Dear all,
As I mentioned at our meeting on Wednesday, there is a chance to get
involved with the first steps of the digital archiving project for those who
are interested.
The project steering committee met today and I can now tell you more about
how we move forward.
I am copying this email to the project technical consultant, Hilary Roberts,
who will advise on the inventory creation.
To that end Hilary proposes three initial meetings, each with two volunteers
who wish to be involved - one meeting in each of the archive locations
(Farnham Herald offices, Museum of Farnham and Museum of Farnham off-site
store). Those two volunteers will then be able to lead and advise others in
subsequent meetings to carry out the actual inventory.
The reason we are limiting each initial meeting to two volunteers is purely
physical and to ensure health and safety in the confined spaces in which the
archive is currently housed (those of you who have already been involved in
archive searches will appreciate the limited space available in each
location).
So this is the first call for those who would like to be involved to let me
know that interest. The work will involve completion of a relatively simple
spreadsheet showing what each archive consists of and its condition plus its
actual location. Hilary will advise how to go about this recording and what
level of detail is needed in a live situation at each location. Attached are
examples of a general inventory spreadsheet and an introduction prepared by
Hilary for your interest.
Over the next couple of weeks Hilary will let me know her available dates
for each meeting and I will then get back in touch with you to see who can
attend on which dates.
Currently the steering committee is meeting on a monthly basis and the
intention is to make sure the three initial inventory visits have taken
place by the date of our June meeting at the beginning of the month.
(Obviously compiling the inventory itself will take somewhat longer but this
is a very important task as it sets out the full extent of the whole project
and allows us to quantify various aspects for resources and time required.)
I hope that all makes sense and look forward to hearing from those
interested in taking part soon.
Thanks,
Chris
(PS This is in addition to helping with the searches on behalf of enquirers
which will continue regularly and which I am very thankful for your ongoing
help!)
Chris Shepheard
Chris.shepheard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
