Report to Heritage Lottery Fund
May 1999
Report No 3
Issues
Issue 99/1 Contracts
The
latest position is set out in detail in Annex 1.
Participating archive model
agreements
are completed, (these were copied to Lavinia Cartwright and will be tabled at
the meeting on 2 June).
NAS-SCAN agreements are now expected to be
agreed by the parties within a few days (drafts were sent to HLF in April and
no comments received).
GSU-SCAN agreement is still awaiting response
from Salt Lake City on outstanding matter of assignation rights.
HLF-SCAN agreement No response has been received from HLF on comments
by Tods Murray submitted on 26 April.
Issue 99/2 Request from
Participant Archives on Finding Aids
There
have been no further comments from participating archives. If none are received during June, this issue
will be considered resolved.
Issue 99/3 Cashflow
This
issue, raised at the meeting with HLF evaluators on 7 April and in writing on
12 April, remains.
Issue 99/4 ICT Report
The
initial draft was submitted to the IT evaluator as requested on 1 April. No comment has yet been received.
No
other issues have been identified at this time.
Progress
Top Level Finding Aids
The
main products and stages have been identified and work to codify and organise
these into components and resource inputs continues.
Team
leader Alan Borthwick held 2 workshop sessions for NAS staff on 12 May,
attended by 20 people all told. Alan's
presentation covered the principles behind the TLFA project, the type of
information which the network would be collecting for the NAS TLFA, what might
be included in and excluded from the NAS TLFA (both equally important issues),
Name Authority Files, and quality control matters. Discussion of the issues raised ranged widely
and has been helpful even in these early days of the project. One question being debated is whether, once
the project is running, there is any role for the NAS’ own top level finding
aid. This will apply to all the
participating archives also.
As
soon as it is practicable to do so, similar workshop sessions will be held to
which all the participating archives will be invited at which Alan will give an
updated version of the presentation made on 12 May.
Special Archive Services
Project
Team
leader Joanna Baird has identified the main stages and products, and the
underlying components and resource requirements have been codified in Gantt
charts, using MS Project. These will be
incorporated into the revised PID. This
model will be followed shortly by the Top Level Finding Aids and the Wills team
leaders.
Testaments Project
The
main products and stages have been identified and work to codify and organise
these into components and resource inputs continues.
Detailed
preparations of material for digital capture continues. The chief conservator
has completed an assessment of the conservation requirements of the Edinburgh
Commissary Court testaments, the largest in the pre-1800 group, prior to scanning. The proposed requirements
will be forwarded to the NAS
Conservation Manager prior to any treatments being carried out.
A
database has been developed for tracking the progress of volumes and documents
through the digitsing process. This is
the first part of a suite of computer programmes that will give a detailed
pricture of all relevant preservation information. It can also be used to produce and monitor
key performancd indicators throughout the process.
The
team leader has established contact with Stephen Chapman, Preservation
Librarian for Digital Initiatives at Harvard, and agreed to exchange
infomration and experience with a digitising project
Throughput Reports
The
methodology of reporting is currently being revised, as notified by Ishbel
Barnes to Mike Smethurst on 17 May.
Details will be incorporated in the revised Project Initiatiaion
Document, which is due for completion within the next 2 weeks.
Costs
Until
the contract is signed, all costs will be allocated to Year 0.
No
request for drawdown is being made, as
the contract remains to be signed.
Staff
|
Total Staff Employed at
month end |
5 |
|
New Appointments |
0 |
|
Posts backfilled |
all |
|
|
|
Recruitment
of two conservators from outside NAS is expected shortly; both were candidates
for an earlier NAS post, and letters of appointment will be issued by Scottish
Office Personnel within a few days.
The
recruitment processs for 5 curatorial posts is under way, and press
advertisements are now expected in the first week of June.
Procurement
No
procurement during the reporting period.
Participating Archives
|
No of Participating
Archives at month end |
45 |
|
Changes since last report |
0 |
Statistics on Use of Network
Facilities
Nothing
to report
Users
Nothing
to report
Project Board
No
meetings held
28 May 1999