Title: The National Archives’ User Forum
Date: 17 October 2013
Location: Talks Room
Attendees (staff):
Lee Oliver (LMO), Head of Public Services Development (Chair); Caroline OttawaySearle (COS), Director of Public Services and Human Resources; Chris Mumby
(CM), Head of Commercial Delivery; Dave Priest (DP), Production Co-ordination
Manager; Laura MacBeth-Bower (LMB), Engagement and Training Coordinator;
Foluke Abiona (FA), Customer Intelligence Officer; Corinne Harrison (CH), Reader
Adviser; Joanna Robinson (JCR), Customer Intelligence Assistant (Minutes)
Attendees (users):
Chad Watt, Bob Whitfield, P. Eismark, Tom Adams, David Matthew, Hazel Farron,
Michael Hill, John Seaman, Graham Woolgar, Ron Platt, Anne Hurford, Scott Reeve,
Geoffrey Berg.
1. LMO welcomed all to the meeting.
2. Matters arising.
(2.1) (Item 2.4 08/13) LMO said that we will keep readers informed of developments
regarding the 20 year rule as and when information is received.
(2.2) (Item 2.5 08/13) LMO said he had met with Anne Sampson, Chair of the
Friends of TNA. It was agreed that it would not be appropriate for the Friends to buy
routine equipment for TNA. TNA is currently surveying users about equipment and
gathering information for review.
(2.3) (Item 4.1 08/13) Graham Woolgar said he would like the reclosure meeting
minutes to be published with the September UAG minutes. CH said it had already
been specified in the March UAG minutes that the reclosure minutes would be
included therein as a post-meeting update. A link was also included in the
September UAG minutes.
(2.4) (Item 5.3 08/13) LMO explained that TNA was extremely busy over the summer
and that on the Wednesday in question the sheer volume of work led to a dip in
service. DP said that a ticket printing problem was an isolated incident: there may
have been a fault in one of the 12 repositories. There hasn’t been a global fault in
eight years.
(2.5) (5.4 08/13) LMO said that Lisa Jardine was on the panel of 2012’s Silken Paper
Trail event, which was open to all. There may be other such opportunities in future
for non-executives to attend open meetings.
(2.6) (5.5 08/13) LMO said that Treasury has admitted they made a mistake with
their figures in the last Record Transfer Report (RTR). TNA will not amend RTRs,
which are produced as a snapshot every six months to help keep departments
accountable.
(2.7) Q. When ordering documents in Discovery it is frustrating to press ‘order now’
and then have to re-enter your reference number. This issue has been raised
repeatedly, and the answer always given is that TNA is aware of the problem. What
is being done to resolve the issue?
A. LMO said that as Chair of the Discovery Enhancement Board he will raise this
again. He will report back on the matter at the next User Forum.
(2.8) Q. Discovery search results can only be refined by date categories that are not
logical e.g. 1925-1949.
A. LMO said that this is a live issue and the Discovery Enhancement Board is
looking into it.
(2.9) Q. Can we have an update of the status of Second World War medal index
cards?
Post meeting Note: MoD are not currently preparing these records for transfer but
have been made aware of interest in these records, by TNA and individual members
of the public.
(2.10) Q. Closed files that are due to come open should be reviewed. A MEPO file
contained horrific images, though the catalogue description made no mention of the
disturbing contents. There should have been a warning sticker advising of the file’s
distressing nature. It has been referred for reclosure.
A. LMO will take this away.
3. Open Discussion.
(3.1) Q. Why do we have to watch training videos again when we wish to renew a
reader’s ticket? Surely if someone is renewing a ticket, they know how to handle
documents.
A. New methods are continuously developed and it is helpful to be reminded of
current best practice, which includes handling documents with clean, dry hands. All
TNA staff are required to take refresher courses. Pre-registration, including the
document handling video will be available online by Christmas 2013.
(3.2) Q. There were three spelling mistakes in the Leveson Inquiry catalogue
descriptions and these have been reported through Discovery. These are LEV 1/138
and LEV 1/19 (Alastair Campbell) and LEV 1/54 (Chris Elliott).
A. LMO will take this away.
(3.3) Q. Can someone from the Copyright team talk to User Forum?
A. They have talked to User Forum in the past and another session can be arranged
if there is sufficient interest.
(3.4) Q. Will it one day be the case that once a document is digitised, it will not be
possible to see the original, either because it is taken from public access, or the
original is destroyed? This would be of grave concern if the digital image is poor. Will
there come a time when scanned copies become the permanent preserved
document, rather than the original?
A. LMO said that records come from departments in a variety of media. Once a
document is accessioned by TNA, that is still the official record, even if a digital or
other surrogate has been produced. CM said that we would only consider
accessioning digital surrogates if there was a risk to the original, for example, if an
accessioned photographic negative was degrading into nothing. There are no plans
to accession digital surrogates of existing accessioned public records.
(3.5) Public services can be taken for granted. TNA’s customer service was praised.
Date of next meeting: Tuesday 17 December 2013 15:00-16:15