2017 here we come!

As is LHSA tradition, we start off the new year’s blogging with a quick look at the exciting things we have on the horizon…and then it’s back to normal service with contributions from the LHSA team talking about the collections and their work with them.

This month we’re starting off as we mean to go on by getting involved in a couple of activities that will help make us a better archive – first off by taking part in a workshop to revise the NHS Records Management Code of Practice and secondly, by coming up with a plan of attack to help inform NHS colleagues of the kinds of records we want to take. Both of which will mean that the quality, quantity and regularity of transfers of records to us is improved.

Our two Wellcome Trust-funded case note projects will finish this year and we’ll be in a position to launch online catalogues, redacted as appropriate of course! Aline finished cataloguing the Dott case notes a couple of days ago - so we’ve already hit a significant milestone for the project - and Becky and Clair are well on the way to finishing the TB case notes.

We’re also looking forward to making more of the records that we hold more accessible, with digital images going onto the University’s online image platform in the not too distant future (http://images.is.ed.ac.uk/) and by continuing the work required to put our catalogues into ArchivesSpace – the University’s online catalogue for archive collections (http://archives.collections.ed.ac.uk/).

There are exciting opportunities coming up with the team as we continue to offer internships and volunteer placements, so others will be able to join our Skills for the Future trainee, Samar, in working with us to gain skills and experience in the archive sector. We’re particularly pleased to have secured an Employ.ed internship for the summer which will look at our Levin Collection (to find out more about this important material see Louise’s blog at http://jewishmigrationtoscotland.is.ed.ac.uk/index.php/2016/12/20/the-personal-papers-of-ernst-levin-1887-1975-neurologist-university-of-edinburgh/).

2017 is a big year for the Centre for Research Collections with a major new project to rationalise, preserve and make more accessible the collections in the University Collections Facility, which includes our material held there. So we’re looking forward to getting involved and seeing the benefit to our collections and the people that want to use them.

And as well as all that, we'll be providing our usual services - Alice and Louise will be answering your enquiries through 2017...it’s going to be a busy year so watch this space!