See also T. G. Otte, "Salted Away" in TLS, 7 August 09, p. 17, on the TNA proposals. Very disturbing.
Clifford Davidson
----- Original Message -----
From: Abigail Ann Young <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thursday, August 27, 2009 8:29 am
Subject: [Fwd: [LOCAL-HISTORY] Changes at The National Archives (TNA)]
> I think this will be of concern to everyone that relies on TNA for
> their
> research. If you are going to be in London week after next, please
> try
> to attend this meeting and if you know someone not on this list who
> will
> be in London, please pass along this message.
>
> Abigail
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [LOCAL-HISTORY] Changes at The National Archives (TNA)
> Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:19:15 +0100
> From: Ruth Paley <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: From: Local-History list <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> With apologies for cross posting.
>
>
>
> The IHR and RHS are jointly running a discussion session on the
> proposed
> changes at the UK's National Archives (TNA) on Tuesday 8 Sept, at
> 11
> a.m. Managers from TNA will be present. I would urge you to go and,
> given that it is short notice, to assist the IHR and RHS by
> publicising
> the meeting as widely as possible - fuller information and how to
> book a
> place is being circulated by the IHR and RHS and is also available
> via a
> link on this page http://www.history.ac.uk/
> </exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://82.110.245.76/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.history.ac.uk/>
>
>
>
> TNA proposes to make a 10% saving (£4.2m) in its operating budget.
> Despite protestations to the contrary most of this is targeted on
> users
> of historical records - £900K (21% of the total savings) is to come
> from
> the public service. The current CEO has made it abundantly clear
> that
> she is interested in 'information management' rather than the
> organisation's statutory duty towards the historic records. Despite
> TNA's claim to have funding problems it has taken on significant
> new
> responsibilities: merging with the Office of Public Sector
> Information
> in 2006 and taking over the Statute Law Database in 2008.
>
>
>
> The proposals include:
>
> · Closing to the public on Mondays (a 16% cut in opening
> hours)
> · 35 staff redundancies across the organization of which 12
> (34%)
> are known to be in the specialist Advice and Record Knowledge
> section;
> TNA will not disclose where the others are
>
> · Withdrawal of microform series from open access in the
> reading
> rooms
>
>
>
> I have serious concerns about the rationale behind these cutbacks,
> about
> what appears to be deliberate misrepresentation by TNA to justify
> its
> actions and about TNA's commitment to consultation. According to
> the CEO
> these are proposals not plans, no decisions have been made and so
> the
> new structure and details about posts to be lost cannot be
> publicised.
> Nevertheless appointments are being made to the new structure and,
> as I
> am sure members of the list will realize, it is almost impossible
> for
> meaningful consultation to take place without access to this sort
> of detail.
>
>
>
> It is likely that these cuts will have a major impact on the
> research
> community. More detailed information about the cuts and the
> campaign
> against them is available at www.Action4Archives.com
> </exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://82.110.245.76/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.Action4Archives.com>
>
>
>
>
> Time is of the essence -TNA proposes to announce its decisions on
> 24
> September.
>
>
>
> Regards
>
> Ruth Paley
>
>
> --
> Abigail Ann Young (Dr), Associate Editor/ Records of Early English
> Drama/Victoria College/ 150 Charles Street W/ Toronto Ontario Canada
> Phone (416) 585-4504/ FAX (416) 813-4093/ [log in to unmask]
> List-owner of REED-L <http://www.reed.utoronto.ca/reed-l.html>
> http://www.reed.utoronto.ca/ => REED's home page
> http://www.reed.utoronto.ca/stage.html => our Web guide
> http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~young => my home page
>
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