Dear Cllr Lutfur Rahman

I'm sure you have received many emails and letters on the proposal to sell off the building that houses the local history archive, search room and collections that will be voted upon by the council on 30th July 2008. Whilst I am not a resident of the borough, I have had many occasions to use this resource during my professional work, which as a broadcaster, historian and campaigner for community archives, has given me a unique insight into the vital importance of institutions such as the one currently under threat.

My work on the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are has shown that there is not just a popular appetite amongst people for personal heritage - by which I mean family history, house history, social history and local history - but that there is a real and demonstrable benefit to communities that have access to local collections that allow them to understand and interpret the world around them, particularly in areas where there is a wide range of ethnic backgrounds. This is not just restricted to adult education programmes, older sections of the community tracing their family trees, and local historians, who are often unfairly dismissed as following a 'pastime'; but there is a wider importance for promoting the understanding of our community through the documents that record its passage through history: education.

My most recent media work for the government initiative Who Do We Think We Are, the Department for Work and Pensions, and Teachers TV focuses on crucial government initiatives promoting citizenship, identity and what it means to be British. These initiatives all place local archives at the heart of the way we understand and interact with the world around us. In short, by embracing local resources such as the maps, photographs, letters, diaries, journals, trade directories, newspapers, electoral lists, administrative files and other material contained in Bancroft Road local study library and archive, schools and colleges in the area can develop practical projects that not only tackle some of these sensitive areas, but also create real bonds between diverse sections of our community - cross-generational studies recording oral histories of the borough's older folk; breaking down historic barriers between ethnic groups by showing how an area evolved; and working with new technology to create a legacy for the future.

Whilst I am sure that there is a need for QMU to install this historically significant collection within the borough, there is an even greater need to recognise the importance of preserving the archives of the people who have lived, and will continue to live, in the area. There needs to be a serious reappraisal of the potential for the Bancroft Road library as a resource in the medium and long term, rather than take a short-term opportunity to make what is, in overall budget terms, a fairly small windfall. In today's world of modern technology and user generated content, a moderate investment in the Bancroft Road library could provide vast riches in terms of culture, education, community cohesion and cross-generational awareness. Indeed, with the launch of the London Olympics Cultural Olympiad from August this year, there are specific funds available to seize this opportunity and create a new lease of life for Bancroft Road. I would be personally delighted to put my time and effort into finding ways to make this happen, if the building were to be saved in its present state.

Dr Nick Barratt

• a substantially increased professional staff of local history librarians, archivists, schools outreach workers and building attendants
• a gallery in the large first-floor front room for temporary exhibitions and the display of artefacts and pictures (currently stored in boxes or in the basement)
• a schools room in one of the two large ground-floor rooms (currently used as a book depot)
• an additional archive strong room
• a room or rooms for microfilm and computer users
• a quiet study room