I woulkd be interested to hear from colleagues in all archive sectors to
learn if there has been a general upswing in their Visitor numbers since the
start of the year.
I ask because we have had a massive rise here in the last few moinths, and
have broken our previous daily high twice since the start of February. This
Tuesday we had 163 searchers compared to a high of 134 before the year 2000.
When we hit 145 one day in February we thought things would not get any
busier - but we were wrong.
I am putting this on the list because I think we have had a tendency to look
for local explanations for increases. For example, Lancashire RO is 60 years
old this year, and we launched things at an Open Day in early February which
attracted 882 people, and since then searcher numbers have been high. So I
might have been te,petd to look no further, until I was spaeking to other
archivists (all local authority) in both the north west and northern
regions, who have all had very high visitor numbers since the start of the
year.
So what is happening? It is not ascribable (at least not totally) to the two
current TV series, as the rise started before they kicked in. Is the
increase happening all over the UK and Ireland, and is it happening not only
to local authority offices, but also in universities and specialist
repositories?
Comments and views awaited with interest.
Bruce Jackson
Lancashire Record Office
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