FFHS-NEWS Changes to services at The National Archives

[News from the Federation of Family History Societies]

Changes to services at The National Archives 

 

Further to my recent email, we have today received from Jenny Cottle, Senior
Brand Manager, The National Archives the following details of the changes
being made at Kew.

 

1)      From 4 January 2010 our reading rooms will be open five days a week
(Tuesday to Saturday), with longer opening on the days we are open. From 5
January 2010, our opening and document ordering times will be as shown in
the table below. 

 


 

Opening times

Document ordering times


Monday

Closed

n/a


Tuesday

09:00 – 19:00

09:00 – 17:00


Wednesday

09:00 – 17:00

09:00 – 16:15


Thursday

09:00 – 19:00

09:00 – 17:00


Friday

09:00 – 17:00

09:00 – 16:15


Saturday

09:00 – 17:00

09:00 – 16:15


Sunday

Closed

n/a

 

We recognise that this change may inconvenience some of our visitors, but
our research shows less than 0.5% of our readers use our facilities for six
consecutive days a week. We are committed to and will continue to support
high quality scholarly research at our facilities in Kew, including services
for the academic community.

 

2)      A charge will be introduced for use of our public car park. From
April 2010, there will be a charge of £5 per day and discounted annual
tickets will be available (savings will be dependent on the emissions level
of the car).. In addition we will be allocating a limited number of free
tickets to regular unpaid volunteers, who are making a significant
contribution on key projects.

 

3)      We will move some more of our microfilm and microfiche records to
storage at the end of this year, providing primary access in our reading
rooms through digital means. This is part of a ongoing programme that has
been running for several years to replace film and fiche with digital
images. We will continue to work with our commercial partners to ensure even
higher levels of accuracy of the indexing information provided. For those
who need to see the microform it will still be available, on request.

 

4)      We will also ensure our records experts are available to our
visitors when they are most needed.  Following consultation we will continue
to provide expert advice in the Map and Large Document reading room for all
the hours we are open. Elsewhere records expertise will be focused on busier
periods of the day, when it is most needed. 

 

5)      We will be introducing the new streamlined online record copying
service in late 2009/early 2010. This will help simplify the current online
and telephone ordering processes. 

 

Further information can be found at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/changes.

 

Roger Lewry

FFHS Archives Liaison

exec.member.rl at ffhs.org.uk

28 September 2009

 

The Federation of Family History Societies is a Company Limited by Guarantee

Company Number 2930189 (England & Wales) - Registered Charity Number 1038721

Registered Office: Artillery House, 15 Byrom Street, Manchester, England M3
4PF

 

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