a difference for the future."

The judges said Kirby had devoted her entire professional life to the promotion of archives and record management in Jersey and that her efforts across many sectors of island life would be "felt for years to come".

In her private work, Kirby has worked on projects including the personal records of the naturalist and zoo founder Gerald Durrell, the Liberation Brewery and Seymour Hotels.

Kirby said working on Durrell's personal records had been a memorable experience.

She said: "When I first found the folder of his first letters to his mother on the first expedition he did in 1947... those pieces of paper in my hand... he had sent from the heat of the jungle, sat at his typewriter and sent these incredible letters to his mother.

"Digital records are amazing... they widen the access. But, to hold the actual piece of paper, the paper that he was looking at back then is really a such a privilege."

Superintendent registrar of Jersey Claire Follain said when she took up post in 2017, she inherited a 175-year archive of the island's national civil registration records which had been stored in an "unsuitable state" and had not been catalogued or ordered for decades.

She said: "It is impossible to set out the enormity of the task that Catherine took on, to ensure proper record keeping, records management and archive care."

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