Exactly with people loosing their livelyhoods etc moaning about TNA seems somewhat gratuitous which is the point I was trying to make in a light hearted manner Because of certain conditions I've not been able to leave the house apart from hospital visits since March but one has to put up with inconvenience when there is a pandemic on.
The livelihoods I'm referring to are professional researchers on this forum who are being crushed by this new system. Aspects of which, like document limits appeared to be coming in anyway, regardless of virology. If there is no resistance to what's apparently going on at the NA, then many with far greater expertise & experience than I fear a substantial threat to historical research. It's probably not the place to take the piss. Though, while billions seem to be being magicked up from everywhere, wouldn't it be nice if they threw a few million at a proper digitisation system... Side note: been wondering about that. Having been a nation that's been keeping mass detailed written records, including an empire, for so long; I wonder at the scale of the Archives by comparison to, eg. Australia (where the digitisation seems good). Wonder if there's any relative country comparisons of tonnage needing scanning out there.
Kew is a law unto itself. Actually, a large part of their job is in relation to UK Legislation and some dreadful sounding software to do with drafting of new legislation. They have Directors and Non-Executive Directors but both bodies fail to publish minutes of their monthly meetings within a few weeks of the meeting. They could be working hard to give a better service but they like to keep it secret. The latest Directors' meeting minutes was for a meeting in April 2020. The latest Non-executive meeting minutes are for June 2020, although they are more detailed than their previous efforts. Links here: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/executive-team-minutes-2020-04.pdf https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/board-minutes-2020-06.pdf
How really, really depressing. The demise of great public institutions such as Kew is like watching the passing of an old friend.
There was a good point in that research isn’t worth other people’s health . BUT . If it was closed, full stop . Fair enough . But if it’s open , which it is , a system has to be workable . Which it isn’t . I tried again last Monday . All spots for the following weeks gone as soon as the button changed color again at 10:00 hours . That’s 6 weeks I’ve sat there at 10:00 on the Monday and failed every time
I'm hoping to go some time in November after a reasonably successful trip in September, but clearly I won't be too optimistic about getting a slot this time round. I'll have my finger hovering over the button at 0959. Regards Tom