Logjam – an audit of uncatalogued archives in the North West
Producing catalogues of archive collections is the bedrock of the work of an archive service.
Producing catalogues of archive collections is the bedrock of the work of an archive service. Without a description of the documents it holds, an archive cannot provide a full public service, preserve the corporate memory or comply with its legal responsibilities.
The aim of Logjam was to identify, quantify and prioritise uncatalogued collections in the North West. Specifically it aimed to:
produce a detailed picture of the archival collections which are uncatalogued
identify the resources required to catalogue these collections
prioritise these collections and identify specific collections for collaborative projects.
The Logjam audit revealed that 29% or 14 miles of the region’s archives remain inaccessible and uncatalogued. Along with the work of individual archive offices, the Access All Areas project is aiming to tackle the situation.
The Logjam methodology, which also calculated cataloguing times for archives, is now available.
