Dear Zak,

 

The US National Archives has made a clear statement about public-facing service closures in the face of COVID-19: https://www.archives.gov/coronavirus

 

Then again, today at 16.55 the Prime Minister’s press conference should have removed any sense of doubt about the temporary closure of archives services to the public. The next challenge is Agile working to allow archive staff to work from home.

 

Ian Wakeling

Records, Archive and Data Protection Manager

Data Protection Officer

The Children’s Society

 

 

 

Colleagues,

I write under a pseudonym and ask to keep discussions open using the boards and twitter. I want to enquire as to how many archive services have temporarily closed their public services in the face of the virus outbreak within the United Kingdom.

I am in an extremely difficult position. Being the only archivist for an organisation, there is pressure on me to keep the service open unless otherwise instructed / changes to government advice. However, I have a growing pressure to work remotely due to real family concerns. Unfortunately that will result in the closure of archive services certainly until after Easter. My difficulty is I have zero staff support to maintain any service, and my salary is linked to maintaining that service.

I’ve already followed Government advice and asked stakeholders I know who have just returned from Europe, and those with a medical history, to postpone visits until after Easter. Indeed, on Monday I shall be recommending to management our closure until after Easter because the risk is growing for me personally & our stakeholders.

Especially since many of our stakeholders are over 60, and we share a building with multiple workers with equal chance of exposure. Our services are also used by large amounts of local and international students from various universities. Like everyone, I am also worried about my salary by taking this action!

As a profession, we all need to seriously question whether it is appropriate to be maintaining a justified open public service in present circumstances. It would be helpful if good archivist souls can use public forums such as twitter to have this conversation, or report if any archive services are closed. I have seen many American institutions use twitter to announce closure periods.

I feel safer in justifying my actions if a number of fellow professionals / archive bodies are performing the same action. At the moment I might be imagining this, there feels like a desperate need to remain open within the United Kingdom, unless people actively stand up and close up shop (much like football clubs have). It’s just the right thing to do.

How many people use the London Underground to access the National Archives. How many of our visitors use public transport, who do they come into contact with. Equally how do we travel, who do we come into contact, is it reasonable to assume we won’t transmit the virus to our stakeholders?

Best wishes
Zak

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