Title: The National Archives’ User Forum
Date: 18 April 2013
Location: Talks Room
Attendees (staff):
Jeff James (JJ), Director of Operations and Services (Chair)
Lee Oliver (LO), Head of Public Services Development
Guy Grannum (GG) – Discovery Product Manager
David Priest (DP), Production Co-ordination Manager
Tom Gregan (TG), Head of Document Services
Helen Pye-Smith (HPS), Head of Library and Deployment Services
Sarah Abbott (SA), E-resources Librarian
Foluke Abiona (FA), Customer Intelligence Officer
Corinne Harrison (CH), Reader Adviser
Mark Jones (MJ), Customer Intelligence Assistant (Minutes)
Attendees (users):
Anthony Daly, Graham Woolgar, Francis Howcutt, P Eismark, John Seaman, David
Matthew, Judith Mitchell, Jasmine Bellgni, P Gallagher, J C Young, John Gallehaut,
Richard Travell, B P Swann, Tim Powys-Lybbe, Robert Douglas, Ron Platt, Scott Reeve
1. JJ welcomed all to the meeting
2. Matters arising
(2.1) (Item 2.8 02/2013) JJ advised that Mary Gledhill had provided an update to the
User Advisory Group in March on our plans for marking forthcoming major historical
anniversaries between 2014 and 2019. All the commemoration plans are under
development at this stage. Sarah Leggett from Marketing and Communications will act
as a contact for the forthcoming commemorations.
(2.2) (Item 4.3 02/2013) Following a request from a reader at the last User Forum in
February, ensuring that the Army Lists located in the open reading room are put back in
their proper place has now been added to the Enquiry Service Managers’ list of weekly
checks.
(2.3) (Item 4.7 02/2013) Patrick Mallett has provided the following explanation regarding
the publication of the minutes from the meetings of the Advisory Council:
In line with its publication scheme, summaries of Advisory Council meetings are not
published until after the minutes have been agreed by the Council at its subsequent
meeting. The minutes of the November 2012 meeting of the Council were not agreed
until the Council next met on 14 February 2013. The summary of the November meeting
is now available from the Advisory Council pages on our website.
(2.4) (Item 4.8 02/2013) Notes from the meeting with Stuart Abraham attended by
Richard Bateson and Graham Woolgar will be included with the March UAG meeting
papers.
(2.5) (Item 4.9 02/2013) JJ reiterated the post meeting note regarding the pilot Home
Guard digitisation project: As noted previously, the pilot Home Guard digitisation project
identified that a significant number of individuals who served in the Home Guard were of
a much younger age than previously thought, meaning that their records are still closed
and that digitisation is not currently commercially viable. Once a much higher proportion
of the collection can be opened and digitisation becomes commercially viable,
commercial partners can be sought to digitise the collection in its entirety. This is likely
to be some years in the future.
Q. If this project is not yet attractive enough to a commercial partner is there any
prospect of the work being carried out in-house?
A. In partnering with a commercial organisation we seek to minimise the risk to public
funds whilst maximising the revenue generation potential. Where we are unable to
attract interest from partners but believe there is still potential to generate revenue then
we may digitise ‘in-house’. The reality with the Home Guard series is that they are a
huge set of records and we would not accept the risk in-house. Once the project
becomes more commercially viable partners can then be sought to digitise the
collection.
(2.6) (Item 4.10 02/2013) JJ provided the following update from Michael Rogers
(Information Management Consultant) on when the Air 81 (Air Ministry: Casualty Branch
P4(Cas): Enquiries into Missing Personnel, 1939-45 War) records will be transferred to
TNA:
According to our last update in March, the files (1488 in total) have been sifted and
given piece numbers. Of these around 700 have been prepped and 306 have been
boxed.
The Air Historical Branch (AHB) has requested all these files be marked with labels
stating they may contain material likely to upset some readers and this work is yet to be
carried out. In addition AHB has currently recalled 65 of these records usually for the
purposes of answering FOI requests and is in the process of sending them back to
MoD.
Once the files are ready and in one place, our Transfers Advisor for MoD will physically
check them and approve them for transfer. I am unable to define when this work will be
completed and when the records will be ready for transfer, however I hope to implement
an agreed transfer programme with MoD in the near future that will establish when all
transfers will be ready for transfer and when they will be available to the public.
(2.7) Q. Regarding Treasury’s decision to transfer the document selection process out
to Iron Mountain (Item 2.4 02/2013), can you confirm whether it is Treasury vetting the
files or is it Iron Mountain?
A. Iron Mountain selects the documents with guidance from Treasury.
3. E-Library update – Sarah Abbott, E-resources Librarian
SA provided a demonstration of our new eLibrary which is now live in the Reading
Rooms (located under The Other Useful Resources link on the Readers screen). The
eLibrary replaces OPERA and provides about 160 electronic journals, books and
databases. It is searchable by title keyword, resource provider and ISSN (International
Standard Serial Number) or users can browse by title.
(3.1) Q. When you search a book what do you get? Is it an electronic version of the
entire book?
A. We are anticipating access to electronic books through the eLibrary. In reality there is
very little available as yet. If you have suggestions or recommendations please contact
library@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk.
(3.3) Q. Why have ancestry.co.uk and findmypast.co.uk been taken away from the
Other Useful Resources link?
A. This is because both of these sites are very easy to access from elsewhere on the
Readers screen, either through the popular links (First World War Soldiers) or the
research signposts within Looking For a Person.
(3.4) Q. For a number of months there has been an incessant error message
continuously flashing up when I have been using findmypast.co.uk in the reading rooms.
Why is this?
A. This problem was related to the old OPERA system. Now that OPERA has been
replaced with the new eLibrary it won’t happen anymore.
(3.5) Q. Can you please add back the Soldiers Died in the Great War resource which
has been taken away from the other useful resources?
A. No. This resource was CD-Rom based. We have withdrawn the old CD-Rom
collection and the resources formerly spent maintaining them to focus on investment in
developing improved access to web-based resources, including subscription-only
material not easily accessible to users elsewhere. Soldiers Died in the Great War is
available to purchase from http://www.naval-military-press.com/soldiers-died-1914-19cd-rom-version-2.5.html and Ancestry.co.uk also offers a similar search function which
can be found here: http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1543. The British
Library also makes the CD-Rom available.
(3.6) Q. Are all the resources included in the Other Useful Resources free to use
onsite?
A. Yes.
4. Any other business
(4.1) Q. The HO 405 (Home Office: Aliens Department and successors: Aliens Personal
Files, Applications for Naturalisation) file on Vera Rosenberg/Atkins had been shown by
the Home Office to journalist Sarah Helm for her book on Atkins (the book is in TNA
Library and which refers to this point) but when the file was transferred to TNA the file
was closed for 100 years.
A. Access to the approximately 50,000 files currently in the series HO 405 Home Office:
Aliens Department and successors: Aliens Personal Files, Applications for
Naturalisation (ALP and IMP file series) was set at series and not file level, presumably
due to the volume involved. If you would like to see a closed record, you can submit a
Freedom of Information request. We will review the record, in consultation with the
government department which transferred it to us. If it is not subject to an exemption,
the information will be released to you. The file in question for Vera Rosenberg is
currently subject to an FOI request.
(4.2) Q. Going back to the earlier discussion about digitisation projects carried out by
TNA, DEFE 3 (Admiralty: Operational Intelligence Centre: Intelligence from Intercepted
German, Italian and Japanese Radio Communications, WWII) is one example of a very
large record series that has been made available to download through Discovery. Is
there a standard policy for digitisation?
A. No. There is no policy as each case is different. Although DEFE 3 had no
commercial value, digitisation of this set of records made sense from a public service
point of view as we were looking to remove the microfilms and provide an electronic
equivalent.
(4.3) Q. The minutes to the Management Board meetings have not been updated on
TNA’s website since July 2012. Likewise, the minutes to the Executive Team’s meetings
have not been updated since October 2012. Can you explain why this is?
A. Thank you for alerting us to this. We will ensure that the minutes are brought up to
date on the website. (Post meeting note: These are now all up-to-date).
(4.4) Q. When I recently ordered the BT 98 (Registry of Shipping and Seamen:
Agreements and Crew Lists, Series I) records I found that they were literally crumbling
away. Will they be digitised?
A. There are plans for this. We will report back when we have more detailed information
regarding these plans.
(4.5) Q. TNA now appears to be accepting payments for downloading documents via
PayPal. Is that correct?
A. Yes. This was introduced by popular demand and users are now able to pay for
downloading documents via PayPal if they wish to do so.
(4.6) Q. Are you able to provide an update on how TNA will be allocating the portion of
money it has bid for out of the £50 million that the government has committed to
commemorations marking the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War?
A. Unfortunately TNA’s bid for a portion of the money was not successful.
(4.7) Q. What is TNA’s arrangement with the catering service Genuine Dining? Do they
pay to be onsite or do TNA pay them?
A. It is a zero concessionary contract. TNA does not pay Genuine Dining and the
service they provide onsite is of no cost to the organization.
Q. The price for soup and a roll with butter in the restaurant has been rising by 20 pence
annually for the past 3 years. Does TNA have any say in Genuine Dining’s prices?
A. There is a price increase cap. If Genuine Dining wishes to increase how much they
charge for particular products above this cap we ensure that they maintain the prices of
other products, such as teas and coffees.
Q. The last two times I have visited the restaurant the baked potatoes have been
inedible.
A. In the future we would suggest customers return any food they are not satisfied with.
We will pass on this feedback to Steven Salter, Genuine Dining’s Catering Manager.
Other feedback suggests that the food is improving.
(4.8) JJ advised that the digitisation of part of the WO 95 record series, which consists
of unit war diaries from the First World War, has now been completed and all diaries
from the series are now back in circulation. The digitised diaries will be launched online
as soon as it is feasible before the centenary period begins, but at present we are
unable to provide specific details.
5. Date of next meeting: Saturday 18th May 12:30-13:45