Title: The National Archives’ User Forum
Date: 07 February 2012
Location: Talks Room
Attendees (staff):
Jeff James (JJ), Director of Operations and Services (Chair)
Oliver Morley, (OM) Chief Executive and Keeper
Chris Mumby (CM), Head of Commercial Delivery
Tim Padfied (TP), Information Policy Consultant
Lee Oliver (LO), Head of Public Services Development
Tom Gregan (TG), Head of Document Services
James Lawson (JL), Customer Intelligence Manager
Attendees (users): Graham Woolgar, John Seaman, S Moore, Graham Boyes, Sally Thursby, Ron Platt,
Adrian Padfield, Paul Blake, Jeff Jefford, Jasmine Belloni, Gillian Stevens, Michael Hill, Tom Tulloch Marshall
Matters arising from the last meeting
JL passed on the request for advice / tips on searching Discovery to be included as part of the annual
Cataloguing day, to the Discovery team.
Post meeting note: It is worth noting that guidance on searching Discovery can be accessed from the
Discovery home page: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/
Updates / information
As noted at the last meeting, we are currently piloting the use of ‘thin clients’ instead of standard pc’s in the
reading rooms. Thin clients are terminals which are run through a server session rather than their own
hardware, which means that they are more economical, efficient and easier to manage centrally. The thin
clients are located on the large table directly opposite the Red Desk. The rest of the computers in the reading
rooms are unaffected by this pilot. The pilot has highlighted a number of issues which we are currently
addressing. We apologise for any inconvenience caused during the pilot, which we intend will improve services
in the longer term. Please continue to inform staff of any issues experienced when using these terminals so
that they can be addressed accordingly.
Copyright and The National Archives - Tim Padfield, Information Policy Consultant - see separate
presentation document
Contact details for the image library are as follows: Email: image-library@nationalarchives.gov.uk Tel: +44
(0)20 8392 5225
Further information can be found on the Image Library web pages:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/imagelibrary/purchase-images.htm
Update on the Pilot Home Guard Digitisation Project and progress with inter-war Navy and Royal Air
Force records - Chris Mumby, Head of Commercial Delivery
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There are 4 collations of post First World War service records due to be transferred from the Ministry of
Defence.
Due to their scale, normal practice would be to accession a representative sample of each collation.
However, due to their value to a broad spectrum of our users, an alternative solution has been
identified; to preserve the records in their entirety, but in digital form rather than physically storing the
records.
This has never been done on this scale before and involves a number of new challenges. In particular,
it is vital that we are able to provide a full audit trail, proving the provenance of the digital records and
their accuracy as copies of the originals.
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Therefore it is vital that we can prove the concept before going ahead.
We are currently piloting this approach with a sample of the Home Guard records. The records are
arranged by county and the sample consists of records from County Durham.
As expected, the pilot has not been straightforward, but is progressing well and has taught us a lot,
which we can apply to future projects.
We are in the process of implementing a 100% quality assurance check on the digitised images and
expect to make the Durham records available via our in house electronic document delivery service in
late spring.
The delivery of the records to the public is also part of the pilot. Our aim is that once we have proved
the concept, the Home Guard records can be delivered through a licensing partner following a process
that is tightly prescribed by us.
We hope that once the concept is proved, the process can be applied to some of the other collations.
However we will consider each collation on a case by case basis and our approach needs to be signed
off by the Advisory Council.
The smallest of the 4 collations, the Royal Air Force records will be digitised in house as they are of a
scale that we are able to manage and resource internally.
The Royal Navy collation is likely to be the most problematic of the 4, due mainly to a complex
combination of open and closed information within individual files. It is likely that this collation will be
addressed last, enabling us to gain valuable experience along the way.
The Army collation requires additional assessments in order for us to ascertain its complexity.
Q. What will happen to the original paper records once they have been digitised?
A. (CM) This will be a decision for the Ministry of Defence as we will not be taking the paper records, only the
digital surrogates.
Q. Why can’t you digitise all 4 of the collations in house, enabling you to keep the profit?
A. (CM) We simply do not have the budgetary capabilities or resources to manage a digitisation project of this
scale.
Q. Has TNA budgeted for the life of the records, so that money continues to be available to ensure that the
digital records aren’t rendered obsolete by changes in technology?
A. (OM) This is one of the most important issues to us at the moment as custodians of the public record, and a
great deal of our time and attention is focused on this. There is a project currently running, called the Digital
Records Infrastructure project, which focuses on how digital records will be maintained over time.
Q. I understand that there are medal rolls for the Home Guard as well as some records for members of the
Home Guard who had specific roles related to their professions. Do you know what will happen with these?
A. (JJ) We will take this question away and find out.
Actions and questions
JL / TG to arrange an agenda item for the next meeting for TG to provide an update on the self service
copying machines, to include information on the background to the project as well as where we are now and
planned future developments.
JL to invite David Thomas (Director of Technology) to give an update on TNA’s overall strategy and approach
regarding digitisation.
Q. It has been noted at previous meetings that the Discovery team hope to include functionality to enable users
to personalise how Discovery works for them. Will this feature be available when Discovery replaces the old
online catalogue at the end of March?
A. (JJ) No, this functionality will be added after March. Although we recognise that this would be a useful
feature it is not a key requirement for replacing the old catalogue. The old catalogue does not include this
feature.
Q. The British Library recently launched an enhancement to their catalogue and ran a workshop on how to use
it which I attended and found very useful. Would you consider doing something similar?
A. (JJ) We will feed this back to the Discovery team. The team are planning activities to help users get used to
the new system but details have not been finalised. We will ensure that attendees of this meeting are kept
informed.
Q. Will Discovery continue to be improved after it replaces the old catalogue?
A. (JJ) Yes, absolutely, improvements to Discovery will be ongoing.
Q. You have stated that DocumentsOnline will be integrated in to Discovery. Will there be a period of parallel
running, where the 2 systems run at the same time, as there has been with the catalogue, to ensure that
Discovery effectively replaces the DocumentsOnline function?
A. We will feed this back to the Discovery team.
Q. I made a point some time ago regarding the new ‘contact us’ form on the website. When using the contact
form, a unique number is allocated for your enquiry. The number is displayed on the screen but it would be
very useful if an email could be sent to the address provided containing the content of the enquiry and the time
and date.
A. (JJ) We will look in to this further and get back to you.
Q. Are there any plans to digitise the MI5 personal files in KV2 that have been released so far? The files seem
quite popular and digitising them would help preserve the originals.
A. (LO) As far as I’m aware there aren’t currently any plans to digitise the files in KV2 that have been released
so far. However we are currently making plans for the digitisation programme for the coming financial year and
will consider this request.
Post meeting note: since the meeting, a new batch of MI5 files has been released. Many of these files are
available to view online and will be free to download for one month. Further information can be found here:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/679.htm
Q. When the 20 year rule comes in to effect will you be releasing 2 years worth of files in 1 go?
A. (OM) No, the first year’s worth of files will be released at the usual time but we will stagger the release of the
second year’s worth throughout the year. This will help us to ease the administrative burden as well as
maximise the opportunities for publicity.
Q. It is now about a year since the minister, Lord McNally, came to talk to users of The National Archives at
one of these User Forum meetings. Can he be invited to return?
A. (OM) we have been in discussions with Lord McNally. He is very keen to return and we hope that he will be
able to return some time in the summer.
Q. I don’t get to attend many of these meetings but would like to reiterate the point made by others that there
are certain parts of the paper catalogue that should not be withdrawn as the electronic version is not an
adequate alternative.
A. (JJ) Essentially we agree with this. We have to accept that there are certain parts of the catalogue that do
not lend themselves to being accessed electronically. However the majority does, and this is why we intend to
come back in April with a road map for removing those sections that can be easily replaced by the electronic
version and for looking at more detail at those sections that would be more challenging.
Q. It worth noting also that TNA Have made a commitment to continue to make a complete set of the paper
catalogue available (although not on open access).
A. (JJ) Yes, and our internal discussions will include how we go about this.
Q. Please could you get an update from the Air Historical Branch regarding access to AIR 81: Air Ministry:
Casualty Branch P4(Cas): Enquiries into Missing Personnel, 1939-45, which have not yet been transferred to
TNA?
A. (JJ) Yes we will look in to this.
Q. What is your policy regarding providing access to subscription on line resources such as newspapers?
A. (JJ) We have a modest budget for purchasing subscriptions which is managed on an annual basis. We have
to be very careful and generally speaking if we add a new subscription we have to take something else away.
However we do consider requests made by users, including those made via this forum.
Next meeting
The next meeting is on 12 April at 12:30 in the Talks Room