New Opening Hours - Barrow Record Office and Local Studies Library

We will be adjusting our opening hours from 7th August 2010.  The key changes are:

• Saturdays: We will be offering a full archives and local studies service on the 1st Saturday of every month (instead of running a local studies-only service every Saturday)
  
• Mondays: We will be closed the first Monday of every month after the Saturday opening. There will be no evening opening on other Mondays.
  
• Wednesdays: The Office will continue to open one evening a week and this will be on Wednesdays, not Mondays.

There are a number of reasons for these changes:

• Our budget for 2010-11 has been reduced by £10,000 and we have therefore regretfully decided not to fill a part-time vacancy which has arisen in Barrow.
  
• Analysis of our Saturday opening has revealed a low level of use by visitors when we open every Saturday.  We will offer a less frequent Saturday service, but a better level of service, with all the archives and local studies collections being available for use on the 1st Saturday of the month.
  
• We need to close the Monday following the Saturday opening, since we will not have sufficient staff present to run the public service
  
• We are moving our evening local studies service to Wednesday evenings, since we have few visitors on Monday evenings.  We believe Wednesdays will be more popular
  
• By these changes, opening hours in Barrow are being reduced, but only to a level which is comparable to the other 3 archive offices in Cumbria

Don’t forget that when we are closed, you can still make use of CASCAT: the Cumbria Archive Service on-line catalogue. We are constantly adding new information to our catalogue and we are increasing the stock of digital images of original archives.

We apologise for any inconvenience.

Anne Rowe, Archive Service Manager

Revised opening hours for Cumbria Record Office and Local Studies Library from 7th August 2010

First week
Saturday 7th Aug: 10.00–1.00, 2.00–4.00
Closed Monday 9th August
Tuesday – Friday: 9.30 – 1.00, 2.00 – 5.00
Wednesday evening: Local Studies and searchroom sources only 5.00 -7.00pm

Weeks 2-4
Monday: 9.30 – 1.00, 2.00 – 5.00
Tuesday – Friday: 9.30 – 1.00, 2.00 – 5.00
Wednesday evening: Local Studies and searchroom sources only 5.00 -7.00pm

We will be OPEN on the following Saturdays in 2010: 7th August; 4th September: 2nd October; 6th November; 4th December

We will be CLOSED on the following Mondays in 2010: 9th August; 6th September; 4th October; 8th November; 6th December