Archived decisions
HAMPSHIRE RECORD OFFICE
HOW WE DID
2002/03
This report shows how the Record Office performed and how it used its resources during the period 1 April 2002 to 31 March 2003. We hope that this information will help you to comment on any aspect of our service and in particular on whether you think we are making good use of the resources provided by our Council Tax payers - and of course by all who place their archives in our care.
Where available, the figure for the previous year 2001/02 is shown for comparison in brackets in the text.
Review of 2002/03
This year was again exceptional in many respects. The post of County Archivist remained vacant until September 2002. Staff sickness absences and staff turnover in this year were higher than normal, and several new staff were appointed. Nevertheless, the service continued to maintain its high standards, and this was recognised in October with the renewal of the Government's Charter Mark Award to Hampshire Record Office for excellence in public service.
One of our aims is to increase access to our services and we took major steps in this direction this year with the appointment of two new staff for data inputting. As more information is made available to users through CALM and the web site, we anticipate that visitor numbers to HRO may remain largely static, but use of the web site will continue to grow.
Customer Services
The number of visits to the searchroom, and the number of microform records seen, declined slightly from last year's figures, but the number of original documents studied has increased.
Visitors: 19,800 (20,415)
Documents produced: 32,280 (28,830)
Microform seen: 560,859 (592,723)
Use of the web site in 2002/03 totalled 57,337 hits - an increase of 18% on the previous year's total of 48,414.
Our standard: we will make records available in the public searchroom within 20 minutes of being ordered. Without our computerised document ordering system, we depend largely on customer comments for knowing how often we fail in this. We missed the target on just 41(9)occasions during the year- a success rate of 99.9%.
Complaints and compliments
Complaints: 32 (37)
Compliments: 115 (76)
This includes complaints received in letters, those recorded on suggestions and comments forms, and oral complaints or comments made to members of staff. Subjects of complaint included noise in the searchroom, temperature and atmosphere in the searchroom, the quality and filing of microfiche, disabled access to the toilets, staff helpfulness and the provision of inadequate or inaccurate information. By contrast there were three times as many letters and comments which were specifically given to compliment the service, many of them commenting favourably on aspects of the service about which others had complained.
· Our standard: we will follow up all complaints and send at least an initial answer within five working days. We achieved this target on every occasion this year - 100% success.
Enquiries about our holdings
Letter enquiries received: 829 (972)
E-mail enquiries received: 2,680 (1,992)
Telephone enquiries: 4,251 (4,624)
These figures show that although visitor numbers to the searchroom have declined slightly, remote enquiries are increasing. These are increasingly arriving electronically rather than by letter or telephone, and this trend is expected to continue as the web site is further developed. No figures are given this year for paid research, as the service was suspended. It is to be re-instated under new guidelines in July 2003.
· Our standard: we will answer postal enquiries within seven working days of receiving them. We missed the target on just 52 (72) occasions this year, a success rate of 98.5%.
Copies
Photocopies / microform print-outs made: 28,798 (31,647)
Orders by post: 527 (497) Photographs made: 208 (509)
Microfiche sold: 7,674 (8,958) Microfilm frames sold: 1,490 (1,810)
Our standard: we will complete on the same day orders for photocopies placed at the time documents are seen. We will complete and send out other orders for photocopies and microform print-outs within ten working days, except in the case of very large orders, when we will give an estimate of the time to be taken. This year 2 (1) orders missed the target - a success rate of 99.6%..
The records
· Accessions received: 331 (399)
· Accessions received in Wessex Film and Sound Archive: 107 (119)
· Individual collections catalogued (i.e. new accessions and whole collections listed from backlog, but not additions to existing deposits): 132 (113)
· Boxes of uncatalogued material at year end: 2275 (2765)
· % of accessions of four boxes and under listed within a year of receipt: 95% (95.5%)
Accessions received during the year
Some major or interesting acquisitions this year include the following:
East Meon manor presentment books, 1754-1890 (68A02/1-2)
Records of Houseman Rohan and Benner, solicitors, 1735-1930s (76A02), including records of Merdon manor, 1735 and 1787-1904
Records of Petersfield United Reformed Church, 1799-1958 (91A02)
Papers of Gamblin and Pearson families of Bishops Waltham and Cawte family of Shirrell Heath, 1863-1948 (92A02), including National Registration Act 1915 records for Droxford Rural District
Records of London and South Western, later Southern Railway, 1835-1982 (104A02)
Cataloguing
Major new catalogues created this year include the Automobile Association archive (73M94), the Sherwood papers (106M87), records of Crowley's Brewery, Alton (21M92) and the papers of the White family of Ampfield (100M99)
Improvements were made to the catalogues of Winchester bishopric manor court books (11M59/C2) and Diocese of Winchester Parsonage House Committee records (56M82).
· Our standard: we will send receipts for records within five working days. Our success rate this year was 96.4%. We aim to list accessions of four boxes and fewer within a year of receipt. We achieved this with 95% of accessions.
Conservation and preservation
Paper documents repaired: 633 (371)
Parchment documents repaired: 10 (9)
Maps/plans repaired: 38 (11)
Volumes repaired 2 (6)
Hours of work for outside bodies 123 (40)
The quantity of work involved in each of these assignments varies greatly. For example, one of the volumes repaired involved 56 separate pages of extensive paper repair work. Particular highlights of the work of the conservation team this year have included 519 paper 18th century accounts which had suffered serious damage from damp, a very fragile 14th century parchment compotus (account) roll from the Winchester Cathedral archives, a 16th century office act book, and estate and enclosure maps from the 19th century.
Work has been carried out for Hampshire County Museums Service, the Dean and Chapter of Winchester and Winchester College Archives. Conservation and preservation survey work has been undertaken and important packaging work has continued.
The programme for making microform copies available for use in place of original documents has also continued and the long-term project to microfilm our probate records has been successfully completed.
Similar work takes place in Wessex Film and Sound Archive and this year 214 films, 556 videos and 531 audio tapes were copied for public use.
outreach
· Talks and lectures: 87 (84)
· Total attendance at talks and lectures: 2,545 (2,106)
· Talks and lectures to education groups: 40 (40)
· Total attendance at education talks and lectures: 578 (621)
· Exhibitions and displays arranged: 40 (50)
· Contributions to radio and television programmes: 22 (22)
· Hampshire Archives Trust membership at 31 March 2003: 556 (556)
Our Meet the Archivist sessions across the county continued to prove highly popular and were attended by 237 (228) visitors. For Local History Week (4-12 May) we offered a variety of events inside and outside HRO, including three lunchtime lectures (on the Swing Riots, house history and early archive films) and an exhibition on sources for local history. Wessex Film and Sound Archive film shows were held at Ringwood, at Portsmouth Central Library and at Winchester Library.
The Open Day in September with its fun activities for children attracted over 200 visitors including a high proportion of first-timers.
Highlights of the exhibition programme this year included Through the Eyes of a Child, a celebration of childhood across the centuries, and From Glamis to Gosport, commemorating Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother; this included many photographs and video footage.
Publications
Our commitment to encouraging and promoting the publication of local historical studies continued and the following new publications appeared during the year:
· Hampshire Paper 23, Stand-off in the Solent: the American Civil War comes to Hampshire, by Michael Hughes (2002)
· Hampshire Paper 24, The Medieval Bishops of Winchester: Estate, Archive and Administration, by Mark Page (2002)
Sales of publications were as follows:
Hampshire Papers: 3,759 (3,334)
Hampshire Record Series: 166 (160)
Portsmouth Record Series: 31 (129)
His Majesty's Monitor M33: 178 (55)
Lord Denning/French Connection: 18 (22)
Older than England: 13 (17)
Microfiche publications: 74 (81)
Partnerships
We continued to work in close partnership with bodies within and beyond the county. In many cases we care for their records. In others we help the communities they represent to understand and enjoy their heritage. Many such bodies show their support through membership of Hampshire Archives Trust.
Examples of partnership include:
· Winchester City Council, which funds part of an archivist's post
· Winchester College, which employs a part-time archivist who also works at the Record Office, greatly improving access to this important archive.
· The University of Durham, which works with us in managing the Winchester Pipe Rolls Project. This opens up one of the most important collections in the Record Office, the manorial accounts of the Bishops of Winchester, dating from the thirteenth century.
· Screen South, the film and media agency for the South of England, which has funded a part time post to help with the cataloguing of WFSA `s film archives.
our budget
Our annual revenue budget, that is the money we received from Hampshire County Council, totalled £1,567,300 in 2002/2003. In addition we received income from the sale of publications, and fees for photocopies and microform etc amounting to £39,700. This figure was lower than the previous year, due largely to the temporary suspension of the paid research service as a result of staffing difficulties.
Our total expenditure was £1,607,000 made up as follows:
Employees £730,000
Premises £183,900
Transport £1,400
Supplies and services £93,300
Grants £8,400
Capital Charges £590,000
Employees
Our greatest single expenditure item relates to staff. On 31 March 2003, there were 38 staff (30 full time equivalents) on the Record Office establishment. Full time equivalents are shown in brackets:
Management team 6 (6)
Archivists (including WFSA) 9 (8.5)
Archives assistants 13 (8.33) Records manager 1 (1)
Reception/clerical 3 (3)
Archives/clerical 1 (.47)
assistant
Conservation/technical 5 (5)
In addition there were 3 (2.5) project staff (separately funded) and 4 casual assistants.
There is considerable overlap between the work of the different groups of staff. Five of the management team members are archivists and one has a background in education. Very broadly the archives assistants and receptionists spend much of their time looking after customers; the archivists are engaged in this but also sort and catalogue the collections and participate in the outreach programme; and the conservators and technical staff work on the whole range of records that are damaged or fragile - from parchment and paper to film and sound recordings - so that customers can use them.
As ever, all staff have participated in (and many have contributed towards) the Record Office's training programme. The programme is developed with a view to delivering a continuously improving service and ensuring that staff are kept up to date with new developments in technology, technical skills and legislation affecting archives.
From March 2002, the Record Office has been linked with the county's Museums Service in a new grouping for Museums and Archives, headed by Stephen Locke. This sits within the Recreation and Heritage Department under the leadership of Yinnon Ezra, Director.
A highlight of our year with respect to staffing was to receive project funding from the Department of Recreation and Heritage for two new temporary posts for data-inputting. This will help us to achieve our target of completing the electronic conversion of all our catalogues, using CALM, within the next 18 months. As soon as CALM is available on the web - expected very shortly - we will have taken a major step towards achieving our aim of making our collections widely accessible to users both within Hampshire and beyond.
Supplies and services
Supplies and services is the other major element of the budget. This includes most of the purchases not directly associated with the running of the building, i.e. the purchase of equipment and materials, printing and stationery, telephones and postage.
It also includes our spending on support and development of Information Technology (£39,585 this year).
Grants
Our budget for providing partnership funding to external bodies is limited, but we make small grants to support the work of a number of local and national organisations. Grants were given this year to the following:
British Records Association Records Preservation £800 Friends of the National Libraries £500
Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society £1,300 Southern History £100
In addition, Hampshire County Council makes an annual grant to Hampshire Archives Trust which also covers the running of Wessex Film and Sound Archive. The Archives Trust acts as the Record Office's outreach arm and carries out survey and rescue work on archives held elsewhere in the county.
The British Records Association
Records Preservation Section
carries out survey and rescue work nationally and the Record Office receives many collections from this source; the Friends of the National Libraries gives grants towards the purchase of manuscripts; the grants to Hampshire Field Club and Southern History aid their publishing of local history relating to Hampshire.
Grants received
We received funding for two projects this year:
· A small grant of £500 from SEMLAC (the South East regional body for Museums, Libraries and Archives) for an educational project using seal-casting and paper-making. This will aim to develop knowledge, skills and understanding of those processes in the context of Hampshire's archive heritage. It will blend history with art and design, providing a starting point for additional practical work using a range of images and stories from the archives.
· A grant of £78,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the Hampshire Photographic Project, which will preserve, digitise and mount on the Internet 10,000 photographic images from a range of organisations (including HRO) across Hampshire. This project will run for 19 months and project staff will be appointed during summer 2003.
If you have any questions or comments about this report, or about our services generally,
we would be pleased to hear from you.
Hampshire Record Office
Sussex Street, Winchester SO23 8TH
Tel: 01962 846154
Fax: 01962 878681
www.hants.gov.uk/record-office
