In this podcast Russell chats with Dave Smith from Heritage Quay, Huddersfield University’s archive service and considers community development in an ‘alternative’ context: sporting heritage and rugby league supporters

Dave was involved in co-producing the national rugby league archive and talks about how he engaged communities of rugby league supporters to develop the archive. He talks about what co-production in this context means; the tensions along the way; how he as a “professional idiot” and the ‘amateur expert’ fans worked together; and how for an archive on a campus university ‘safe spaces’ needed to be created for people unfamiliar with such environments for co-production to happen.

You can follow Heritage Quay on Twitter at @Heritage_Quay.

Dave Smith, Heritage Quay photo IDing artefacts for the national rugby league archive