Nicola Avery, Principal Archivist responsible for Archives
Systems Management, explains how to search the LMA online catalogue
for former Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section material and looks
forward to the introduction of online ordering for this later in
the year.
LMA is
pleased to announce that all the catalogue data relating to
former Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section material has been
migrated to LMA’s online catalogue and is now ready to search.
This is exactly the same data which was previously available
on the City of London Libraries online catalogue TalisPrism,
with the addition of archival reference numbers.
For anyone who has not used this system before, the ‘Simple
Search’ function on the LMA electronic catalogue can be used for
keyword searching, by entering your term or terms into the Search
Terms box. The Reference Code box should only be used if you know
the new, archival reference number of the item, which in the case
of former Manuscripts Section material will begin with ‘P69/’ for
parishes, ‘DL/’ for Diocese of London or ‘CLC/’ for everything
else. If you previously accessed Manuscripts material using
the old ‘MS’ number you can still do so in the LMA catalogue by
using the ‘Advanced Search’ function and entering the full MS
number into the ‘Former Reference’ search box; please ensure that
you include a space between the MS and the number, and round the
number up to five digits using leading zeroes where necessary, eg
‘MS 02876’ or ‘MS 00001’. If you fail to get a hit this way,
try adding an asterisk to the end of the MS number – this will
exclude any extra data in this field which might be confusing the
system.
At present it is not possible to use online ordering to order
former Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section material to view in
the LMA Archive Study Area. This is because we are currently
finalising the location information for the data and ensuring that
when an item is ordered through the online catalogue it has valid
location information which will allow our service assistants to
produce it from the strong room. This is the final stage of the
editing process for the Manuscripts data and consists of adding the
125,440 new archival reference numbers for the individual items
into our comprehensive Location Index, which tells us where each
item is physically located. The Location Index currently
contains only the old MS numbers and we are gradually matching up
each MS number to its new reference code. Occasionally the numbers
do not match and we then have to work out why, and resolve the
issue. It is hoped that this process will be completed within
the next few months, after which the Manuscripts data will join the
rest of the LMA data in being available for ordering online through
the LMA electronic catalogue as well as manually using the slip
system.
The few former Manuscripts collections which are still
physically held at Guildhall are also on the LMA online catalogue
and can be searched in the same way as explained above. Clicking on
a search result for one of these items will show the contents of
the catalogue record for that item, with the Site Location clearly
marked as ‘Guildhall’. When the rest of the Manuscripts material
becomes available for online ordering, the contents of these five
collections will not, and you will still need to contact Guildhall
Library to order and view the items. (More information about the
archives at Guildhall Library and how to access them can be found
in the
Libraries section of this website).
Still missing from the LMA online catalogue is the data relating
to collections formerly held by the Guildhall Library Prints and
Maps section. This data is in the final stages of editing ready to
be migrated to the electronic catalogue, and should be completed in
the next few weeks.
You can look at the catalogue yourself on
the LMA OPAC.