Dear all,

 

 As promised at the MCG business meeting held in Cambridge 8.9.10…

 

Paula

 

Paula Williams

Map Curator

National Library of Scotland

 

BCS Map Curators' Group Meeting, Wednesday 8 September 2010

 

Report from The National Archives

 

Temporary closure of Map and Large Document Reading Room

 

The reading rooms at Kew will be undergoing some redevelopment over the next few months. Key changes to the Map and Large Document Reading Room on the second floor are: a new document collection area, new map tables and significant improvements to the lighting. To allow for these improvements to be carried out, the Map and Large Document Reading Room is scheduled to be closed for two weeks, from Tuesday 30 November to Saturday 11 December inclusive. Further information about this work is available on our website at: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/visit/reading-room-changes.htm.

 

Accessions and government records management

 

Ordnance Survey

The phased move of Ordnance Survey to its new headquarters is planned to take place between October and the end of 2010. The resultant programme of records review and disposal is contributing many records to our holdings at TNA. Approximately 80,000 new descriptions in 27 different record series are being added to our online catalogue; about 60,000 of these relate to maps.

 

UK Hydrographic Office

Following the retirement of Phillip Clayton-Gore, there is a new team of information and records staff at UKHO. The new team is to visit TNA shortly for a behind-the-scenes visit. The accessioning of UKHO records into TNA is continuing.

 

Historic Royal Palaces

Historic Royal Palaces are preparing a list of records to be transferred to TNA relating to the restoration of Hampton Court Palace after the fire in 1986.

 

Talks and events

 

Maps have continued to feature in the onsite public talks series. Dr Richard Oliver gave expert talks on Town Plans (in November 2009) and on Ordnance Survey records (in February 2010), both featuring the archive’s holdings as researched during Exeter University projects, and in May Andrew Janes gave a talk on how to search for maps, at The National Archives and other institutions. Rose Mitchell spoke in February at a Royal Geographical Society event on maps for family and local history, and Andrew Janes spoke about 'maps as a recordkeeping technology' at the I-CHORA5 conference in July.

 

In October 2009 we enjoyed a visit from members of the Charles Close Society. In July 2010 we hosted an afternoon as part of the London Rare Books School's History of Cartography course, including talks by Professor Roger Kain (University of London School of Advanced Study) and Rose Mitchell. We look forward to welcoming the International Map Collectors' Society in October.

 

Innovations in access

 

Clickable index map for Valuation Office survey maps

As part of TNA's Resource Discovery Programme, we are developing a clickable electronic index map to the Valuation Office Survey maps. The Valuation Office Survey was made for tax purposes following the 1910 Budget and gives a fascinating glimpse into place and society in Edwardian England and Wales. The record maps serve as means of reference to more than 95,000 Field Books describing the owners, occupiers, use and values of some nine million individual houses, farms and other properties. Finding the map in itself has up to now been a complex multi-stage search, but the new online tool allows users to find our document reference for each map sheet just by clicking on the right place on the interactive index map. A beta test version is currently available on our website at: http://labs.nationalarchives.gov.uk/maps/valuation.html.

 

Tithe apportionments

The tithe apportionments (record series IR 29) are text documents which, together with the tithe maps, form the Tithe Survey of c1840. These are currently accessed as microfilm surrogates. We plan to digitise the microfilm images and make them available free of charge on the Documents Online section of our website.

 

Eunice Gill, Rose Mitchell and Andrew Janes

 

6 September 2010