News about the Essex Record Office received by the Secretary of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History today.
Essex Record Office
Searchroom opening hours survey
The Essex Record Office (ERO) Searchroom is
altering its opening hours from Monday 6 April 2015.
The ERO Searchroom is currently open for 49.5 hours
per week, more than most other local record offices and The National Archives.
The ways that customers access the ERO Searchroom service are changing, with
a clear increase in recent years in the number of customers choosing to access
our services online, and a decline in the number of people using the Searchroom
facilities in person. In 2002 Searchroom visits peaked with an average of 58
users per day, while in 2014 we had an average of 27 users per day. Since 2011
the number of images viewed online each year through Essex Ancestors has risen
from zero to 416,000.
We are going to open the Searchroom for an average
of 34.5 hours per week, as follows:
Monday
|
Closed
|
Tuesday
|
10.00am - 8.00pm
|
Wednesday and Thursday
|
10.00am - 5.00pm
|
Friday
|
9.00am - 4.00pm
|
Alternate Saturdays (with some exceptions, e.g.
Easter; a list of which Saturdays we will be open will be made available on
our website and in our reception area)
|
9.00am - 4.00pm
|
Reducing Searchroom opening hours will allow us to carry out essential
behind-the-scenes work, such as cataloguing, conservation and digitisation,
which supports public access to archives. This will be a more efficient way to
run the service and represents better value for Essex taxpayers.
This will be the first time that the ERO has
changed its opening hours since 2000, and we at the ERO believe we can provide
a better all-round service for our customers by concentrating our opening
hours, allowing staff to carry out other tasks as mentioned above.
The following services will remain unchanged:
·
Handling of research and reprographics enquires
made by telephone or in writing
·
Event bookings by telephone
·
Deposit of documents
·
The ERO Archive Access Points
·
The ERO Conference Centre
If you would like to complete this survey online
please go to:
www.essexinsight.org.uk/consultations
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