We are pleased to announce the release of an improved front end to the
National Register of Archives database. There are now three options to
be found at
http://www.hmc.gov.uk/nra/nra2.htm
1) Browse and search http://www.hmc.gov.uk/nra/browser/browserhome.htm
is designed for first time users who do not wish to use a keyboard to
input search terms. It is assumed that they will have a working
knowledge of the alphabet and be able to distinguish between persons,
corporate bodies and families. Otherwise all they have to do is click
their way through complete alphabetical listings of the NRA (about
150,000 records). We are registering these pages with the main search
engines, so that general searches on the names of individuals etc will
be directed to the NRA and via ARCHON to the appropriate repositories.
2) Simple search http://www.hmc.gov.uk/nra/simple.htm retrieves by any
elements of personal, corporate, family or place names.
3) Detailed search http://www.hmc.gov.uk/nra/detail.htm offers complex
interrogation of the Business, Organisations, Personal and Family
indexes of the NRA. On the Business Index, for example, there are drop
down lists for the sectors and subsectors of business activity and for
counties in the British Isles. These can be searched in conjunction
with elements of the firm's name, town and date of records. Thus a
search of Engineering : Mechanical; Shipbuilding and Marine
Engineering; Northumberland; 1850 retrieves the records of Armstrong
Whitworth(10 groups of records), Hawthorn Leslie (9 groups) and Swan
Hunter (6 groups).
Current usage statistics indicate that for the year 2000-2001 the
Commission's website can expect 500,000 visitors, 3,500,000 hits and 25
gigabytes of data served.
The next stage in the development of the NRA is to link the
descriptions of records directly to on-line catalogues as these are
mounted by repositories or on the various UK archival networks like
Access to Archives and the HE Hub.
I will be pleased to receive any comments on the NRA and suggestions as
to how we may better improve the service.
Dick Sargent
Director of the National Register of Archives
Historical Manuscripts Commission
Quality House, Quality Court,
Chancery Lane
London WC2A 1HP
tel 020 7242 1198
fax 020 7831 3550
email [log in to unmask]
website http://www.hmc.gov.uk
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|