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Toolkit: Maps & plans

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The perfect tool for showing how a geographic location changes through time and a useful tool to interpret other resources, including directories and photographs. 

“All good adventures begin with a map”, Treasure Island

Guide to resources inside and outside your collection

There are a wide variety of maps, although most people think of Ordnance Survey, and that is usually what they want.

Printed – engravings of town plans, Ordnance Survey and other published maps which are sold and for which there are numerous copies. Some may be annotated by their owner before being passed on e.g by the planning department

Manuscript – one off maps surveyed and drawn by mapmakers (although a few copies may have been made). These would normally be in an archive, although copies may have been made digitally or on microfilm, or in a printed volume, so there may be access to copies in a library.

Early mapping:

  • Mapping as we understand it goes back to 16th century although very few maps from the period.
  • County maps – maps were made of the county, often more for decoration so can have limited detail, and there may be errors.
  • Town Plans – large towns and cities began to have town plans produced from 17th century onwards, the first often being Speed maps c1605.
  • Maps can also come in all sorts of other formats. Local maps are useful for enquiries and finding where places are just as much as for information for customers. 

Ordnance survey:

  • Ordnance Survey began mapping the UK by targeting key military locations in Southern England in the Napoleonic wars. Over the early nineteenth century they slowly created county based surveys across the UK at 1” to the mile.
  • In the 1880s they published maps of the whole country at 6” (1:10,000) and 25” (1:2500), which were revised for a 2nd edition c1900 and 3rd edition c1914. Later editions were created, and in 1950s they resurveyed using a new grid system.
  • Most Libraries will also have the 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 and similar folded maps both current and historical.
  • More information about the history of the Ordnance survey can be found here: https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/about/history 
1876 OS map, central Slough
1932 OS Map, central Slough

1888 25″ Ordnance Survey map of Worcester – note how much detail it includes

1901 6″ Ordnance Survey map of Worcester – to include all the buildings in the city centre some are merged together

Manuscript:

Manuscript maps are usually found in archives although some have been digitised or printed and are also available in libraries. Coverage will vary a lot as maps were expensive to create, some have not survived, whilst other may be other record offices or still in private hands. The main types are:

  • Estate – created by an estate owner so they can manager their land and also to show off their wealth so they are usually nicely decorated. May have tenant details. Very expensive so only shows land belonging to owner and infrequently created.
  • Enclosure (late 18th-mid 19th century) – map created to show new landscape after land was Enclosed. 
  • Tithe – early 1840s, produced to go alongside apportionment when system of Tithes was changed. Apportionments have landowners, tenants, land name, use and size included, related to numbered pieces of land on the map.
  • Inland Revenue Valuation Office Survey of 1910 (sometimes called New Domesday), which was a national land survey, so gives similar information to the earlier tithe survey.
  • Local Authority development maps: Local authorities produce mapping, many of which were commissioned for reports and consultations. These can be goldmines of local information.
Above & below, courtesy of http://www.SloughHistoryOnline.org.uk

Others:

  • Street Atlas – most towns have street atlases such as A-Z or published by the local council
  • Goad – maps of town and city centres showing the occupants of shops. Originally for fire insurance purposes mostly used today by geography students! Part of the Experian group now so now officially called Experian-Goad maps.
  • Geology – maps of underlying geology published by British Geological Survey (www.bgs.ac.uk).
  • Other maps may cover electoral divisions, land use, streets, services, sewers etc.

Online mapping:

National Library of Scotland has digitised large numbers of UK maps: http://maps.nls.uk/index.html including

Prints of current mapping can often be accessed via local authority webpages, for example https://mol.rbwm.gov.uk/mol/map/. Check with you own local authority to see what is available to you and your users.

Gazetteer of British Place Names is a free resource that allows you to search for a British place name and the gazetteer will tell you the historic and current county, OS grid reference and longitude and latitude. Very useful for researching places and cross-referencing with old maps and other sources.

Other good older map websites include:

Historic Environment Records (archaeological databases for counties and unitary authorities, previously called Sites and Monuments records) are GIS based and have access to historic digital OS maps and sometimes other historic maps, as well as aerial photos and LiDAR data so it is worth checking with your local HER so you can advise what they have.

Modern maps are widely available online, though Bing https://www.bing.com/maps also gives you access to smaller scale OS mapping.

Obtaining new mapping

Local authority licenses often allow them to print maps for use by the local authority. Your planning office may be able to supply you with a set inexpensively. Though online versions of mapping can be updated easily, obtaining printed sets captures your area in time and users can then compare maps over time to see how areas have developed. Due to changes in how maps were published, many archives and local studies libraries will have stopped acquiring 1:1250 and 1:2500 OS maps in the 1990s.

Microfilm copies of the first and second editions of the County Series 1:2,500 is available from the British Library. 

Preservation & storage

Maps can be stored vertically in hanging cabinets, with strips attached with holes in from which they are hung, or else in flat map cabinets. Each has pros and cons. Vertical cabinets can be easier to go through.

Maps should not be folded as they will create weaknesses, although this can be hard due to space.

Some local studies libraries have maps on open access in cabinets, whilst others need staff to get them out. If open access please be aware of risk of public using big heavy map cabinets, and how to reduce maps being replaced in the wrong order.

Well used maps should be covered in conservation grade plastics. Conservation suppliers sell this plastic in rolls which can be folded and cut to size and then sealed with double-sided tape or sealed using special equipment. You can also purchase also sell large wallets made in common sizes.

Physical arrangement and cataloguing

OS maps have two different grid systems depending on whether they were produced before or after World War II.

Pre-World War II maps are numbered using a county-based two-level grid system whilst the post-war maps use the same latitude and longitude grid system OS uses today.

OS maps are not always easy for the pubic to use, and often need maps with the grids and map references marked on. They can be a struggle for staff too! Indexes can be produced which can make it easier for customers to find the right map.

Copyright

Maps are considered as artistic works, some of which have been published and some of which have not. Many maps are also based on OS mapping which makes life more complicated. See our copyright pages for further information.

Maps usually cannot be copied for planning applications, and people will need to buy and official copy. Although since most libraries don’t have 1:1250 and 1:2500 maps from the past 30 years there will be fewer people asking for them for that purpose.

Innovative projects

History Pin uses maps to connect places to stories and images: https://www.historypin.org/community 

Similar regional projects have been created, including Know your place West of England http://www.kypwest.org.uk/.

Know your place West of England includes the KYPWilts Postcards Project:

Click to access wiltshire-postcard-project-evaluation-report.pdf

Bombs over Bucks uses the County’s mapping to show where bombs fell during World War II: https://buckscouncil.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=6ab95f847d364d7597517809f7ffd2ac

For a historic orchards projects copies of maps were created which people coloured in the areas of orchards in an area, which conveyed the local importance as people could see how much land was used for this purpose at a glance. On similar principles you can use copies of maps for all sorts of base layers, annotating or colouring in items.

Further reading

JISCMail map curators group: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=lis-maps 

Alan Godfrey ‘2500 maps and growing’. Alan Godfrey describing his life’s work reprinting old maps, Local Studies Librarian, Vol. 30, 2011, p.12-18Download

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Event: EMOHA Festival of Oral History

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On Thursday 30 July, the East Midlands Oral History Archive are organising an afternoon showcase of oral history work going on around the region.

Speakers

  • James McSharry from NHS@70, a UK-wide oral history project which kicked off last year to mark 70 years of the National Health Service.
  • Jan Reynolds from Adverse Camber Arts will be speaking about their Moon Stories project which celebrated 50 years of the moon landings through oral history and arts.
  • Tonya Outram from Nottingham Trent University guides us through Textile Tales, which collected stories about the decline of the East Midlands textile industries from 1980 to 2005.
  • Wajid Yaseen from Modus Arts introduces Tape Letters , a project which shines light on the practice of recording and sending messages on cassette tape as a mode of communication by Pakistanis who migrated and settled in the UK between 1960-1980.
  • Lesley Owen-Jones joins us from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to talk about oral history and funding in this time of pandemic.

TICKETS ARE LIMITED! Register here.

The East Midlands Oral History Archive collects and looks after oral history collections from across the region. It also offers training and advice in oral history practice. It is part of the Centre for Urban History at the University of Leicester.

Toolkit: Crowdfunding

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A quick reference guide to using crowdfunding (also known as crowdsourcing) for Local Studies Collections.

Crowdfunding is a way for organisations to quickly raise money for a given item or project. Examples include money to acquire or conserve a specific item, or for running a project, event or exhibition.

Types of Crowdfunding

Individuals can invest in a scheme in four ways:

  • Investment based – you invest in a business and receive a stake in return (normally shares).
  • Loan based – you lend money to individuals or companies in return for a set interest rate (peer-to-peer business lending).
  • Donation based – you donate to a person or charity (you may be promised something in return).
  • Reward based – you give money in return for a reward linked to the project or cause you’re supporting.

Only investment-based crowd funding is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

There are a number of Crowdfunding websites to use such as Kickstarter, Crowdfunder and Fundable. Crowdfunder UK had been cited by Townsweb Archiving as the most popular and it is now in partnership with the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

When you have registered, set up your project page and once you’ve made it live, people can begin donating.

The National Archives ran a fundraising project between 2015 and 2018, providing training and support for those looking to grow the funding opportunities for their archive service. The legacy of this project has been to create e-learning packages on topics including Crowdfunding.

Points to Consider

The Stirling University fundraising team noted that one of the key advantages of crowdfunding is its potential reach. By using social media you can spread the word about your project far and wide, identifying and connecting with communities of interest around the world. Choose a collection with broad international appeal – a collection with an interesting story behind it, a connection to a major anniversary or event; use any hooks which might generate interest.

When designing the project for which you are seeking funding you should keep in mind the need to show supporters a return for their contributions. Your project should include work that makes a visible difference to your collection, something you can promote and share further down the line to demonstrate value. Remember the fundraising phase is only the beginning of your relationship with your supporters.

Not every collection you hold will be suited to a crowdfunding campaign.

As part of the local government, you should also have a persuasive case why people should pay extra money on top of their council tax.

Entrepreneur Europe notes that it takes a lot of time and resources to create a campaign. As already mentioned, you must have a handle – an engaging story to tell; a call to arms. The perks to sell must be tempting too. You must also persuade people that their money will be made good use of and will be safe. Include a ‘view pitch’ which is short and concise with a call to action. Spend an ‘amazingly’ long time on social media sites until the campaign is complete. Do your research before you begin. Be sure to know your target audience and have a clear and meaningful message and offer in place.

The Jenner Museum note that you need to constantly review your message as you receive feedback from those who have donated, altering your message to relate to what people are attracted to, which works as a kind of stakeholder consultation. Seeing how people responded to your initial message enables you to flesh it out further and translate into a better targeted campaign.

Developing your plan

What should your plan include? There should be an understanding of the external and internal situation and a goal. Donation and reward tiers can entice; include a well-developed case, campaign publicity, a plan to build ongoing relationships and to grow supporters for the long-term.

Do you have enough staff, senior management support, volunteers to do this?

  • Do you have a budget?
  • Do you have the technical capacity to do this? How best to keep a track of the donors?
  • Are you clear what you want to achieve?
  • Do you have the right processes in place? eg. gift aid or the ability to say thank you to donors?

Building your Crowd

How do you bring together a crowd to launch your project to?

What websites/social media channels would they use?

Think about your social media followers, friends and members, local networks, email lists, volunteers, community groups etc.

Working influencers

80% of people buy something recommended by an influencer. These ‘micro-influencers’ are people with expertise in a field but have thousands of followers. Target them to amplify your message and to help advertise and promote it. Try to build closer relationships with these people, even give them advance warning of news etc. Identify who your key influencers are. The Jenner Museum found a micro-influencer who spotted their campaign and sent it to his medical students in Canada. They built a local campaign for the museum there using a hashtag they designed themselves which proved very successful.

What are the key success factors?

  • Exciting design
  • Telling a story
  • Using a platform that makes the most of your material in an interesting format
  • Clearly showing the difference the money can make
  • Timing – tie it in to an event or centenary
  • Use feedback from initial supporters to help build your case and promote the message in an even more engaging way

What does a successful campaign need?

  • audience
  • short videos, images and external links improve success
  • website (for credibility)
  • perks or rewards and tiers (reward levels)
  • pictures
  • testimonials
  • multiple ways to contact you
  • the right ask/how their gift could make a difference
  • a short and intensive campaign
  • regular updates
  • sustainability projects are more likely to be successful
  • higher goals are less successful on average
  • provision of good quality information
  • You have to develop a powerful, tangible appeal which should feature on your website too, so that anyone who is visiting the site and considers making a donation has a strong reason for doing so.
  • Identify a need – eg. digitising a film collection
  • Find a solution – you need equipment, to pay for the cost of digitising, volunteers to help…
  • Impact – this will provide better access, a better understanding of history and connection to the local area, hidden stories to uncover – WHAT DIFFERENCE WILL IT MAKE TO THE DONOR?
  • Highlight strong individuals or stories in the history of the collection and why needs help/why it is important to help.

Case Studies

Peoples’ Museum, Manchester

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/bring-manchesters-suffragette-banner-home

A Suffragette banner was discovered in a charity shop. It was auctioned off and went to a private bidder. The successful bidder agreed to sell it to the People’s Museum, Manchester for £20,000 but they did not have this kind of money available.

They decided to crowdsource with pledges from just £1. The rest of the money was found via the Arts Council, V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Site used: Crowdfunder

Rewards were offered:

  • £5 or more – to receive information and updates on the banner and their 2018 programme via our e-newsletter.
  • £25 or more – as above plus a private museum tour focusing on the suffrage movement.
  • £150 or more – as above plus invite to the private view of the centenary exhibition, 2018.
  • £1,000 or more – as above plus a day’s experience with their Conservation team, gaining insight into the process of examination and investigation, and the preparations for the display of the banner.

The funding page went live in August 2017. The Museum created a YouTube video which they uploaded onto the site to explain what they needed the money for and why. Text on the crowdfunding site included: Project aim, About the Project.

The Peoples’ Museum managed to surpass their target by 7 September 2017. By 18 September they had raised £5,710 from 175 supporters in 28 days.

Getting publicity was key – the news went from the local press to the One Show on Friday 13 October 2017 which raised their profile further.

Women’s Royal Voluntary service

Hidden Histories of a Million Wartime Women

Their archive holds hundreds of ‘fragile bits of paper’ which together form a diary of life during WWII. Their aim is to get help to preserve and publish the material. Their goal was £25,000.

They used a variety of photographs, videos and quotes from their archive material to create emotive content that would appeal to different audiences. They also highlighted the unique aspects of the collection and its importance.

Site used: Kickstarter

Rewards offered:

  • £10 or more – name placed on a roll of honour
  • £20 or more – set of ten limited edition postcards
  • £60 or more – full set of captured stories from a WVS centre of your choice
  • £80 or more – postcards and print, or postcards and stories
  • £120 or more – print and stories
  • £140 or more – all of the above
  • £1,000 or more – all of the above plus a day at the archives, including a personal tour, research opportunity and lunch with the archive team.

The funding page went live on 7 May 2016 and ran until 7 June 2016. The campaign raised £27,724 with over 750 backers. 7 donors pledged £1,000 or more.

British Culture Archive from Manchester

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/thepeoplesarchive

A non-profit resource working to document everyday life, society and culture in the UK who wanted to establish a People’s Archive. This would be a permanent free gallery space and community hub in the North West; an accessible space to showcase their archive documenting working class society and culture in the UK.

Site used: Crowdfunder

Page included: About us, Why we are Crowdfunding, The People’s Archive, Gallery Space with slogan “Let’s make A Permanent Space for British Culture Archive Happen”.

They raised £11,609 in 89 days via 488 supporters, reaching their target and announcing their first exhibition to take place in London. They offered lots of updates with thanks to everyone who’d supported, shared and commented on the project; it had driven and cemented their belief in the work they were doing.

3 Nov 2019 BBC News online picked up the story https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-50004473

Peter Mackay Archive Digitisation Project

https://blog.townswebarchiving.com/2017/02/crowdfunding-cultural-heritage-digitisation-peter-mackay-archive

Townsweb Archiving worked with the University of Stirling on a project to digitise this archive relating to the independence movements of Zimbabwe and Malawi.

Following an effective promotional campaign across various media platforms they surpassed their target raising £8,100 of their £8,000 goal with 64 supporters in 56 days. Twitter in particular was very useful for the campaign. Key groups and organisations were identified and targeted alongside existing supporters. Key hastags helped to reach unknown interested audiences.

Land of the White Horses Project (Development Stage)

https://app.thegoodexchange.com/project/17352/north-wessex-downs-area-of-outstanding-natural-beauty-unit/land-of-the-white-horses-project-development-stage

The North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty was crowdfunding as of October 2019 for the funds to engage a project officer to manage and submit the development stage of a National Lottery Heritage Fund bid.

Site used: The Good Exchange

They included text and an image.

References

Money Advice Service https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/crowdfunding–what-you-need-to-know

TNA https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-sector/projects-and-programmes/fundraising-for-archives/

Entrepreneur.com https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/307250

Jenner Museum – content in webinar run by the Digital Archives Learning Exchange at the TNA, 2/6/2020

TNA Crowdsourcing webinar modules 1-4 by Claire Routley, June 2020.

Return to previous section of the toolkit: Larger projects – before you start……

View the next section of the toolkit: Evaluating larger projects

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Toolkit: Linking with local authority priorities

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Business or service plans

Every local authority is likely to produce a Council Plan that sets out its vision and strategy for the next two to ten years.     

Common priorities, which local studies services may be able to link with, include:

  • Promoting stronger, safer and healthier communities
  • Increasing educational attainment and skills development
  • Developing the visitor economy
  • Celebrating diversity
  • Encouraging sustainable economic growth and regeneration
  • Protecting and enhancing the environment
  • Reducing economic, educational and health inequality and improving the lives of the most vulnerable
  • Increasing organisational efficiency 

Increasingly, as financial pressures continue, there may be a focus on collaboration and partnerships as many councils aim to reduce direct delivery of services and, instead, to use their resources to enable, influence and facilitate delivery by others.

The Council Plan should form the basis of the library service’s strategic plan and trickle down to inform objectives for teams and individual staff. In this way, it shouldn’t be too difficult for local studies services to align their services with council aims.

However, this shouldn’t be a tick-box exercise but should involve real alignment and be backed up by evidence including measurable outputs and outcomes. 

It may be advisable to concentrate on one or two target areas and demonstrate real impact, rather than making broad claims that are not backed up by robust and specific evidence.

Learning, wellbeing and community

Particular themes where local studies has the potential to make a real difference include learning (formal and informal, across all age groups), health and wellbeing, and supporting the development of stronger communities through helping to foster a sense of place and the strengthening of community networks.

Learning though using local studies resources isn’t only a matter of acquiring local or family history knowledge. It’s unlikely that anyone will be motivated to increase their IT skills in order to access official government information. However, learning how to research family history may motivate the digitally diffident to use a computer, thereby also enabling them to be more confident in using government services that are increasingly digital by design.

To have the most impact, a joined-up approach to activities and events is likely to be most effective. For example, a library service may run family history courses as a means of income generation. The income target could be met and the learners could all go their separate ways at the end of the course. The library service may achieve its income target and it could be considered that the activity was a success on this basis.

However, added value could be created by aligning the activity to priorities relating to wellbeing and stronger communities. For example, the family course participants could be encouraged to stay in touch with the library service and to join or form a self-organised family history group that continues to meet in the library once the course ends. This creates an ongoing relationship between the library and the learners, in a way that’s not likely to happen if the course were run in a more traditional education setting. 

Over time, members of the group are likely to develop friendships and the group then becomes a source of emotional support for its members in addition to being a means of staying motivated to continue learning. 

The group may also become a source of support and a resource for the library service – for example, members may be willing to assist with family history drop-in events or focus groups, encouraging more take-up of the family history courses and becoming advocates for the library service in general.

An activity that started out as a means of income generation can thus develop into a virtuous circle that may be life-changing for participants, by increasing IT skills, reducing isolation through developing community networks, and sharing their skills and knowledge to help others to learn.

Measuring impact

It’s easy to claim that local studies libraries are contributing to broad service priorities, such as increasing the visitor economy. However, making a claim that can’t be backed up by strong evidence runs the risk of undermining the credibility of the service with decision-makers within the authority.

More information on this topic can be found in the measuring your impact section of the toolkit.

Useful tips

  • Keep a list of potential projects
    Most local studies librarians have more ideas for projects and initiatives than they have capacity to implement them. It can be handy to have a note of these so that if the opportunity arises – e.g. for an external funding bid, or to meet a corporate requirement – they can be tweaked to fit the funding criteria or relevant requirement. 
  • Be aware of forthcoming anniversaries or awareness days/months
    Many local studies libraries keep lists of local anniversaries or significant dates which may be of use for community engagement activities. Awareness days/months – e.g. Black History Month – may be an opportunity for the library service to make an important contribution to council activities marking the event.
  • Case studies and inspiration
    The CILIP Local Studies Group blog and Twitter feed aim to feature news and ideas that may provide inspiration for activities and events. The UK Web Archive also includes an archive of case studies from the old CILIP LSG website. 

Further reading

Case study from the Greater Manchester Archives & Local Studies Partnership, 2015

Got something to add?

Do you have any comments, suggestions or updates for this page? Add a comment below or contact us. This toolkit is only as good as you make it.

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Online course for digital local history

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Creating Local Linkages is a free online course for library staff to develop skills in research and digital local history. It has been designed by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. Originally run as a credit-bearing course, it is now available for free, self-taught learning.

The five modules cover topics including:

  • developing research/public history projects
  • locating and understanding primary sources
  • using Omeka to publish digital collections
  • copyright, permissions and re-use
  • understanding the Dublin Core Metadata Schema
  • planning outreach activities.

Although it has an American focus, it would be suitable for library, archive and museum staff in Britain. It would particularly suit members of staff new to digital history or public history projects. Start here: https://locallinkages.org/course/ and work through at your own pace.

Toolkit: Subscription websites

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Many public libraries have subscriptions to websites such as Ancestry, Find My Past, The Genealogist, and the British Newspaper Archive.

Sometimes, library subscriptions are part of a contract between the website and the library or archives service as part of an agreement to digitise name-rich records. Alternatively, libraries may subscribe by paying an annual fee directly to the company or via a licensing agent. 

All of the sites apart from The Genealogist offer a pricing module for unlimited concurrent access. The Genealogist’s pricing module is on a “per seat” basis so is limited to a particular number of concurrent logins. 

Access is usually via IP address (networked computers and WiFi) rather than logging on via a user name and password. 

Ancestry, Find My Past and The Genealogist all have birth, marriage and death indexes and UK census records. If you have to choose one site, it may be sensible to select the one that has the best coverage of parish registers for your local area.

Ancestry Library Edition

Probably the best known of the family history subscription sites, Ancestry was founded in 1996 and has its headquarters in the United States.

Individual personal subscribers to Ancestry have different subscription levels available – Essentials (Key UK records), Premium (All UK & Ireland records), Worldwide, and All Access (includes external sites Fold3 (military records) and Newspapers.com). 

Libraries are able to subscribe to Ancestry Library Edition, which is similar to a personal Worldwide subscription, but gives read-only access to family trees (it’s not possible to contact other users) and it’s not possible to submit corrections of transcribed data.

New military records are being indexed on Ancestry but transcriptions and images are only available on the separate Fold3 website, which is not included with Ancestry Library Edition.

Its particular strength is the number of databases, including its wide geographic coverage. It has different search functionality from Find My Past, notably allowing more search options for co-resident family member on census returns. Unlike Find My Past, it doesn’t have a separate address search for census returns, but it does have a census browse feature which also includes the enumerator’s sheet at the beginning of each enumeration district (unlike the census images on Find My Past).

Ancestry provides various resources, including posters and online training guides – LibGuides – on its Resources page.

How to subscribe? 

Ancestry Library Edition is exclusively available via subscription agent ProQuest and a free trial is available before purchase. 

Find My Past Community Edition 

Find My Past (FMP) is a UK-based site and is owned by DC Thompson.

Individual personal subscribers to Find My Past (FMP) have the options of three different subscriptions – Starter (basis records such as birth, marriage and death indexes and census returns), Plus (all GB records) and Pro (worldwide records, plus the British Newspaper Archive, searchable only from within FMP).

The Community Edition available to libraries is offered as UK only (excluding Irish records) or Worldwide. Neither of the options includes the British Newspaper Archive (BNA), although a discount to the BNA is usually available for subscribers to the Community Edition of FMP.

Find My Past has greater search functionality for the 1939 Register, including a map/address search, and also allows address search for census records. It also has some of the revised GRO birth and death indexes, which include additional information such as middle names rather than initials, mother’s maiden name before 1911 and age at death before 1866. Find My Past also includes the GRO overseas indexes.

New record sets are announced each week as Find My Past Fridays on the Find My Past blog. 

Find My Past will have exclusive access to the 1921 census when it becomes available in January 2022. However, if previous pricing models are followed, it is likely that this will not be included in any subscription packages to begin with and that all users, even individual personal subscribers, will have to pay to view records.

How to subscribe?

Find My Past offers two levels of Community Edition – UK records (excluding Ireland) or Worldwide (including Ireland, USA, Canada and Australia).

Library subscriptions are via JCS Online: email info@jcsonlineresources.org or phone: 01865 987211

British Newspaper Archive Community Edition

Find My Past is a sister site to the British Newspaper Archive (BNA) and a discount to the BNA may be available to library subscribers of Find My Past.

Unlike all of the other sites, library customers have to have register with the BNA and log in with their own account, even when connected to the library’s computer network. 

Although this may be irritating for some customers, it does mean that customers can log into the site from home, search the site and bookmark any articles that look useful. Then, on their next visit to the library, customers can log into their BNA account and then view their bookmarked articles.

Library subscriptions are via JCS Online: email info@jcsonlineresources.org or phone: 01865 987211

The Genealogist

The Genealogist is run by Genealogy Supplies (Jersey) Ltd, which is part of Wiltshire-based S&N Genealogy Supplies. The company was founded in 1992 and became a publisher of family history data on CD. The Genealogist was established in 2006 as a subscription site.

Individual personal subscribers may choose from three levels of subscription – Starter, Gold, and Diamond, with the first two being available as a six- or 12-month subscription, but the Diamond subscription is only available as a 12-month subscription. 

Libraries may opt for a Gold or Diamond subscription, with the latter being the one most likely to include databases not available on other sites, notably tithe records, map explorer. The site also has a range of wills and non-conformist records.

Library subscriptions are available by contacting The Genealogist directly: https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/contact/

A month’s free trial is available to public libraries and archives.

FamilySearch

Although not a subscription site, as such, FamilySearch offers additional functionality to researchers accessing the site at a Family Search Affiliate Library. 

FamilySearch is part of the genealogical arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), often called the Mormon church. The church has been microfilming and, more recently, digitising name-rich records from around the world and making them available to researchers. Most of the records are searchable on www.familysearch.org.

Individual researchers need to have their own free account with FamilySearch and may search transcribed and indexed records free of charge from any location. However, when searching at a FamilySearch Affiliate Library, researchers have access to many (though not all) digitised records as well as the searchable indexes and transcripts. These images are otherwise only accessible at one of the church’s Family History Centres.

Affiliate Libraries used to have the facility of ordering copies of LDS microfilms, but this ordering service was withdrawn in 2017. Since this date, Affiliate Libraries have been able to access digitised images on FamilySearch, provided that the custodian of the original records has not restricted access to Family History Centres only.

Public libraries may become FamilySearch Affiliate Libraries free of charge on completion of  a signed contract and giving details of a static IP address to FamilySearch. Further details are at https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/familysearch-affiliate-libraries/

A list of FamilySearch Affiliate Libraries is at https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/FamilySearch_Affiliate_Libraries

Other useful subscription websites

Your authority’s online reference libraries may also subscribe to subscription services that will help with family and local history research. These include national newspapers, such as the Times Digital Archive and the Illustrated London News, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, the Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, Who’s Who, and Who Was Who, many of which will can be accessed from home.

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Toolkit: Exhibitions

TraceyLeave a comment

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Exhibitions within the library building may be a useful way of promoting services and collections, especially if exhibitions integrate with wider cross-platform promotional campaigns.

In practice, library staff often have to create exhibitions with limited display equipment, few financial resources, and limited time. Fortunately, much can be achieved even with these constraints.

Collaboration with local historians or groups may be an effective use of resources, but make sure everyone involved has a clear understanding of the exhibition aims, content and budget.

Choosing a topic

It’s often useful to tie in an exhibition with an anniversary, whether this is the anniversary of a local, national, or international event. By doing this, media coverage may be greatly increased and it can also raise the library service’s profile within the overall organisation, particularly if it helps the organisation to do something to mark an event.

Local anniversaries, or a local connection with a national anniversary or event, may be the most likely to achieve publicity and engagement.

National awareness days/weeks/months (e.g. Black History Month in October, LGBTQ+ History Month in February, Local & Community History Month in May) may also be a useful theme for exhibitions. Libraries Connected produces an annual calendar with relevant awareness campaigns that may inspire events and activities in libraries linked to the universal offers: https://www.librariesconnected.org.uk/resources

Other ideas that could be useful to inspire exhibitions are:

  • The launch of a new local book
  • The promotion of new service/resource/collection
  • Supporting a new tourism initiative – e.g. guided walks
  • A seasonal tie-in – e.g. Christmas, summer holidays

It’s as well to be mindful of the wider context of your exhibition. What may seem to be fairly innocuous can turn out to be controversial if there is a local or political sensitivity about the topic.  It may be advisable to check with your organisation’s press office or communications team to make sure there are no issues with the topic you are proposing.

Arranging content

Images attract more attention than text so, depending on the theme of your exhibition, it may be worth considering large images and small amounts of text.

As most photographs held by local studies services are likely to be smaller than would ideally be required for an exhibition, it may be worth considering copying the image and then printing it as a larger photograph or print (copyright permitting). As well as having greater impact, this also creates a surrogate that means the original image is protected from any damage during display.

If you are doing a display on traditional display boards, try not to cram too much onto the boards. Small images with lots of small text may only engage those who are already engaged, rather than having the eye-catching appeal to attract wider interest. It may be more effective to have fewer, but larger, images, or to use graphic software to create content the same size as each exhibition board. If you have the facility to print larger than A3, you can then print this as one sheet. If not, then, depending on your software, it may be possible to print the content as tiled sheets that may then be stuck together.

Copyright

In terms of copyright, the Intellectual Property Office issued a copyright notice (copyright notice 5/2015) aimed at museums, galleries, libraries, archives and other institutions that may wish to exhibit copyright works. The notice stated that: 

“In the UK, public exhibition is not an act restricted by copyright. This means that it is not an infringement of copyright to put a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work on public display (for example, in a display cabinet in a museum or gallery).” This relates to original documents and artefacts, and would not in itself permit the making of a copy for exhibition purposes.

Moving images

Moving images also attract interest and it is possible to create short videos from still images, with or without audio. If you have a TV screen available in your exhibition space, it should be possible to produce short video clips to play on a loop, as well as to upload to video-sharing sites and social media platforms.

Whilst Adobe Premiere Pro is the full-featured industry standard, much can be achieved with the more budget-friendly Adobe Premiere Elements. There are also free alternatives, such as DaVinci Resolve, Kdenlive and Lightworks. 

Be aware that, according to the Intellectual Property Office (notice 2015/5) “playing or showing a sound recording, film or broadcast in a public place [without permission from the rights holder(s)] would usually be an infringement of copyright.”

Writing content

Simply exhibiting documents or artefacts is unlikely to engage casual interest. Generally, it is stories that engage people, so exhibitions should be planned with a particular theme, and content should be selected or created so that it contributes to a coherent narrative. 

Ask yourself what is the unique story that your exhibition will tell. It may be useful to outline your narrative e.g. as bullet points, on post-it notes or as a mind map, and then select relevant resources from your collection.

Original documents and artefacts should be accompanied by explanatory captions. Captions need to convey a key message rather than be a description of the item. They must be short – ideally 14-21 words – and they need to communicate something to readers, rather than just describe what visitors can see for themselves.

People generally don’t read large blocks of text. Their eyes are drawn to images, headings, sub-headings, bulleted lists, and short captions. Any blocks of text may only be skimmed, so be mindful of this when writing content.

William Strunk, in his guide The Elements of Style in 1918, wrote:

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that he make every word tell.

Write in a natural way that will resonate with your audience. Clear and precise language is usually more effective than flowery prose, which tends to distract from the exhibition content. Take care with typing, grammar and spelling. If possible, ask a colleague to proof read any content you create. Alternatively, printing proof copy and slowly reading it aloud to yourself may help you to spot any errors.

Remember the well-known design principle “KISS” – Keep It Simple, Stupid!

Environment and security

The safety and security of exhibition materials should be a paramount consideration when planning an exhibition of original documents or artefacts.

Original items should not normally be displayed without appropriate security – e.g. locked in a display cabinet – to protect against theft or damage, whether wilful or accidental.

The other main threat to display materials is the risk of damage as a result of inappropriate conditions in the display environment. In particular, the potential damage from light, heat, and humidity should be assessed before original sources are displayed.

British Standard 4971:2017 (Conservation and care of archive and library collections) offers guidance on exhibiting original items. It recommends that:

  • Objects should not be placed on permanent display
  • The duration of a display should be calculated with an understanding of the impact of the display environment on the objects
  • The display period calculated should be based on a safe level of light exposure of the material displayed, depending on the sensitivity of the materials. Background lighting in the display area should also be assessed.
  • The temperature should not exceed 24 degrees
  • Relative humidity levels should be within recommended levels (see section 5.1.3 of BS 4971)
  • Exhibition light sources either emit no UV or UV radiation emitted should be removed by the use of filters

It would be advisable to carry out a condition survey before exhibiting original items.

Borrowing artefacts

It may be worth considering asking to borrow artefacts or documents from other museums or repositories, if this is appropriate for the theme of your exhibition. Depending on the items, this may only be possible if you have secure exhibition facilities that meet the environmental conditions recommended in BS 4971. 

Some museums offer loan services to schools and cultural institutions, so it is worth checking with the relevant museum. Be aware that if you are borrowing original items, you are likely to have to:

  • Ensure that you have sufficient insurance cover for an agreed minimum amount
  • Comply with security, display and handling requirements of the loaning institution
  • Pay a loan and administration fee
  • Pay for a condition survey and any pre-loan conservation of the items
  • Arrange for suitable secure transport for the items

Publicity

Be mindful of copyright, especially in images. Make sure that you know the copyright status of any items you are using, particularly images, and ensure that you have assessed the risk of using the material for the purposes you wish. This is essential if you don’t have written permission from the rights holder(s) or a licence to use an orphan work.

Use your existing publicity channels to good effect, and try to include images that can be issued with press releases as this will make them more attractive to media organisations. If you have a blog, it can be useful to create a blog post that tells the story in more detail, and includes images of the exhibition.

If you have social media channels, rather than posting a standard poster, you are likely to have more impact by creating properly-sized images for each channel. 

  • Twitter
    The size of inline images on Twitter in 2020 should be in a ratio of 16:9 so the suggested optimum size is 1200 x 675 pixels. Any images taller than this 16:9 proportion will be cropped on mobile and desktop feeds.
  • Facebook
    The recommended size for shared images on Facebook is 1200 x 630 pixels
  • Instagram
    The recommended size is of images for Instagram is a square 1080 x 1080 pixels.

It may be worth considering events that link with the exhibition, for example, a formal launch with an opening by the Mayor, and/or a brief introduction or lecture about the topic. 

Demonstrating impact

If your exhibition is part of a grant-funded project, you may have a requirement to collect evidence to justify the use of external funding. Even if your exhibition is not grant-funded, it may still be useful to collect evidence of impact so that you can use this, if needed.

More formal evaluation can include the Generic Learning Outcomes (GLOs) and/or Generic Social Outcomes (GSOs) which were developed to provide practitioners, government and funders with a meaningful way of reporting on the impact of engagement with visitors to museums, libraries and archives. Find out more at www.artscouncil.org.uk/measuring-outcomes/generic-learning-outcomes

At the very least, try to capture comments from visitors and any engagements on social media.

The CILIP Marketing & Communications Group (formerly Publicity & Public Relations Group (PPRG)) has an annual Marketing Excellence Award. If your exhibition has met or exceeded your aims and objectives, and includes marketing approaches that you want to share with other organisations, it may be worth entering the annual awards.

Useful tips

  • If your organisation needs to print large-format documents such as architects’ plans or maps, then it is worth finding out whether there is a large-format plotter within the organisation.
    Depending on your setup, it may be possible to print directly to this if it is networked, or a colleague may be willing to send through prints on your behalf. Even if there is an internal recharge to your budget, this is likely to be significantly cheaper than using a commercial printer, and will give much more professional results than sticking multiple smaller sheets together.
  • Microsoft OneNote is usually included in the Microsoft Office software suite and seems to be a much overlooked and under-used programme. It is the electronic equivalent of a tabbed paper notebook and is very useful for gathering together ideas and drafting content. It may be a useful tool for collaboration, as a notebook can be shared with others.
  • Consider learning to use graphic design software such as Adobe Photoshop CC (or the more budget-friendly Adobe Photoshop Elements or Corel Paintshop Pro) or an open source free alternative such as GIMP. Even if you have no artistic or drawing skills, you can create professional-looking exhibitions using graphic design software.
  • Bear in mind the diverse needs of customers when creating an exhibition – text size, colour, height of displays, language, physical accessibility – should all be considered with your potential audience in mind.

Suppliers

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WIKIDATA AND HERITAGE COLLECTIONS

williamLeave a comment

Last month, I attended a webinar hosted by the Science Museum on how heritage organisations can use Wikidata to disseminate, re-use and understand their collections. We saw a good variety of cases studies, and I am pleased to say that the recordings are now available to view. Local studies staff will find the talks on mapping Scottish witches and A Street Near You (about the First World War) particularly relevant.

Watch the recordings here: https://thesciencemuseum.github.io/heritageconnector/events/2020/06/22/wikidata-and-cultural-heritage-collections-webinar.html

Local Studies Toolkit…. watch this space

tonypilmerLeave a comment

Need some advice or top tips on all things local studies? Over the last two years a band of local studies librarians and associated hangers-on have been working away to produce the Local Studies Toolkit.

The aim of these pages is to produce a freely accessible online guide that will help and inspire local studies professionals and para-professionals to provide an excellent local studies service within their authority. 

Over the next week or two we will releasing the first versions of different sections of the guidance as blog posts. More will then follow in the coming months.

As of this moment, the only page published is a very boring introduction, but you can see the project unfold by following us on Twitter and Facebook, or just keeping an eye on our Toolkit homepage.

The toolkit will be a collection working documents for the entire community, so we need your help. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, examples of best practice that you wish to share or, even better, completely disagree with points in this guide, please let us know. Put a comment at the foot of the appropriate page or send us a comment. This guide will only be as good as the contributions you make.

That gem of local studies just starting to be found by Google: local history society journal backruns

tonypilmerLeave a comment

You know when somebody comes up with a statement and, later on you think of the perfect answer but, by then, it is far too late….. this is the one I was given together with what I should have said

You know, when I started working at the history centre, I thought I would much prefer working in the library, but I’ve really like working with the archives.

Yes, who can resist historic old documents, plus the very old books in the bookstore. But it is very hard work. Somebody might have done all of the hard graft already and, if they have, the answer would be in local studies.

Of course, the bibles of local history are the ones that you always refer too, such as The History of Slough by Maxwell Fraser. Though the real gems to less common answers, I often found, were in the journals written by enthusiastic historians – some of which go back to the nineteenth century. In those days, unless catalogued, indexed separately or browsed through by curious library staff, they just sat there gathering dust.

Imagine my delight when, being lazy, I did a google search for a 1930s map I once saw, and up came this…..

http://www.blha.org.uk/journals-full-content/

BLHA had digitised the vast majority of their journals, the articles are all searchable and can all be found by Google (or your own Google custom search engine or a site search e.g. by putting slough site:blha.org.uk into your google search box).

I won’t tell you how happy I was to see that Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society have gone back to 1854……..

http://www.bucksas.org.uk/onlinerecords.html

[Thanks to their volunteers, John Dodd, Peter Marsden, Jeff Pepper, Ken Wallis and Marion Wells, who have heroically digitised 35 of the 43 volumes so far!]

But Records of Bucks hasn’t stopped there – they have an index with hot links to the digitised articles!

http://www.bucksas.org.uk/list.php

Of course, it has only taken eight years to come up with this very long riposte to that pro-archives comment. But, if the person who said that statement ever stumbles over these words, I hope I have gone a little way to change their mind.