I'd like to further echo the comments above.
In my opinion the archive materials should be readily available to all enthusiasts to browse at their leisure. I believe that this has a benefit to the movement as a whole, as with many people browsing the archive material we may find pieces of information that are far from common knowledge, which can be shared through the grey mag with everyone.

I think using a professional would be a good idea for making light work of this task. My only suggestion would be making sure a very knowledgeable austin seven enthusiast is on hand to help make sure that items are tagged with all relevant details (models, peoples names, registration numbers, dates, locations etc) to allow searches to pull up as much relevant material as possible.

Location: United Kingdom

Am I alone in thinking this is a priority - with £40k in the bank the Association can afford to get this done professionally (something that was raised at Committee over ten years ago) so why is no one acting?



[/quote]

Red faces? Digitising is the computer equivalent of doing a 'back up'. What if the water damage had been terminal for some irreplaceable unique items?

I am just a member of the Austin Seven movement.

My opinion is similar to Ruairidh's it is "nuts" not to have the archive material digitised to a very highest possible quality and shared with all seven enthusiasts and just as important safely backed up to archival standards.

How should that be achieved is the only question in my view.

I am willing to offer my services as a photographer with a state of the art studio set up as a contribution to help the right scheme.

Location: centre of the Universe

I cannot believe this was not discussed at the last Association meeting. Is it because we don't know how much damage has been done yet or is it because this will be a subject that everyone will forget about over the course of the year?
I'm getting quite annoyed at the complacency surrounding this terrible incident. I am in agreement with Ian Mc Gowan too, I really don't want to offend anyone personally, but this is an archive for everyone and should be shared ASAP, even if it costs close to £40k!
Regards,
Simon

Location: Co.Durham

The damage was discussed Simon, the minute reads:

"Archivist Report

13. New Location for Archives. Phil Baildon told the AGM that the Archives had been moved successfully within the TRRC building and that he had made some new acquisitions. He went on to say that, as a result of a leak from a pipe in the TRRC area above the Archives, the Archives had suffered some damage in February. Triumph staff had discovered the leak and had provided excellent assistance in repairing it and helping with clearing up. He, Dave Martin and a couple of committee members had spent a number of days clearing the area affected by the flooding and he had sent some paper items away to be restored. Some items were lost but the damage was not too bad overall. The building was covered by TRRC insurance whilst the A7CA items were covered by A7CA insurance: the A7CA claim was likely to be in the region of £5k. He continued that it was his intention to acquire and install a Plan chest which would protect the contents; he proposed to store books in plastic tubs. Restoration was being handled by a firm in Harlow. The Chairman thanked Phil and Dave for their hard work in recovering items and sorting out the stores. The Chairman then took up Phil's idea of a Plan chest and told the AGM that he was pursuing one on e-Bay. He recommended to the AGM that the Association should invest in suitable containers for the preservation of the Association artefacts. After some general discussion about the types of containers, this was agreed by those present."

The matter of digitally archiving everything was, unfortunately, not discussed.

Am I alone in finding it strange that there has been little or no response on this forum from association comittee members.I would expect some of them do perouse the forum and as such might have at least put up some explanation or a defence of the lack of answers to valid questions and enquiries.

Location: Worksop Notts

Thing is, they aren't accountable to us, so why would they

To whom are they accountable if no us then?

Location: Wessex

They are as far as I can see, unelected, and therefore accountable only unto themselves.

I'm sorry to differ Alan but, I quote here from the minutes of the 2014 AGM of the A7CA (which are in the public domain). Officers are apparently elected, even if the prevailing apathy ensures that there is no competition for any of the posts.


"Election of Officers
3. The Chairman said that he was delighted to see the Association's President, Bob
Wyatt, who had volunteered to remain as President for a further year, and announced
that all those of the Committee who were due to stand down had done so and had
offered themselves for re-election. He asked for volunteers to stand for the vacant
Committee places and was greeted with silence. He asked if anyone present had any
objections to the outgoing Committee's re-election: again, he was greeted with silence
so the Chairman duly announced that the Committee had been re-elected for a further
year. He then announced that John Wyett, the Treasurer, had tendered his resignation
with effect from the 2015 AGM: he had given sufficient notice for Clubs to ask
amongst their members for someone suitably qualified and willing to start to take the
reins during the year. He said that John Wyett had offered to assist and guide the new
Treasurer over the next few months and even to submit the invoices for the Grey Mag
before the next AGM. He said that the task was not onerous. Ian Mason Smith
proposed and Gill Davis seconded the re-election of the Committee. Gill Davis then
thanked the Committee on behalf of all present for their hard work and devotion."

I have to add that perusal of the previous 5 years' AGM Minutes reveals a total lack of competition for any of the posts of Officer of the Association. Indeed, when the status quo is disturbed, a format of candidates being proposed by the commitee and then being unanimously elected by the members present would seem to be the norm.

This isn't a criticism of the running of the A7CA, rather a reflection of a sad state of affairs within the A7 movement in which I will shamefacedly admit to being as guilty as anyone else.

Ian Mc.

Location: Shropshire

Officers are elected each year at the AGM, this was just two weeks ago.

If there are other issues maybe they can be looked at by interested parties after the Archives have been digitised?

Quite right Ruairidh but, I felt it unfair to allow Alan's misapprehension to go uncorrected here.

Ian Mc.

Location: Shropshire

I really regret such news. Wish prompt recovery of documents affected.
Alberto

Location: Canary Islands

Nick,

I take my hat off to you, well offered.

and the association should pay you for your services.

the committee have argued over what to do with this money for years.

Time to spend it on a well worthy cause like this. that will benefit the cars, the clubs. And there members.

Tony

Location: Leics

Spot on Tony.

Quite a lot of interesting communication is coming my way as a direct result of this post.

It is worth mentioning that those of you who think digital archiving of the Association’s material will now happen, because it has been discussed here on the Forum, may well be very disappointed.

It is also worth mentioning that those of you expecting a “statement”, on here, from the “Officers” to say how “they” are going to take this forward may well also be disappointed, that is not their job, they take instruction from the (17?) Clubs (this does not presently include Associate Clubs, Registers or any of the overseas Club) that form the “members’ of the Association (if you think this is incorrect read the Constitution and enlighten yourself to the differences between “Committee” and “Officers” of the Association).

To move this forward (and I hope that many of you want to move this forward – quickly) you need to be a member of one of the Full Member clubs and approach the Committee of that Club to continue to push this forward at future A7CA meetings.

I am preparing a statement to send to the Committee of my own Club asking them to put forward the proposals I have suggested with the support of another Member Club. By doing this they can ask for a Member vote and get the process rolling properly.

This is currently the process by which the A7CA should be making decisions – antiquated and protracted as it may seem (perhaps explains partly why nothing came of my 2003 proposals).

In short – if you want to be a part in getting things moving on this:

1. Join a full member Club.
2. Contact the Committee of that Club and ask them to actively encourage and support proposals for professionals to be employed to catalogue, digitise and upload the complete Collection held by the Association without delay.
3. Lobby your fellow members to do the same

Totally agreed, this not a sit on your hands and mumble issue, this is a "Save it now or lose it for ever" issue.

Follow Ruairidh's advice and pressurise your club rep. at A7CA to push the motion or appathy will provail.

Ian Mc.

Location: Shropshire

Hi R,

Just my opinion, and it doesn't count for much.

But that sounds like you are being fobbed off.

Is it that the association don't want to share there toys with use mear mortals.

Tony

Location: Leics

I don't know about that Tony but please do lobby your Club/s to support the action outlined above

R,

".............Clubs (this does not presently include Associate Clubs, Registers or any of the overseas Club) that form the “members’ of the Association .................."

As a member of a non voting overseas club and a regular recipient of the A7CA magazine this is very enlightening - I had not thought about the collection which as you describe must be quite amazing. I have often used the Handbook and Spare Parts books available on the A7CA website and would be very interested if this list could include the other material so recently saved.

Not sure how I could help, other than give my support here.

Tony.

Location: Malvern, Melbourne, Australia.

Just a quick word for all Scottish Austin Seven Club members. I have asked this to be discussed at our committee meeting next week. This is 2015, this archive should be accessible (at least) to everyone on line.
Regards
Simon

Location: Co Durham

If I can offer some thoughts on a parallel process.
I have recently joined our local Parish council in an effort to get some specific subjects running and with the perception that it is too slow in decision making and stilted by long time members.
The reality I found was a little different. The long term members were in reality doing work no one else volunteered for, gave up a significant amount of time for free and were often bogged down in work that kept vital processes rolling forward, sometimes to the exclusion of seing new critical issues that needed a fresh view.

They were also limited on subjects to discuss, notably if is not a specific agenda item then it cannot be discussed. So i now have a renewed understanding of dedication, work load and limitation, and importantly how to move big subjects forward in a bureaucratic environment.
So, in not disagreeing with a single sentiment regarding digitisaton (I was also worried about an earlier note that an item had been thrown away because it had mold on it).
It would seem to me the step 1 would be to get a specific item on the next meeting 'digitisation of archive' that would ensure that the subject was discussed and would bring out specific attitudes and intentions. So the question in my mind is, how do agenda items get added?

Andy

Good question.

The correct procedure is to lobby your Club to raise it or one of the named "Committee" members ( at present this is limited to Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer only - all other individuals are Officers).

I have just again read through the whole of this thread. Whilst I am in full agreement that the archive needs to be digitally backed up, we need to remember that it is just that, a back up. I think that equal emphasis must be applied to the proper preservation of the original material including professional advice, equipment and facilities, not just a plan chest from ebay!
If we fail in this, we could in the future just be left with digital images, better than nothing, but nothing like the original.

Location: Stretham, Ely.

Lance is absolutely correct and, as an aside, knows what he's talking about. I will be raising this with the Cambridge Club Committee with a view to our Association Rep raising this at the next A7CA meeting

Location: Cambridge

Whilst not wanting to detract from the impetus of the drive for digitalisation, back-up, and on-line access, I have to agree that conservation and safe storage of the original material must not be forgotten. Important also to bear in mind that water isn't the only threat; next time it could be fire and the whole lot go up in smoke. Even a box in a Hatton Garden Depository isn't always safe!!

Ian Mc.

Location: Shropshire

The demise of my business in 2001. when it's gone it's gone.

Location: Piddle valley, Dorchester.

It is worth also thinking about the income-generating aspect for the future. More and more are 'transacting' online rather than physically, however much we all sniff at it. There is a need for a hub - to be be a focal point for that sort of activity - bringing new members/passing visitors, who all will have the prospect of itchy fingers and paypal accounts.

That's also why the digitisation needs to happen quickly; to maximise the special 'pull' for any charitable organisation seeking to benefit from the modern way of the web, before others perhaps do it in a piecemeal way (just because information doesn't exist and its nice to have things accessible when its relatively easy to do) That activity could weaken the potential draw of a centralised information store... if the latter lags behind.

Yes, curate it all if you can afford to continue doing it forever. Or auction some less important material and bank some cash, once you have well backed up imagery on multiple servers and external storage devices. Physical 'assets' ARE generally a hassle unless they are yielding a return or significant added value?

When Stanley Edge gave me the drawings and booklets in 1974 it was on condition that they were to be used for the benefit of all, and that they were not to be used at any time for profit,personal or private.
It is essential, I believe,that Stanley's wishes are acknowledged and kept.

Location: Wessex

I would agree entirely with Ian as regards the wishes of Stanley Edge. There's also the very important matter of copyright to consider, firstly Mr Edge's heirs or his estate would have to give permission for the commercialisation of his drawings and booklets and they might reasonably request a licensing arrangement with the Association whereby a proportion of any profits generated would go to them (the heirs or his estate), not necessarily all of it going to the Association, but that would be a matter for his heirs / estate to decide. The original drawings and books will presumably remain the copyright of Mr Edge's estate until the 70th anniversary of his death - quite some time in the future. The same applies to any other printed material in the collection, posters, booklets, original artwork, drawings etc - someone somewhere will still hold the copyright to this material if it's within the 70 year rule - possibly the Chinese company who bought out parts of British Leyland for example. Try exploiting this material for profit without the copyright holders permission and you could find their legal team breathing down your neck.

Jeff.

Location: Almost but not quite, the far North East of England

I do not consider the suggestion of auctioning off less important items once a fully backed-up digital archive is in place as a sensible approach at all - is this something the Victoria & Albert or the National Motor Museum would consider - I think not. By all means digitise the collection, I believe that to be very important, however the originals must be retained and preserved / conserved.

Jeff.

Location: Almost but not quite, the far North East of England

I think the last part of my post was slightly intended to generate debate,; to play devils advocate. But it was too ambiguous.

Of course archive information needs to remain FREE. But it IS a potential attraction which should be adding to footfall to benefit clubs members, somehow.

Museums regularly de-accession stuff and it can probably be justified if the funds are re-used for something which more appropriately benefits whatever grouping the institution represents. There is never a right answer for any situation, but the more people that become involved in challenging things and discussing, the more representative any long term vision or short decision will become.

How many members ever see or inspect original archive works face to face?

Would club members all wish for a permanent archive if, for instance, a full physical catalogue of the archive was produced which was distributed free to members and to all major libraries and specialist collections?

I am not suggesting that is serious, but there are advantages of considering all crazy options in establishing what is an appropriate best use of a resource given for all. A large proportion of stuff in museums is NEVER, ever seen by the public... A sad state for the original donor's wishes.

The original material once digitally copied must be preserved and protected properly. No one needs to thumb through it or see it for information, that is what the digital images are for, but it needs to be kept safely for when the next update in back-up technology comes along. We will remember when cassette tapes were considered a good back-up for 78's and everyone had their Super 8 films transfered to videotape, then DVD. How long will DVD last?
Also, this modern idea that something is only worthwhile if it makes a profit, that needs watching too.

Location: Stretham, Ely.

I totally agree with the astute points you have made Lance.

Good points lance, what's a DVD, it's all on the clown know. It could even be that big black one above me know. It's full of something.

And yes even lower valued items should be valued.

As for museums selling items, once it's donated. It's theres to do with whatever they want. Unless agreements are made otherwise. So the V&A can do what ever they want.

I would expect the association is the same, what's been donated to them is there's.

Tony

Location: Leics

Lance your's is a well made point.

DVD is already well superseded technically (although still widely used).

However I think it is useful to mention that if material is currently digitised into raw files, they are at that stage un-encoded.
Those files can be encoded or re-encoded into whatever the latest format is at any time going forward, so the issue of obsolesce of format in my view now is not too important.

The current state of the art kit would record material raw theoretically to a standard that would enable reproduction equal to the original.

As a club member I would like to see funds (which I understand we have) being spent on these archives both to protect and preserve the originals and to digitise them with a view to sharing them without cost to fellow enthusiasts.

I personally greatly appreciate the work already done in terms of looking after these items both now and in the past but feel that this incident should be considered a "wake up call" to us all.

I feel confident the officers of our association would wish to share this material for the benefit of it's members.

If this is so, then some serious money needs to be spent, what better than this ?

Location: centre of the Universe

Thank you for the mostly helpful comments with regard to the flood at the archive room, and the discussion about digitising the archive. The committee had formulated a plan in which we identified what needed doing.
1) Retrieve and restore the items and artefacts from the archive room
2) Arrange for the Items to be conserved via our insurance.
3) For the Triumph club to repair and reinstate the archive room via their insurance
4) Revise and improve the storage of the items and artefacts
5) Provide a computer and printer/scanner for use in the archive room
6) Produce and inventory of the items and artefacts in store and their current stage of storage. eg laminated, catalogue or digitised.
7) Identify an order for digitisation and someone to digitise the items.
8) With further guidance make items available, perhaps via a link from the website or some other method.
To that end items have been sent to various companies for repair and conservation. An A0 plan chest has been bought to store drawings etc flat. Stanley Edge kept his drawings in rolls for 70 years in successive places of work and homes from Austin to Triumph to Clayton Dewandre, then finally in his summerhouse at Oswestry. He too had water damage during the war and 10 of the original Seven drawings were stitched together by Somerset Archives in the 1970s. Our later work on these 10 was by Leicestershire Archives in 2012 and two are now with them being re-encapsulated in 2015. Plastic lidded boxes will contain original service journals, catalogues, photos, brochures, handbooks etc.
A computer has only been available through the kindness of Phil Baildon who has been using his own. After discussion with Chris Charles (Website co-ordinator) and other parties as to the best equipment suitable for our use, this needs to be provided. Digitisation is no good if you cannot view it in the archive room.
A proper inventory is needed, as items are in various stages of storage. Some are already digitised and are available, some are digitised and held in that format. We need to know what is at which stage. Then we can make decisions about what can and cannot be digitised, and in which order to do them. It has been suggested this could be done as the archive is sorted out and replaced in the new storage units.
We also need to find someone to do the digitisation; this is where you can help. Will you please let me know if you have successfully used someone to digitise items. You can do that through the Forum or by personal e-mail (chairman@a7ca.org).
The committee also needs to seek guidance on the best way to make the items available and the best format.
Some thank you's: to Phil and the team at the archive room who have had their well-organised system completely disrupted, and have had to chase round with much extra work. To Ruairidh who wrote the original document in 2003, which I was not aware of until he sent me a copy. To Nick Turley and Austin Harris who have already volunteered to help.
At the next meeting of the Association at Gaydon a budget needs to be set for this work. You might like to look at the treasurer’s report contained in the end of the last minutes, and give some consideration to that amount, and advise your representative.
Andy Lowe, Chairman, on behalf of the Officers and Committee of the Austin Seven Clubs' Association.

Location: Packing for the Montlhery Revival meeting

Can I suggest that the A7CA invite both Austin, Nick and a professional Archivist/Librarian to come to the next Committee meeting so that they can offer their (professional) advice and expertise to the Committee?

Once their advice has been listened to it will then be possible to formulate the best plan to move forward - this is too valuable to be left to chance, real expertise exist and they should be utilised.

The question of how much to spend will only be answered once a costing has been given and this can only be done with professional guidance otherwise worth and cost are at best being plucked from the sky.

This is perhaps the most important thing the A7CA has ever done and my my opinion it should be done professionally - the Association has a considerable amount of money that can be used to do this properly.

Totally agree. Well said Ruairidh and thanks to Nick and Austin for offering their time and expertise.

Location: Stretham, Ely.

Gosh - have come home to rather a lot of emails on this post - I will get back to you all but to answer most:

-A7CA Constitution is here: http://a7ca.org/about-us/constitution/ terribly antiquated (in my opinion), a little long-winded and wordy but that is the state of play thus far - give it a read, most seem unclear on what the Association actually is and how things should run.

-Latest AGM minutes are here: http://www.a7ca.org/minutes/downloads/MinutesApr15AGM.pdf this states £30k in the bank - I had it in my mind that there was a further amount invested in Scottish Widows???

Chris Charles has done a great job on the new Website - nice work!

Point 20 of the Constitution explains the reasoning behind my statement above:

20. General: No Member or person shall represent the Association in any way whatsoever
without the express consent of the General Committee.

Vital decisions have to be taken on this iminently. Could I ask that all Austin Seven club members that have association with the A7CA, ensure that their "appointed committee members",are up to speed on their responsibilities regarding the instruction and guidance,that they should give the association officers,so that the proposal to digitise,catalogue,and repair/restore the archives,can be carried out as soon as possible.
It would be advantageous to utilise the expertise of Austin Harris and Nick Turley should they be willing,to be "employed" in the venture, along with a professional company,with expertise in this field.
It seems to me that the work must be outsourced to a company with the necessary skills in this type of work,so that Austin Sevenists in the future, as well as those of us currently enjoying Sevens, can delve into our history freely on the web,as well as through the original documents.
The Association currently has sufficient funds to achieve this,and it is vital that this opportunity is not missed,there may not be a next time,(see my previously posted picture).
My "friends" it's up to you.

Location: Piddle valley, Dorchester.

I'm happy to give advice and help where I can, travelling to meetings may be beyond me at the moment due to family / work etc etc.

My advice would be to get scanning and cataloging ASAP, all the scans I did for my site were done with a £20 off ebay home scanner, it doesn't need to be expensive!

Building an online archive is the easy bit once the materials are all to hand. Storage is cheap, some of the documents are irreplaceable.

Location: United Kingdom

Can anyone confirm the year that the Association started to rent the room at Lubenham please?

I have 2005 confirmed, thank you.

The following Document has now been forwarded to the A7CA Sec. , with full backing of a Member Club committee, along with a request that it be forwarded to all Member Clubs as soon as possible. The covering email also noted that it would be shared on this Forum for comment and discussion.

The authors welcome comment and views here and hope you also share them with your own Club committee prior to the next A7CA meeting on the 12th July 2015.

Austin Seven Clubs’ Association Archive - a proposal for the future.



Background



Over many years, the Austin 7 Clubs Association (A7CA) has gathered a collection of Austin 7 related ephemera and memorabilia which, for a long time, lacked a suitable home that made general access to the collection not possible. A major step forward was made in 2005 when the complete archive was moved to a room in the Triumph Sports Six Club (TSSC) building at Lubenham, though access was still only possible by prior appointment or on special Open Days. The condition of the archive, and its accessibility generally, has been brought to the fore with a recent burst pipe at the TSSC building. The subsequent flooding and water damage to the collection has highlighted the need for conservation of the collection, a process to be established that provides some form of copy of the items and greater accessibility to the collection.

The core of the collection is the Stanley Edge Archive, a priceless collection of original documents from the time when Herbert Austin was formulating his ideas and Stanley Edge was drawing them up. Later in his life, Stanley Edge gave these artifacts to Ian Dunford, who in turn gave them to the Association. When they were originally donated, they were given on the condition that they were to be used for the benefit of all, and that they were not to be used at any time for profit, personal or private. It is essential that Stanley's wishes are acknowledged and kept.

The A7CA is a not for profit organisation that exists "to promote the pre-war Austin Seven car". Its only real assets are cash and the collection of archive material - it should use the funds it holds to make sure that the archive is protected and in a position to be shared freely throughout the global Austin Seven movement.



The purpose of this document



The purpose of this document is to raise awareness amongst the Club’s Committee members and the Association Officers to the potential problems of the Archive in its current condition and the opportunities for access currently available. It describes the problem and possible solutions from a wider perspective. The Authors have no particular agenda other than they are all keen to see the future of the Archive secured. They do, however, have some experience in this area and are keen to contribute to the debate that should take place within the auspices of the Clubs Association.



The problem



A comprehensive catalogue of the collection is lacking.
Without an accurate catalogue of the archive, the scale of the problem is, in essence, unknown.
The archive material is fragile and much of it not suitable for handling on a ‘day to day’ basis.
Should any of it become damaged beyond repair/conservation, no copy of the collection exists.
Archive material is stored centrally and can only be viewed by appointment, this effectively limits access to a very small number of interested parties.



The solution



The archive should be catalogued using professional services adopting standards used elsewhere in the library and archival professions.
As part of that cataloguing process, each artefact should be assessed for it’s current condition with recommendations for further conservation as required
As each artefact is deemed in a stable state, a method for its copying should be recommended and carried out, leading to a complete digital archive mirroring the original items
Each digital resource should be indexed with a set of tags that will enable searching bringing together similarly tagged items – eg Model, year, Event etc, etc
A proposal for a web based system enabling *all* interested parties to view the archive over the web should be drawn up and pursued.




Recommendations



It is imperative that the first phase of anything the Association decides to do is that an index is created of the artifacts held in the archive. This should not be a difficult task as there are no technical complexities that prevent it taking place. It should be an ‘Administrative’ task, though will need some expertise to be provided for describing the item. Advice should be sought (from a Librarian, perhaps) about how the index should be captured so it, in itself, becomes a useful resource.

It is recommended that the Association should undertake this work with a view to having it completed by the scheduled October 2015 meeting. At that meeting, the Association should then be in a position to determine and authorise ‘next steps’ along the lines of those described in this document.



Appendices



The following are more detailed descriptions of the various aspects and tasks involved in the digitisation of the archive and it being made available on the web.


The Digitisation Process


It is fundamental that all the assets are acquired in a manner that produces high resolution ‘Raw’ files. If captured in this manner, they can then be encoded into whatever format is required at whatever resolution needed.

With this approach the original raw files can be encoded to support any current standards and will be able to be used in any new standards that may be developed in the future. If one thinks in terms of recorded music, we have seen the standards move from vinyl to cassette to CD and on from there. A digitised file in ‘Raw’ format would enable all of these types of media to be produced from the one original source. The approach keeps creates a situation whereby the archive will be digitised once and once only.

For printed items, high quality scans will be required, though to create high quality images of non-printed material, it is likely that studio photography will be needed.

The key to this approach is one of flexibility. It is important that the this is needed because almost for sure once started experience will demand certain goals to be changed



Taxonomy



The ‘taxonomy’ is a term that describes the definition of groups of things on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. For the Austin 7 Archive, it would be seen as a natural way of returning ‘sets’ of similar items in the archive. Such tags would be ‘Models’, ‘Coachbuilders, ‘Year. ‘Location’ etc



Putting the archive online



None of this is difficult or daunting, the best thing to do is just to start, the best way of doing it will soon emerge. The beauty of the web is that it isn’t “fixed” like print so it can always be updated and altered.

The following steps are broad guidelines as to the type of work that will be required to hold the digitised archive on-line. It has been deliberately left somewhat vague as without a thorough understanding of the technology standards utilised by the A7CA website and who will be responsible for setting up, uploading and the archive maintaining, it is difficult to expand on these without making assumptions. It is suggested that the A7CA committee ask the A7CA Web Master to draw up a technical specification and implementation plan (when appropriate) for publishing the digitised archive on-line.



Step 1
Once the items are catalogued would suggest that the list of items is put online immediately so that members know what is in the archive. This could be as simple as a table with catalogue number and brief description as a Google doc.

Step 2
As images become available they can start to be put online. It may be that this becomes an extension of the existing A7CA website which has just been updated. They could be tagged and commented on and more information added as time passes.
The important thing is they are there, people will put the time in if they want to find something!

Step 3 (Optional)
Create a more bespoke and in-depth system for searching and grouping images / artifacts. This may not be necessary if there are less than 1,000 objects in the archive. From experience things start to get unwieldy around this number.



Hugh Barnes
Ruairidh Dunford
Austin Harris
Nick Turley

With over 250 views in less than 48 hours we know from emails sent that this is being received positively by a good number of people and has already been added to agendas for meetings scheduled this week, some even tonight.

The group do welcome comment and question on here - this is a very important issue in the small world of Austin Seven, please do not be afraid to contribute your thoughts, wishes and ideas.

Location: Herefordshire, with an E not a T

Hearty congratulations to Hugh, Ruairidh,Austin and Nick on the excellent document they posted on this topic on 6 June. It sets out a course of action which I am sure most readers of this thread would endorse.
I think the document makes it plain that there is now an onus on all the associated clubs (both home and overseas) to get this topic on the agenda of their next committee meeting with a view to briefing their A7CA rep for the next Association meeting. To make this happen it is important to contact your club secretary and state your case! Not all Club Committee members are in tune with this thread and it needs you to raise this agenda item. Do it now!
Ron

It would appear that a great deal of thought and effort has gone into the proposal by Hugh Barnes,Ruairidh Dunford,Austin Harris,and Nick Turley.The document gets my wholehearted support, it appears to cover all the requirements to safeguard the history of the vehicles and will enable more ,especially those of you living in "foreign" lands, to access the original documents first hand.
As I've said before "when its gone its gone", lets face it it's bad enough when you have lost something of your own, TO LOSE ANY OF THIS WOULD BE A CRIME.
My thanks to all four of you above for your commitment.

Location: Piddle valley, Dorchester.