What people say about the Archives Hub

The Archives Hub adds value and saves you time with your research...

"The Archives Hub fulfils a vital and unique function in revealing the incredible wealth of archives held within... institutions, and in providing an interface between these resources and researchers and learners in the HE sector and the wider community." (Hub contributor)

the Hub's a great site and fulfils a very valuable function (and is much easier to use than Discovery, for example!) (local govt contributor, Nov 2021)

"...although my work here is mainly with Law and Criminology I find the Hub invaluable when pursuing historical topics for my own interest as well." (L Jones, Hub user).

"I find the updates really useful as it's a chance to come across information which you may not have considered to be useful." (Hub user)

"... when I was working at the Borthwick Institute in York we relied on it immensely as the only easy way of getting into the Diocesan Records, without having to go through 10+ paper finding aids. It was quick and easy to use". (Archivist)

"What a great service." (Hub user)

"My current interest in the Archives Hub is in promoting it to researchers at the University of Bedfordshire where I am Research Librarian. Had I more time it would be interesting to use it for personal research but maybe when I retire..". (Librarian)

Being a contributor to the Hub really does make a difference....

"(I) wanted to say how wonderful it is to have this kind of dedicated help from yourselves at ArchivesHub, it really makes a huge difference and we appreciate it so much." (Local Govt contributor, Nov 2021)

"Thank you to you all for the hard work and support that you have given throughout the year. It is so great to have Archives Hub to use to catalogue my collections and I am very grateful for its availability" (Specialist repository, Dec 2019)

Big shout to @archiveshub - last week we had onsite researchers in #Cardiff from Paris and Hong Kong as a direct result of sharing our content descriptions on the Hub. All content exposed to Google. Big shout to the global reach of @archiveshub" (Welsh HE contributor, 2019)

"I've had 3 more people getting in touch via the Archives Hub descriptions you imported for me! They'd never have found us otherwise. I've been spreading the word to other Scottish local authorities. (Scottish local authority archive, Nov 2019)

"It is so satisfying to see our collections on Archives Hub. This is a great start to the year. It'll be fascinating to see how this affects the use of the collection and how many enquiries come to us as a result." (AtoM export contributor, January 2019)

"Have just had the delight of answering a very specific question thanks to...Archives Hub. The researcher was seeking images of the British embassy in Caldetas, transferred 40km north of Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War (none survived in Spain) and lo and behold we had one in one of Sir Ralph’s scrapbooks. It never ceases to amaze how our archives are used and how our presence on the Archives Hub is assisting with making them available to researchers worldwide." (Contributor via email, May 2019)

"I’m very pleased to see how many searches and views of our catalogues are being made in the Hub already." (Welsh Local Authority Archive, December 2017)

"Thank you very much indeed – this is fantastic news! And no delay – what with the new editor and other changes, we were expecting everything to take far longer. Tremendous work getting us live so quickly. The new EAD editor is an extremely impressive tool – congratulations to everyone involved." (New Hub contributor, 2017)

"You've saved our bacon." (Hub contributor, needing a very large and complex description to go live quickly, 2017)

"We have found the Hub to be a useful route for potential users to find us and look at summaries of our collections" (Specialist repository, Apr 2017)

Being on the Hub Advisory Group: "'[the meetings] are insightful on many levels- regarding developments with AH, how other institutions are using and engaging with AH, the opportunity to network and discuss future developments at AH, and also opportunities to discuss with perspectives from a range of staff. I find the meetings very useful." (Hub Advisory Group member, 2017)

"Thank you so much. I’m really most grateful to you for sneaking through the catalogue as well – as you can tell is was rather a last minute rushed job to get it all done on time given the move to our new premises...so your support with this has been nothing short of miraculous given everything you’ve had to do too! Thank you to you and all of the team – you’re all brilliant." (Hub contributor, 2016)

"Wanted also to say a BIG THANKS to all the Archives Hub team for getting [our Archive] up-and-running on Archives Hub this year. It's been great to achieve that and you've all been fantastic in your support in making it so easy" (Hub contributor, 2015)

"It's great having our descriptions on the Hub and now Archives Portal Europe - there's been an increased demand for the use of the archive throughout April and I'm sure having details of our archives in multiple places is a contributing factor." (Specialist repository, 2015)

"This is great - getting enquiries about @BrunelSpecColl #archives & #speccolls since listing on @archiveshub Hooray!" [Twitter] (More items were requested by readers from Brunel Special Collections in first 6 weeks of being on the Archives Hub than in whole of 2011/12).

"We’ve been cataloguing our collections on Archives Hub for about two years now, and it has been absolutely brilliant – we’ve been able to get our collections “out there” and get people using them, plus the people at Archives Hub have been very helpful. I would recommend going on one of their free training days – you don’t have to go on one to use them, but I found it really useful." (University contributor, 2015)

"[I] can only speak very highly of [the Hub team], who are really amongst those at the forefront of breaking down barriers to access for researchers and repositories." (University contributor 2015)

"I found the [Hub contributors' workshop] really useful. We covered everything from an introduction to archival cataloguing using the Hub [Editor] to future developments...I also enjoyed the networking opportunities [and] I liked the way the day was structured, which gave plenty of time to ask questions and have a go for ourselves." (Hub contributor, October 2013)

"This is the first time in the archive’s 30 year existence that the collections have been catalogued and made available in this way." (Archivist, Rambert Dance Company Archive)

"I am very excited that descriptions of some of the
Archives held at the Paul Mellon Centre are now available via in the Archives Hub. I really appreciate your hard work making this happen. (Archivist, PMC)

We have introduced an administrative interface, to allow contributors to view, upload and download descriptions

"I am extremely pleasantly surprised at how easy and quick the process is. No doubt it has taken a great deal of work to get to this point, so thank you. Please pass my complements on to the rest of your team; I'm very impressed." (Local Govt Archive, June 2019)

"This looks great, with a clean look and feel, clear labelling and pretty intuitive to use" (Hub HE contributor using the new Admin interface, April 2017)

"I just wanted to reiterate how absolutely wonderful I think this is! Massive congratulations to the whole team." (University contributor, 5 May 2017)

"I'm enjoying slowly working through my archives and I'm finding the system quite easy to use" (specialist repository contributor, 5 May 2017)

We provide information and advice to help with archival discovery and use of standards:

"I just wanted to say thank you for putting this together and keeping it up to date - I find it a really useful resource to direct our students to!" (Archivist, Royal Holloway, re. our Guide to Using Archives, June 2015).

"The LOCAH project blog posts [on our Linked Data project] are a great resource for us to see what we're letting ourselves in for, and being able to follow your thinking as you were working on this project." (Wellcome Institute)

We have run Development and Innovations Days for our Contributors:

"We wanted to say a big thank you for the Hub training day yesterday. We found the whole day really useful and interesting, and everyone was very friendly, welcoming and inclusive. The day had a lovely relaxed, but professional feel to it - a combination not easily achieved, so thank you." (Manchester Day, 2015)

"thanks again to yourself and all those at Archives Hub for a really great day yesterday – I’m going to share with the Archives team here as we get ourselves contributing to the Hub (and hopefully the pub next time!)." (Manchester Day, 2015)

"I found the day very useful and as a newcomer to the HE sector a nice chance to meet other HE-based information people. I also liked the Hub in the Pub idea which allowed for further useful debate and discussion. Thank you for organising a thought provoking and useful day." (London Day, 2015)

"Overall I left the session feeling inspired and motivated to work with the Hub" (London Day, 2015)

" I felt the day was really interesting and very useful. A really lovely opportunity to meet all the Hub staff (you are all so friendly and welcoming). I would really recommend this day to other Hub users." (University contributor, 2015)

"I really enjoyed it as it gave an overview of the bigger picture and gave and intriguing insight into how collection data is managed and processed behind the scenes. I quite liked all the technical stuff and thinking about how data operability works and how machines ‘think’ very differently from humans" (Specialist repository contributor, 2015)

" I get all your lovely emails, but sometimes you cant beat a bit of face-time, to really get to grips with what's actually happening somewhere and how you can get involved." (University contributor, 2015)

Stay up to date with what the Hub is up to...

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Subscribe at jiscmail.ac.uk/archives-hub-users

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Periodic updates are provided on this list.