Digitization of Schools Admission Registers 1870 – 1914
One of the first practical responses to the Government Archives for the 21st Century document has been the establishment of a working group by ACALG ( the Association of Chief Archivists in Local Government) with strong support and co-operation from the National Archives to investigate the possibility of looking at large scale digitisation projects involving large numbers of archive services. The hope is that this will encourage wider participation, particularly from smaller repositories, or services not currently engaged in large scale digitisation who may be a bit wary of taking the first steps down the mass digitization highway. At this stage, the work is limited to England and Wales, but if a workable model can be found then the scope may be wider in future.
We are currently working to identify the first large group of records which would form the core of an initial project to test how successfully such an approach would work, and engage with on-line commercial access providers. At this point the strongest contender appears to be Schools Admission registers covering the years 1870 to 1914. These are name rich and held in many local authority offices, offering the opportunity to interest the commercial companies but also engage a large number of archive services. By working to a cut-off date of 1914 we seek to minimise any Data Protection issues.
The working group is aware that such records are not only held in local authority offices, and are keen to involve other archives such as schools or charities who may hold such records. If you would like to be involved, and hold such records relating to schools in England and Wales, then please contact me and I will pass on your details to the regional co-ordinator for your area. Email : [log in to unmask]
Bruce Jackson
Lancashire Record Office
19 April 2010
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