Mission Statement and Service Aims
Tameside Local Studies and Archives keeps history alive by working with the community to celebrate our shared heritage. Our mission is to preserve Tameside's written, oral and pictorial heritage for present and future users to fulfil Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council's legal obligation to preserve its own records.
Housed at the Local Studies and Archives Centre at Central Library with small collections in other Libraries, we hold books, archives, photographs, maps and other material in a wide range of formats. This comprehensive research collection provides local history information and support for education and lifelong learning while promoting local history through in-house publications and other means.
We do this by:
- collecting the full range of local studies and archives materials within the bounds of our collection policy
- monitoring the collection policy to ensure it reflects the needs and demands of users
- providing proper storage for all types of local studies materials including books, pamphlets, periodicals, newspapers, microforms, maps, photographs and other images, ephemera, oral history, other sound recordings and sources in computerised format
- providing archive storage to BS5454
- creating a full range of finding aids for all types of materials, using ICT where possible
- conserving and repairing all materials as necessary
- providing an enquiry service for a range of users including family historians, local historians, school children and academics users, community groups, socially disadvantaged people, local businesses, local government officers, media and other agencies, tourists and future users
- providing a range of special services tailor-made for specific groups of users including production of guides to areas of stock, participation in community and other projects and introductory sessions in the Library
- marketing and promoting the Local Studies and Archives Service, including consultation with users and non-users
- considering the creation of sources to fill gaps in the collection, for example through oral history and archive retrieval projects
You can help us by:
- commenting on the service
- making suggestions using the comments/complaints form through the website and filling out our survey forms