This invitation is being sent to encourage those who have retired within the last five years to contribute your memories of UN service to the Career Records Project for the benefit of academics and students in the UK.
For some thirty-five years Oxford University’s Library, the Bodleian, has partnered BAFUNCS in managing an archive of material related to the careers of our members and associates who have worked with the UN and its agencies, or have been closely associated with them, with over 500 contributions to date. The Bodleian Library’s catalogue and holdings are accessible to all academics and students in the UK.
As a more recent member, we write to extend a warm invitation to you to participate in the Project. (Our apologies in advance if you have already taken the initiative to support the project). A Guide to the Project for Researchers and its three supplements summarise the experiences of those colleagues: these can be accessed from the BAFUNCS website.
Those who have participated to date include people who served in the UN Secretariat itself, as staff of the Specialised Agencies, Funds and Programmes, at headquarters and in country assignments, in political, development, humanitarian and peacebuilding capacities. Contributions from spouses have been received also and are very welcome. These materials are of interest to scholars as they record the experiences of the first generation or two of those seeking to build a United Nations contribution to a new world order.
The UNCRP team in BAFUNCS serves as a liaison with the Bodleian Library (they manage over 400 archives of various organisations and individuals) in managing the contributions of members. Any material can be considered if not already formally published, by the UN (as the Bodleian is a depository library) or by publishers who send books directly to them as well. Increasingly, contributions are in electronic form, but this is not a requirement. We can also arrange to record interviews if this is your preferred medium of expression. It is also important that you know you are fully at liberty to place a time embargo of your choosing on material which you may regard as sensitive, as indeed will the Bodleian in their own due diligence under privacy laws.
Click here to Complete the Online Questionnaire which is on our website, where there is also a guidance note on contributing to the project. And, if you wish to explore this invitation further, you can also contact us at career.records@bafuncs.org.
With very best wishes, and hoping that you will give the matter your earnest consideration – sooner rather than later!
Stephen Rudgard Nicholas Rosellini
Chair, BAFUNCS Executive Committee Vice-Chair and Coordinator, UNCRP
