A new initiative was launched last week at The Houses of Parliament with a joint project by The Archives and Records Association (UK and Ireland) and The National Archives to raise awareness of archives, their value to society and the impact they have, every day, on individual lives.
Clem Brohier, Acting Chief Executive of The National Archives, was joined by MPs, Lords, archivists, guests and campaign ambassadors at the parliamentary launch, hosted by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Archives and History.
The campaign is aiming to encourage people to visit archives. So far, hundreds of local, specialist and national archives across the UK and Ireland have been holding events, open days and exhibitions to showcase highlights from their collections.
Caroline Williams, President of The Archives and Records Association remarked: "Public awareness of the role of archives is essential. Especially in the difficult times we find ourselves in. There are too many people who do not understand what an archive is or what an archivist does. We hope this campaign will bring many new people to an archive - in person or online."
There's more details on the initiative at: http://www.exploreyourarchive.org/
Acting Chief Executive of The National Archives, Clem Brohier, introduces the new initiative
Here at Family History Social, we've just received the latest e-mail news from S&N Genealogy Supplies with the latest developments.
Firstly, there's news of the new release of nearly 500,000 Royal Navy and Merchant Seamen Ship Crew records on TheGenealogist, now available to view.There's also some great offers on archival products and new data CDs now available.
There's an article on royal babies and the new series of Who Do You Think You Are? and a special research offer to subscribe to TheGenealogist available for a limited time. It’s all available here.
What's been happening at The National Archives can be seen in their new communications release entitled 'a year in archives 2012-13'. To find out what's been going on in archive services all over the country over the last year and to see future plans go the National Archives website.
From funding to community archive heritage projects, it's definitely an interesting read.
Browsing on You Tube this week, I notice S&N Genealogy Supplies have been active promoting their new Springback binders. Having purchased a couple the other week, I can testify how good they are but do take a look for yourself. The link is here with a full demonstration on how to use the binders.
The fire over the weekend on the roof of the National Library of Wales seems to have unfortunately damaged some of the new collections housed there. The fire broke out on the roof and the water used to put out the flames unfortunately soaked through and damaged some of the valuable collections stored there.
The library has millions of books plus manuscripts, archives, maps, pictures, photographs, films and music.
Some of the damaged items have been taken to Oxford by a team of salvage experts to hopefully restore. There's more at the BBC website.
Here's our tip for the week. Once you have collected those precious documents, photos and other memorabilia as part of your family history research, it's worth remembering to keep it safe and protected! For example, standard PVC sleeves can suffer from leaching of plasticizer, which will lift print off pages and ruin your valuable material.
To ensure that your collection of certificates and research documents are preserved in pristine condition, they should be kept in specialist binders with inert, archival quality sleeves. This keeps them in the best condition possible whilst still making them accessible, should you need to check your sources or share your research with friends and family.
I use the binders from S&N Genealogy Supplies. I particularly like the new A4 Springback binders they offer. Unlike ring binders, you don't have to punch any holes in the paper - you simply choose the sheets you want, fold the covers of the binder back, and place the paper into the spine. You can add or remove pages as many times as you like.
This binder has hardback covers with an acid-free lining, and has a 25mm capacity, which can hold up to 200 A4 pages. There's more details available here. Do you have any tips or advice that you use to protect all your valuable research?
