BVS Archive material

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MB
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BVS Archive material

Postby MB » Thu May 22, 2008 12:46 pm

Some of you may already know that I have offered my services to run the BVS Archive, which I understand will be voted on at the AGM.

Unfortunately I cannot make the AGM as I will be on holiday, but I thought it would probably be worth me explaining what I have in mind for the archive material and answer any questions that anyone may have.

My understanding is that at present, most of the BVS archive is in printed form and my first task will be to get this into electronic format and catalogue it properly. Once this is done, the next task is to make it available online to BVS members, so that members can view and download anything they want.

I feel it is very important that we don't exclude people who aren't IT literate, so my next step would be to start producing booklets and books of material.

Ideally, I would like to have these published as proper volumes, complete with ISBN numbers. If I did this, we could donate copies to a small number of libraries across the UK, thereby establishing a number of centres where BVS members - or for that matter, the general public - would be able to visit and read up on their favourite subject. Theoretically, you would be able to go into any library and ask for a copy of the book to be ordered for you. In reality, I'm unsure of the practicalities of this.

For people who wanted a copy of a BVS book for themselves, they could buy one, either from Amazon or by going into any book shop and ordering a copy by quoting the ISBN number.

Obviously there is a cost for all of this, and I am still investigating what this cost is likely to be: indications suggest that we're talking about £200-300 in order to put a book into publication and get enough copies of the book to put into distribution.

All of this is likely to take a lot of time and until I know exactly how big our archive is, its difficult to put some timeframes on it. My gut feel is that electronically archiving and cataloguing the information and getting it online is likely to take most of the summer. Reproducing the information in book form is likely to take even longer and I wouldn't expect to have more than one book available this year.

If anyone has any questions or comments they would like to make, please post them here and I'll do my best to answer them.

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ChrisB
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Postby ChrisB » Thu May 22, 2008 12:54 pm

Wow fantastic idea Mike 8)

We do have to my knowledge about FOUR filing cabs full of it, certianly quite a task :shock: but would be well worth it in the long run.

Your best bet would be to contact John Crayton I suspect and work with him as he looks after the archives currently.

My personal take would be it would need two people, i.e yourself and John as this would mean one would have the IT expertise while the other would have the local knowledge of the filing cabs :wink:

To have all of it on-line to "paid up BVS members" would be dam good .

You've got my backing

ChrisB
I reject reality and substitute my own !!!!!!

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MaryRCrumpton
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Re: BVS Archive material

Postby MaryRCrumpton » Thu May 22, 2008 1:08 pm

MikeBoxwell wrote:Some of you may already know that I have offered my services to run the BVS Archive, which I understand will be voted on at the AGM.


You can count on my vote Mike ;-)

I was chatting to John Crayton about the archives. He said he has several filing cabinets full of stuff, so I hope you have a spare room in your house!
Some of the archive material is over a hundred years old apparently, and I am sure it will be a fascinating project to go through it all.

I agree that getting it all stored in electronic format and properly catalogued, both the hard-copy and electronic formats, should be the first priority. I suspect scanning all that in may take you a bit longer than just the summer though.

Part of the archive is all the previous society magazines. It would be great to have them available electronically, and accessible to members to read on the website perhaps.

Anyway, I like your ideas, and I hope that you will be elected. So far as I know you are the only one who has been proposed for the role, since I haven't had a proposal from anyone for John Crayton (the current Archives secretary). John Crayton told me that he would like to hand it over to someone else anyway, since he hasn't had the time to do anything with the archives since they have been in his custody.

Mary.
BVS North-West Coordinator, based in Manchester.
Contact via Text/Phone on 07751 696 055

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qdos
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Postby qdos » Thu May 22, 2008 2:06 pm

You know already you have my vote Mike :wink:

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MB
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Postby MB » Thu May 22, 2008 2:44 pm

Four filing cabinets full!?!?!?

GULP!

To be fair though, that just makes the job more important - we have to have that in an electronic format - simply managing and handling that amount of paperwork is simply impossible.

I'm lucky though. My other half is addicted to Eastenders, which means I have half an hour four nights a week of uninterrupted time to do what I like. Which means I can spend that time working on the archive.

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Postby MaryRCrumpton » Thu May 22, 2008 2:57 pm

MikeBoxwell wrote:Four filing cabinets full!?!?!?

GULP!

To be fair though, that just makes the job more important - we have to have that in an electronic format - simply managing and handling that amount of paperwork is simply impossible.

I'm lucky though. My other half is addicted to Eastenders, which means I have half an hour four nights a week of uninterrupted time to do what I like. Which means I can spend that time working on the archive.


Ah, now I understand. Faced with a choice between watching Eastenders or doing BVS filing... I'd choose the filing too! ;-)

Seriously though, HUGE thanks are due to you for being willing to take this on. Even if you don't manage to scan it all in before you get fed up and want to pass the baton on to the next person, I think it is great that you are willing to get stuck in and do this for the society.

Mary.
BVS North-West Coordinator, based in Manchester.
Contact via Text/Phone on 07751 696 055

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MB
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Postby MB » Thu May 22, 2008 5:25 pm

Well, I think it's important for several reasons.

As probably everyone in the club knows there is a bit of a battle between people who want the club just to be an enthusiasts register of people building their own home-built specials in the garage, and people who want it to be a force for change in this country.

I personally don't see any problem with the society being both. In fact, I think it would be stronger if it was both. The archives are important for the home-builder, but also interesting for everyone else and could be an important asset to pull the society back together.

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ChrisB
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Postby ChrisB » Thu May 22, 2008 8:55 pm

Buy that man a BEER 8)

Well said

ChrisB
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Postby electricvehicles » Fri May 23, 2008 8:39 am

Hi Mike

If your offer to take on the Archiving or all the BVS Literature is accepted, I am more than happy to assist in scanning and emailing you over the documents.
Just so happens that I also have 2 filing cabinets full of literature pertaining to EVs, Speed Controllers, Battery Chargers etc.
Would be a good opportunity for me to sort out some stuff :)
Pls PM me if you do want any assistance.

Regards
Dave
PS -- Installing a set of Crown Batteries on a G-Wiz week after next --
Very Posh Customer Indeed :?: :?:

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Postby qdos » Fri May 23, 2008 8:44 am

Fantastic!

This is the sort of co-operation and helpfulness we want to see in the Society !


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