About 12 months ago there was a brief discussion on this list about record
numbers of visitors to repositories.
I have just been doing some comparative statistics for the financial years
2000/2001 and 2001/2002 for West Sussex Record Office and find that we have
had a significant decrease in visitor numbers in the past year, namely a
ten per cent fall from our record high in 2000/2001.
I would like to know whether other local authority record offices have
experienced a similar decline and if so what the reasons for this may be.
My initial thoughts are that the extra interest in local history and record
offices that was generated in 2000/2001 by the millennium was not sustained
and that foot and mouth disease curtailed record office tourism during the
Spring and early Summer 2001 and possibly was exacerbated by September 11.
Richard Childs
County Archivist
West Sussex Record Office
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