GROS stop sales of Microfilm / Fiche

[JEANP]

The General Office for Scotland have stopped sales of Microfilm and Fiche.   
 
This means that Libraries will not be able to purchase further copies of census and OPR records, they will however be able to copy films/fiche they have already purchased. Eventually, the quality of their films will diminish and this facility will have to be withdrawn from libraries. Unless they act soon and transfer these images onto CD-ROM all may be lost, the GROS say that they have no plans themself to do this, but If enough pressure is put onto them perhaps they may? 
 
This also means the 1911 census will not be available in libraries and the only way to get this will be to visit New Register House in Edinburgh or on Scotlands People. It seems to me that it's a nice little earner for Scotlands People.   
 
I urge anyone who uses this facility at their local Scottish library to view these records, to contact GROS and complain and suggest making the records available on CD-ROM, we could get the decision reversed if enough people are interested.
 
Jean 
 

[trishmac]

Hello Jean

Yes, to my dismay I read about this just today in the ANESFHS Journal. My immediate thought was it was very mean of them and very obviously a way to force people to spend money on Scotland's People.

I had been considering getting the film of a couple of Parishes which are choc-a-bloc with my ancestors. I live near enough to Edinburgh to get over but thought it would actually be cheaper for me to buy the OPR films and had already established I could use the readers at my local library.

As we all know, Scotland's People can work out very expensive unless you know exactly what you are looking for - and how often does that happen? I will certainly be contacting them to have a grumble about this.

Trish