Joining up our Heritage

Newsletter March 2010

Important Notice

This is a slightly premature newsletter for March, but with good reason. You may or may not be aware that the reception area of Record Office is just about to have a ‘makeover’. In the meantime, there is going to be considerable disruption to our normal service, which you need to be particularly aware of if you are planning to visit the Record Office during the next few weeks or if you are a regular volunteer.

At various times the toilets, tea room and classroom are going to be out of action. I’m sorry to say that I’m not able to give you a precise timetable of what is going to happen. All I know is once the work has started it will last for a few weeks.

In addition to this, I will be on leave from Monday, 22^nd March until Wednesday, 31^st. If you plan to come to the Record Office during this period, it would be worth ringing the Record Office reception desk (01243 753602) and check the facilities available. Please bear in mind that I won’t be around to switch computers on in advance or to give you any help and my volunteers are not the responsibility of other Record Office staff in my absence.

I think the bottom line is, if you can manage without me being here and have a strong bladder – please come.

We want to enter a competition!

The National Council on Archives in partnership with several other organisations, has introduced a new award for the National Archive Volunteering Project of the Year. I quote:

‘The Award is designed to celebrate the contribution of volunteers within the archive sector and to promote good practice in volunteering, in line with the recommendations of the NCA’s ‘Volunteering in Archives’ report, published in June 2009.’ See:

http://nca.org.uk/materials/volunteeringinarchivesfinal.pdf’

We think the Joining up our Heritage Project should be entered because of the essential and unique role that volunteers play in the project. We actually think that the project should win, but we may be a bit biased…

One of the things we have have to submit on our application are some ‘quotes’ from volunteers involved in the project on them. So if there has been any positive impact or outcome for you as a result of participating in the project, please could you send it to me by the 18^th March. Thank you.

Glossary

During the course of the Tithe Maps Project I compiled a preliminary glossary of words and terms found in the apportionments that need some interpretation or description. This was added to the web pages for people to look at. The glossary is going to be expanded and added to the new project databases. If there are words or terms you come across during the next few months that you think might need an explanation, please send them to me. Please note, this only refers to the tithe maps and apportionments. It wouldn’t be possible to include terms relating to all archive documents.

The Saga of the Memory Sticks

Unfortunately, this is not yet completely resolved. I would like to remind people that the only memory sticks that can be used on the computers in the Record Office are the ones I provide. If you bring your laptop in I’m afraid you won’t be allowed to put these sticks into your machine due to possible cross contamination (please don’t take this personally!).

Finally —

‘So, who are the volunteers?’

Percy Allen

Percy was worried. He thought that maybe the only reason I was giving him tasks to do was to keep him off the streets. I reassured him that he is an essential worker.

Percy was part of the volunteer team for the Tithe Maps project. Every week he came in one day a week and tirelessly transcribed apportionments for several hours at a time. He was missed during the time he was unwell and had a spell in hospital, but he eventually bounced back to do more. I think that is amazing and inspiring for one who is 92!

I was delighted when Percy said he would like to be part of the Joining up our Heritage Project. Every Wednesday he comes in on the bus from Bognor to Chichester (except when I banned him because of

the snow). He is one of the regulars coming to the Record Office to record information held here for all the tithe map databases. The task requires patience and persistence, but between them they have covered a huge amount of ground.

As for Percy – I’m counting on him to put his name down for the next project.