Hull History Centre

[LizzieW]

Has anyone any experience of Hull History Centre?  I know they charge £15 for 30 minutes research which includes the cost of up to 4 A4 copies.  That seems fairly reasonable but as I know the exact Fishing Vessel Crew Agreement reference number it can't possibly take 30 minutes to find it.  I could supply further reference numbers but I don't know how many they would be able to look up and photocopy in 30 minutes.

Years ago before it became the Hull History Centre, I used to just e-mail one of the archivists and she would look things up for me and charge me for the actual length of time it took her to find things, so if I could provide a reference, the charge was very low, if non existent. 

Lizzie

[nanny jan]

Hi,

I contacted them a few years ago to find an old map.  Son #2 had moved to a village and I wanted to show him what was on the site before his home was built there. Gave them the address, they found an old map, photocopied just the bit I needed and I think the cost was around £6; including post. 

I think I just emailed them and asked about any maps available and cost of copying/posting.

Nanny Jan

[LizzieW]

Nanny Jan - I did e-mail them and gave them the reference and the name I was interested in and I just got a standard response stating it was £15 per half hour and a link to their site to download the request forms. 

Things have obviously changed since they all moved into a new building and became Hull History Centre.  I guess the helpful people have moved on.

Lizzie

[nanny jan]

Oh.....what a shame. It does sound like a case of "new brooms". 


Nanny Jan

[terrac]

I think it's more a case of the lack of funding.  The local council have cut funding so much that the History Centre is having to close for a certain number of days per month as they simply do not have the money in the budget to keep it open and pay the staff. The staff have the same amount of work to do in less hours.  They still are as helpful as ever when you visit in person and go the extra mile even though they are busy.  Costs for searches from non visiting members of the public go towards keeping the place open, as do donations from visitors.  With the increase in the interest in genealogy you can bet they field a lot of inquiries per day which they are usually pretty helpful with, they tend to charge if they have to spend time looking things up, copying and emailing information.

So in all blame the council and the government on this one.  You cant blame the staff for being "unhelpful", they are following the rules put in place to hopefully make enough money up to save their jobs and keep the resource open.  I've found the charges to be the norm in other history centres and libraries around the country.

[LizzieW]

Thank you for the explanation Terrac. Unless I can get a distant relative of mine to go to the History Centre I'll just have to cough up the £15.  It could be the only way of finding more info about my g.grandfather.  Of course, it could be that the man listed on the crew list is not the man I'm looking for and £15 is a lot of money to pay for nothing.

[Treetotal]

I couldn't have put it better myself Terrac...There have been a lot of complaints in the press about the reduction in service at The Hull History Centre and the increased strain on staff to perform at the same level.
Carol