For what it is worth, here at Bury (Greater Manchester) numbers were up
last year (311 to 360): the low overall numbers make single years an
unreliable indicator, but taking the longer term trend, I would say our
numbers are slowly increasing. In our case, I suspect this is because the
structural problems of services in the Mets (and especially the NW) have
meant that historically, archive services have been underutilized, and that
we are now simply catching up with the rest of the country.
With regard to the trend which Richard has noticed, I wonder if there is any
link with a statistic I saw recently reported in the Guardian, to the effect
that the proportion of people, even in older age groups, indulging in
non-vocational learning has drastically decrease, since this is precisely
the type of person likely to be using record offices. I think it is more
likely that the Millennium has masked a structural problem like this than
that September 11 th had had much effect - unless other offices are getting
a far higher proportion of foreigners than we are here. Again, I am a bit
sceptical about foot and mouth: however, one could presumably check this up
by more detailed analysis of monthly figures in relation to the timing of
the outbreak.
Other factors may include the rapid spread of the internet, and more
particularly of on-line genealogical sources. Of course, we know that
relatively few of the relevant sources are available on line yet, but this
may not be how it strikes the novice family historian: it may be anecdotal,
but I have been struck by a number of cases where people have expressed
surprise that there are genealogical sources not on the web. Whereas in the
past these people would have been forced to visit at the very least a main
local library or the local registrar in order to get started, they can now
get a fair way (perhaps far enough to satisfy them) without leaving home,
and certainly without leaving town.
Another possibility is the squeeze on school time for history etc: we were
starting to build up a small clientele of local schools here in Bury, but
things have been very quiet on that front this year.
Kevin Mulley
Bury Archive Service
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