Annual Report 2003-2004 - National Archives of Scotland

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CONTENTS PAGE Foreword and Summary of the Year, 2003-2004 3 NAS Mission and Functions 6 Performance Measures 7 The Nation’s Archives 8 Access 18 Joint Projects 28 Conservation 30 Buildings and Record Storage 34 Corporate Services 38 Services to Record Creators, Owners and Custodians 41 The National Register of Archives for Scotland 47 Beyond Scotland 48 Paper 1: What has the SCAN Project achieved? 50 Paper 2: Freedom of Information 53 Paper 3: Smithsonian Folklife Festival 57 Paper 4: CITRA, Archives and Human Rights 61 Report of the Scottish Records Advisory Council 64 Appendix 1: Additions to the National Archives of Scotland 68 Appendix 2: Surveys added to the Register 80 1
FOREWORD AND SUMMARY OF THE YEAR 2003-2004 Keeper of the Records of Scotland George P MacKenzie BA MLitt To the Rt Hon. The First Minister and the Lord President of the Court of Session Deputy Keepers Peter D Anderson MA PhD David Brownlee Records Services Division (reporting to Peter D Anderson) Court and Legal Records External Relations Government Records Outreach and Education Private Records Bruno B W Longmore MA DAA Ian Hill MA MSc (Branch Head and Secretary of the NRAS) Laura M Mitchell BA MAA Rosemary M Gibson MA David Brown MA PhD Corporate Services Division (reporting to David Brownlee) Accommodation Services Conservation Services Finance and Administration Information and Communication Technology Reader Services Managing Director Robert R D Phillips FRICS FICW Linda Ramsay MA Jim Grady Rob Mildren MA Alison Horsburgh MA Scottish Archive Network Rob Mildren MA I have the honour to present this report on the work of the National Archives of Scotland for the year 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2004. The past year has been one of continued progress. By changing the way we work we are improving the services we provide, through a series of strategic partnerships and close co-operation with other bodies. Archives are usually associated with the past, and with older forms of communication, but more and more of the work NAS does is electronic. Visits to our websites rose by nearly 40% last year, to 1.4 million. Our main archive catalogue, containing over 2.5 million entries, went on the Internet in prototype form. The criminal database from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries now allows 100,000 cases to be accessed in our search rooms. Some three million digital images of wills before 1901 are available for viewing in the search rooms or remotely, and we are about one quarter of the way into a nine year programme to convert church records in the same way. Looking to the future, our digital data archive project is examining the challenges of preserving and accessing the electronic records which are now being generated by public bodies in Scotland. Partnerships lie at the heart of much of what we do. We are working with the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) and the Court of the Lord Lyon on the Scottish Family History Service project to provide better facilities for the growing number of genealogical customers, both on the Internet and in a new centre in the Register House campus. In January 2004 Hugh Henry MSP, Deputy Minister for Justice, unveiled plans for the new centre, which is due to open in 2006, and a joint Internet service is due to start early in 2005. NAS and GROS joined with VisitScotland on a family history stand at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC in the summer of 2003. We are also working with the Scottish Executive Education Department and Learning and Teaching Scotland on the Scottish Archives for Schools project. The first two learning units, Scotland in the 16th Century and The Jacobites, will be launched in May 2004. All schools in Scotland will receive free copies and three more units, with a CD to accompany all five packs, are due for release in the autumn. Co-operation with Historic Scotland meant that The Universal King, our exhibition on James VI and the Union of the Crowns, was mounted in the royal apartments in Edinburgh Castle where James was born. Opened by the First Minister, the Rt Hon. Jack McConnell MSP, on 1 October and visited by HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, on 27 October, the exhibition attracted well over 100,000 visitors in its two month run, an all time record. 2 3
Page 1: Front Cover Captions (Top left): HR
Page 5 and 6: NAS MISSION AND FUNCTIONS PERFORMAN
Page 7 and 8: with many other public archives NAS
Page 9 and 10: y the Scottish Executive about how
Page 11 and 12: ACCESS HISTORICAL AND WEST SEARCH R
Page 13 and 14: Perhaps surprisingly, despite the r
Page 15 and 16: Commonwealth Conference of Educatio
Page 17 and 18: CONSERVATION Staffing levels have r
Page 19 and 20: BUILDINGS AND RECORD STORAGE Genera
Page 21 and 22: CORPORATE SERVICES Corporate Servic
Page 23 and 24: To help meet this increased demand,
Page 25 and 26: THE NATIONAL REGISTER OF ARCHIVES F
Page 27 and 28: PAPER 1: WHAT HAS THE SCAN PROJECT
Page 29 and 30: public authority, which has been de
Page 31 and 32: appeared looking for me by name, wh
Page 33 and 34: Although there was always a thread
Page 35 and 36: volunteers among staff to continue
Page 37 and 38: 70 JC5/168-196 Books of Adjournal -
Page 39 and 40: CHURCH RECORDS Church of Scotland S
Page 41 and 42: RHP140608 Dundas & Wilson, CS, Edin
Page 43 and 44: 4109. Perth and Kinross Council Arc
Page 45: 1935-c1960s; Scottish Association o

Annual Report 2003-2004 - National Archives of Scotland

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