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<\/p>\nby Lianne Smith, Archives Services Manager<\/p>\n
At the beginning of this week the Archives Reading Room re-opened after our two week annual closure. Sadly, we don\u2019t disappear off for a fortnight in the sun while we\u2019re closed, we\u2019re hard at work undertaking some of the tasks that we\u2019re unable to do while we have a Reading Room full of researchers! We thought it might be nice to do a few posts looking behind the scenes at some of the things we\u2019ve been up to. Today, we\u2019re entering the exciting world of….<\/p>\n
Stocktaking!<\/p>\n
In an average year, we produce between 6000-7000 archive items for our researchers to consult in the Reading Room. The Archives team will also produce another thousand or so for use in research enquiries, teaching sessions and visits, exhibitions and digitisation. Every single one of those items has a place in one of our stores, and one of the most important yet challenging things we have to is to make sure that every last one of those items makes it back to its rightful place.<\/p>\n
Those of you who have visited us (or any other archive) will be aware of the document request slips with the pink carbon parts that must be filled in for each item requested. That is our first line of checking \u2013 when we take something off a shelf the pink part is left in its place, and when we return it we take back the pink part, match it back with the white slip and voila! We know that the archives are safely in their home. But sometimes those pesky slips go astray \u2013 they fall behind our mobile shelving as we move them, or blow off trolleys as we make our way down corridors, or researchers take them home with them \u2013 and we\u2019re unable to play our usual game of \u2018Archive slip snap\u2019. So the first thing we need to do in our closure is to go through all of our records of the previous year, and for any item that we haven\u2019t been able to check using the slip method, we have to check by going through the boxes. Occasionally something isn\u2019t there, in which case we can use our records to check when they were out, and what else was out at the time, in order to work out which other boxes we should look in. This normally solves the mystery – it\u2019s remarkably easy to pick up two files at once thinking you\u2019ve only got one, and accidentally put things back in the wrong box.<\/p>\n
Sounds dull, doesn\u2019t it? That\u2019s because it is. But it\u2019s also vital to us being able to provide access to all of these records, and in making sure that when you visit us wanting to see something, we can actually find it!<\/p>\n
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Imagine trying to find one missing thing amongst all this. That would be hard enough but we have 10 times as many boxes as this!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Lianne Smith, Archives Services Manager At the beginning of this week the Archives Reading Room re-opened after our two week annual closure. Sadly, we don\u2019t disappear off for a fortnight in the sun while we\u2019re closed, we\u2019re hard at work undertaking some of the tasks that we\u2019re unable to do while we have a … <\/p>\n