Catalogue of disaster

It is distressing to read that papers are sitting in archives, effectively closed, because they have not yet been catalogued.

One way round this could be to get librarian students on archival courses to do the cataloguing or to offer bursaries to students who agree to catalogue collections. While not ideal, this would at least allow the papers to be utilised sooner rather than later.

Furthermore, if an archive is unable to cope with papers donated to it, how long before collections are offered elsewhere, perhaps even abroad?

Sean Kelly PhD student in history University of Sheffield