william spencer 18 november 2010 british army 1914-1920 first world war soldiers’ records online
TRANSCRIPT
William Spencer
18 November 2010
British Army 1914-1920
First World War Soldiers’ Records Online
The size of the problem.
• Over 2km of records
• Fire and Water Damaged in 1940
• Too brittle to produce as originals
• Became 35 500 reels of microfilm
• In alphabetical order
• Tied to a visit
4
Digitisation: Advantages
• Itemisation of each individual soldier
• Searchable by name, number and regiment
• Ability to Locate of out of sequence records
• No need to visit
• Improved space management in Reading Room through the removal of 35 500 reels of microfilm
Digitisation: Disadvantages
• User faith in the digitised record
• Speed of search
• Taxonomy
• Mindset of partners
• Slow to read
Digitisation: The Essentials
• High speed of search /production of results.
• Accurate taxonomy appropriate to period and record type.
• Ensure partners understand the context in which the records were created and what the correct taxonomy is.
• Ensure user faith in the digitised record.
• Explain very carefully how the digitised records should be used.