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News
Our old newsletters (in .pdf format) can be found here.
Our new website is live!
Over the last 7 months we have been working on the Access to Our Past project to make more of our archival holdings readily accessible to our users.
This project is the latest in a series of improvements made by Ceredigion Archives over the last two years. It follows on from Making the Move, an earlier project to conduct a full audit of our holdings prior to our relocation. An exhaustive check of every box in the archive was made, ensuring that we had accurate records of all our collections, and that they were complete and properly stored to aid their permanent preservation. This helped us to organize the removal of the archives from the iconic yet highly unsuitable repository in Swyddfa'r Sir, (the old Queen's Hotel) on Aberystwyth seafront to our new high standard premises in the recently refurbished Aberystwyth Old Town Hall. It also highlighted the need to update and improve our catalogues and website, and this is what Access to Our Past project was devised to address.
The project's goals included:
• uploading many new collection catalogues to our website to allow more of the collections to be accessed remotely
• the reorganization and reformatting of many of our existing web-mounted catalogues to make them both easier to use and more in line with modern archival cataloguing standards
• upgrading of our website - notably a more accurate and reliable search function
• improved administrative functionality of the website
To date approximately 950 new catalogues have been made available, with more on the way. Over 200 old catalogues have also been re-formatted with another 440 lined up to be done.
Our website has been upgraded with the new search engine, which is far more reliable than our old one, and the new administrative functions, which considerably speed up the process of getting new catalogues available online, up and running.
We would like to thank Drew Westerman, our project officer, for both Making the Move and Access to Our Past. Drew came to us immediately after qualifying as an archivist at Aberystwyth University, having gained some very useful pre-course experience in auditing collections at West Glamorgan Archives. A self-confessed geek, he has brought his astonishing patience and huge attention to detail to every stage of both of these projects. In both Making the Move and Access to Our Past he has been the principal facilitator of change and improvement, helping to create the archive service we enjoy today.
For Access to our Past many thanks are also due to Nigel Callaghan of Technoleg Taliesin who listened to our demands and worked with us to make our website better for our users world-wide.
Further thanks are due to Ceredigion County Council's excellent and forbearing translation and I.T. services for their work in realizing our vision.
We are also deeply grateful to CyMAL for providing advice and grant-funding for both of these projects. Without its support neither would have been possible.
We have moved and re-opened!
Ceredigion Archives has now re-opened to the public in our new home, Aberystwyth's old Town Hall in Queen's Road. Please be patient while we deal with the odds and ends of moving and adjust to our new workspace. Our opening hours are now back to normal.
More news and pics coming soon.
Latest Relocation News
After a (perhaps inevitable) delay, we will be relocating to the new premises in April.
Our current restricted opening hours (see below) will continue until the end of March. We will then be closed to the public throughout April and we hope to reopen early in May. Watch this space!
Photos of our new home
Ceredigion Archives Re-locates!
Early in 2012 Ceredigion Archives will be moving to the old Aberystwyth Town Hall (which may have a new fancy name by then!) which has been converted for use as the new County Archives building, Aberystwyth Library, and Aberystwyth Day Centre.
The new search-room will be on the first floor of the building, accessible by stairs and lift, and situated only a few metres from the local history section of the library. The strong rooms are situated to the rear of the building on the ground floor and the first floor, and they have been specially fitted out to be compliant to BS5454, the British Standard for the preservation of archival material. The strong-rooms have mobile shelving throughout, and a gas fire-suppression system.
As I write the search-room is still under development, but we hope to have three public access computers in addition to the old microform machines. We will still have a big table for searchers, and map cabinets for easy access to the most popular maps. We have rescued some oak bookcases from the original Town Hall building and hope to use those for our reference collection. We will still have lovely staff to help you with your requests (everyone except Anne Martin will be transferring to the new archives; Anne has recently retired) and we look forward to welcoming you to the new Ceredigion Archives in the Spring of 2012. Watch this space for further details.
Ceredigion Archives - preserving the past for the future