Archives cut opening hours to boost online service

A cut in opening hours for Nottinghamshire Archives is about improving access, not saving money, officials have said.

Inspire, the charitable body which runs a number of cultural services in the county, said it wanted to "digitally transform" services in response to surging online demand.

But from 1 April, the archives building in Castle Meadow Road in Nottingham will cut its times on Tuesdays, close completely on Fridays, and only open between 09:00 to 13:00 one Saturday a month.

Peter Gaw, chief executive officer for Inspire, said: "It's about striking a balance between declining in-person visits and rising digital demand, and making the archives available to as many people as possible."

Nottinghamshire Archives holds five million documents, with the oldest dating back to 1155.

Inspire said that since 2010 online interactions with the service had increased by 556%, a change reinforced during the Covid pandemic.

At the same time, the number of people walking into the building had "declined significantly".

An investment programme will see documents digitised but also other sorts of information - like audio and older online resources - stored and made available online.

Gaw said: "We are in the fortunate position that we have some capital investment funding available, which will enable us to buy the specialist equipment and software to undertake that process.

"When you look at our customer base, people access our services from not just all over the county but the UK, and we have a fair percentage who come from overseas, so we think we are at a stage where really we need to modernise the service to enable access to the resources."

He emphasised the work would be a gradual process, "taking years", starting with staff training.

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