Making the Oxfam archive more accessible

This five year project was to catalogue and preserve Oxfam’s 10,000-box archive at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. The archive contains 34,000 project files, dating from 1955 to 2005, which include records of the Field Committees managing Oxfam’s global programme; papers of the advisory Medical Panel; Overseas/International Divisions Directorate correspondence; country reports and evaluations; and records of the Policy Department and its predecessors. Other records cover the control and treatment of infectious diseases including leprosy, malaria, measles and HIV/AIDS, through interventions including vaccination programmes, health education and provision of community and primary health care and hygiene promotion. Before this funded project, half of the material had never been seen by an archivist.