william spencer 18 november 2010 british army 1914-1920 first world war soldiers’ records online

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.