What's in a name?

It was one year ago today that we bought the domain name for our blog; www.archives-records-artefacts.com. In that year we've had 6,719 visitors (with 10,791 overall since we launched the blog in August 2009). All those visits add up to a remarkable 11,061 page views (or 18,424 since August 2009). We wanted to take this chance to say thanks to everyone who visits our blog. We hope that you continue to enjoy our posts.

Screenshot and statistics from Google's Analytics service.

Who do you think we are?

We were intrigued by a post this weekend on Euan Semple's blog, 'The Obvious', coming as it did in the same week we set up a new Twitter account for Archive Services and Records Management Services. In his post on the use of online social tools by orgnaisations Euan suggests that:

Reciprocity relies on mutual respect. When you are treating me as a statistic, or worse a target, I don't feel respected and have little inclination to reciprocate.

Then goes on to ask:

Why should I re-tweet your tweets or like your Facebook page when you won't even tell me your name?

To that end, we thought you might like to meet the people behind this blog and our Twitter accounts:

• @CAIS_Archives for the Centre for Archive and Information Studies;
• @UoD_Museums for Museum Services; and
• @UoD_Archives for Archive Services and Records Management Services

Everything posted here or via our Twitter accounts is written by staff from Archive, Records Management and Museum Services and the Centre for Archive and Information Studies at the University of Dundee. You can find information about us and our contact details on our website and we'd be happy to hear from you about any aspect of our work.

4,000 visitors!

By complete chance we were looking at our website statistics this morning just at the point where the number of unique visitors to this blog reached 4,000. In total 6,624 visitors (including returning visitors) have looked at the blog since it began in August 2009 with 11,808 page views.

As you can see from the map, people viewing the blog come from all over the world.



As well as this blog you can also find us online in the following places:

• The University of Dundee webpages for Archive, Records Management and Museum Services (ARMMS) and the Centre for Archive and Information Studies (CAIS)
• The CAIS twitter account
• Museum Services' twitter account
• The bookmarks we save on delicious
• Images from Museum Services on Flickr

We're really pleased that so many people find the blog interesting and useful. Please let us know if you have any comments or suggestions on how we could change or improve things.

NOTE: we use Google's Analytics service to track our web statistics and the screenshots are taken from there.

Happy Birthday Blog!

It's our blog's first birthday today. In that time it's had two facelifts, nine different contributors, almost 6,000 visitors, over 10,000 page views and has been viewed in 86 different countries.

The highest number of visitors in a single day was 78 on 22 September 2009 (when we were posting lots of things from the CAIS Study School) and the two most popular posts were this quite recent one celebrating the 2010 Graduation ceremonies and this post which mentioned the early acting career of a future Dr Who.

We hope that you continue to enjoy what we post here. Thanks to everyone who's helped make the blog successful so far.

picture credit: Theresa Thompson

Where are you?

Having told you who we are, we thought you might like to know where we are, especially if you've never had the chance to visit Dundee or the University. Archive Services, Records Management Services and the Centre for Archive and Information Studies are based in the University's Tower Building, whilst Museum Services operate from Hawkhill House and exhibit the museum collections in a variety of locations around the University's Main Campus and in the Tayside Medical History and D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museums. The public opening times for the Archive Services Reading Room are avaialble here. To arrange access to museum collections not currently on display please contact the Museum Curator.

There are some directions to help you find the Archive Services Reading Room here and you can find directions to the locations used by Museum Services here.

We would like to know where you're from too. Leave us a comment or drop us a line at archives@dundee.ac.uk.

Who are you?

If you've been reading our blog, but haven't followed the links through to our departmental pages we thought you might like to know who we are and what we do. You can see profiles for most of the staff of the University's Archive, Records Management and Museum Services and the Centre for Archive and Information Studies on our website here.

We'd love to know who you are and what you think of our blog too. If you've any observations please drop us a line at archives@dundee.ac.uk or leave us a comment.

dot COM

We've been doing some work behind the scenes with the blog, the most visible of which is that we've bought the domain name 'archives-records-artefacts.com'. This shouldn't cause any problems for those of you that read the blog, but you might
want to update any links or bookmarks you have to www.archives-records-artefacts.com. If you spot any problems please let us know. As always, if you've any comments on the blog or its content we would be happy to hear them.

Brian Cox's Jute Journey (reprise)

Last night BBC 2 showed the BBC Scotland programme, 'Brian Cox's Jute Journey', across the UK. The show looks at the jute industry in Dundee and the city's connections with India. Archive Services at the University of Dundee has the world's finest collection of records pertaining to the jute industry in the city and its relationship with the Indian subcontinent. Some of the key sections of our holdings relating to the textile industry in India are noted in this source list. More detailed information on our holdings is available via the online catalogue. The show is available again to view online via the BBC's iPlayer until Sunday 29 November.

When the programme first aired Michael wrote a post which discusses some of the links between the textile industries in Dundee and India and mentions an item from our collections used in the programme. As Michael points out in that post

Anyone is welcome to visit the archives to look these fascinating records. We are also interested in hearing from any Dundonians who spent time in India and who might have material relating to their time there. Please email archives@dundee.ac.uk.

We look forward to hearing from anyone interested in this important part of Dundee's history.

Incremental change

When we started this blog in August we mentioned that it was quite likely that things would move around, colours would change and elements would be added or taken or away until we settled on a design we liked and built in the functionality we wanted. You may have noticed how things have evolved since our first post. Even during the last few days we've made some small final changes and added the ability to search the blog or to share any post via some popular social bookmarking sites, twitter or facebook. Overall, the look and feel of the blog is now one that we are all comfortable with and it shouldn't change too much in the short-medium term. We hope you like the blog and are enjoying our posts, but we would still welcome comments on its look, content or functionality.

New blog

Welcome to our new blog. We hope to use it to keep everyone updated on news and events from Archive, Records Management and Museum Services (ARMMS) and the Centre for Archive and Information Studies (CAIS) at the University of Dundee. We'll be highlighting items from our collections and the more interesting aspects of our work, sharing our thoughts on events we attend, giving you advance notice of events we're staging and keeping you informed about the courses offered by CAIS. Inevitably, the things we post will change over time as we have new ideas.

As you can see the blog is quite new so it is likely that the design will change now and then as we develop the site. Don't be surprised if things move around or change colour over the next few weeks and thanks for your patience.

We would be pleased to hear any thoughts or comments you might have about the blog. Feel free to contact us at archives@dundee.ac.uk with your suggestions.