To follow up on Susan and Tamsin's points - all of which have my support.
The uncharged access time is not continuous. This may be ok for local researchers, but not for those coming from further afield needing extensive access to many documents in collections.
Northamptonshire has a very fine collection of estate records, and I think I am right in saying that very few of the records in these collections will have been digitised or made available online. The new charges will either result in academic or other researchers having to pay for afternoon access to ensure a solid day's work, or factor in additional travelling costs and short bursts of working. This assumes that they - or if they have one - their academic bodies being able or willing to meet the fees.
There is no two ways round it - charging for access is a barrier to use and the thinnest of covers for reductions in service hours that ought to be seen as below the standards expected for a county archive service. Sadly these won't be reflected in the CIPFA statistics as anyone consulting recent issues will see that Northamptonshire has refused to send in figures for the last few years.
I would be interested to see what Northamptonshire councillors were told about likely income projection figures - and what research was done to see what income would be brought in. While it is difficult to raise money in archive services, it is always better to get people in first and then look to see how they can be persuaded to spend on site. Or, in the case of remote users, through effective online product offers, either directly through the council website, or if the local government IT folk aren't up to this, through an online commercial partner. In Northamptonshire's case I suspect that any projected income target from charges is unlikely to be met and that under used collections at NRO will continue to be underused and difficult to promote. I recognise that visitor use is dropping in all record offices - though to some extent personal visits can be offset by promoting group use - but this measure will disproportionately decrease personal visits still further.
Time in the future permitting I have a research project that will involve working in a number of archive services with good estate collections for a comparative study. The new hours and charges would eliminate Northamptonshire from my list.
David Mander OBE
159 Alexandra Park Road
London N22 7UL
020 8889 4353
07970 215851
-----Original Message-----
From: Archivists, conservators and records managers. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Daniel Williams
Sent: 27 July 2017 09:57
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Northamptonshire Archives Services
STATEMENT ON NORTHAMPTONSHIRE ARCHIVES AND HERITAGE SERVICE OPENING HOURS
Northamptonshire County Council is responsible for making sure that limited and reducing local government resources are used as effectively as possible. In the current financial climate, it has no option but to look at how best to remodel service delivery with reduced budgets.
The Archives Service changes to opening hours that will be implemented from 21 August show a commitment to maintaining free public access to archives. The service will continue to be free for on-site visitors from 9am to 1pm Tuesday to Thursday and one Saturday morning each month.
Customers have said that they most need and want online access to resources; numbers visiting the service in person have fallen dramatically in the past two years. This has been taken into account in this revision to opening hours and the intention is that outside the core opening hours, the service’s limited staff resources will be redirected to the work of digitisation and developing on-line access to archives.
In order to mitigate the impact on research of the changes, the service has in fact extended the times during which people can choose to visit. These additional hours are chargeable but are offered in order to support researchers and not otherwise.
This is a bold step in difficult times and we seek your support as we work to ensure that researchers can enjoy and learn from our rich collections now and into the future.
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