PATH Project

Prejudice & Solidarity Archived Throughout History

Additional Resources

Research Project Development

Advice & Guidance

We hope that you get inspired to start your own project in your community. Here are some resources that we have created for volunteers throughout the project.

We think these resources can be useful if you’re planning a personal research project or funded project.

Funding

If you are deciding to undertake a project, funding might be necessary. The Heritage Lottery Fund offers funding for heritage projects from £10,000 up to £10million.

To find out more: www.heritagefund.org.uk

The PATH Project was made possible by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Partnerships

Finding partners for your project is essential. Through our partners’ support, we accessed workshops and bespoke sessions to learn about the basics of research and interviewing.

 You can find the list of the PATH Project here.

Getting Started

Starting a research project can be daunting, clarifying your topic of interest can be crucial to focus your efforts.

At PATH, we asked ourselves:

  • Why is the research relevant to us? Why should it be relevant to wider audiences?
  • What is our theme or main issue?
  • When?
  • Where?
  • Which sources might be available to us?
  • Which methods do we want to use?
  • Will we participate in the research?
  • How are people going to access our research?
  • How will we present it?

Cataloguing

Keeping your Research Together

Once we clarified our topic, we need to ensure we will keep relevant materials together.

By using a cataloguing sheet, you can save important information of relevant materials in one place and be able to retrieve it more easily.

Download a template of the Cataloguing Sheet

Source Analysis

Getting Deeper

Not all materials are equal, paying attention to the source of our documents is important. Find below a quick exercise we did with volunteers to analyse some sources.

Feel free to pick examples of texts which are relevant to your project.

Download a PDF template of our Source Analysis Exercise

Talking to your (friendly) local archivist

There are various locations in Aberdeen to find archival documents, local history information and much more, such as oral history interviews or material culture. Archivists, curators and librarians welcome researchers and will assist wherever possible.

Most of these places are open to research by appointment, and can be visited completely free of charge.

Download a Table of Useful Contacts

Local Context Global View

Aberdeen’s history is linked to the wider history of the North-East, of Scotland and Britain. Here, you will find a quick presentation done to put into context some of the key events related to LGBT+ History and immigration.

Institutions based in other parts of Scotland, or the UK can also hold records related to Aberdeen.

In Edinburgh, you can visit the National Library of Scotland and the National Records of Scotland

Download the History of Aberdeen and Minority Ethnic presentation PDF