The Library,
Introduction to our work
The
National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists (NCUACS),
a unit funded by various charitable and other grants, was
established in 1973 to locate, sort, index and catalogue the manuscript papers
of distinguished contemporary British scientists and engineers and thus make
available for scholarly research original source materials for the history of
science and technology, and recent history more generally. For the latest Progress Report, with general
news, collections completed and projects in progress, click here.
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They may, and do, vary with individuals and disciplines. They include, in addition to correspondence of all kinds, professional or technical documents such as laboratory notebooks, experimental drawings and calculations, lecture notes, engagement diaries and journals.
The material will often also reflect the important role played by leading scientists in aspects of public life which affect many areas outside their professional work - whether as members of official committees, councils or advisory bodies, or through their personal influence as writers and thinkers. Their impact on social, economic, political or religious development will be of great potential interest to future historians.
The NCUACS is not an archive. It does not retain the collections it processes. It offers a multi-disciplinary service, nationwide, flexible and fast. Documents entrusted to its care by scientists, their families or colleagues are sorted, catalogued and indexed, and then placed in an appropriate national or university repository or archive in accordance with the wishes of the donors. They are thus made accessible, subject to any agreed restrictions of confidentiality or library rules of access.
The Unit produces a short booklet Preserving Scientific Source Materials which is a guide for owners of scientific archives advising them on the sort of material they might find.
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Copies of NCUACS catalogues may be
purchased from the Unit, and terms are available on request to
lissmc@bath.ac.uk.
The Unit’s Guide to Collections presents collection-level descriptions of the collections catalogued by the Unit. Summary Lists of the collections catalogued are also available.
Through the Unit's participation in the Royal Society-led Web of Science Archives project, the bulk of the Unit's catalogues were mounted onto the Access to Archives (A2A) national archives network.
While each NCUACS catalogue is a valuable
research tool in its own right, the greater the total body of material made
accessible, the higher is the added value through the links that can be made
between collections. This process of
building connexions has been central to the Unit’s work in opening up
avenues of research. To highlight this,
the Unit produced a series of History of
Science Connexions leaflets as brief introductions bringing together
collections by topic. To date seven have
been produced:
The NCUACS produces twice-yearly Progress Reports on its work which are distributed free of charge to interested libraries, institutions and individuals. It does not offer reader space.
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Last updated 21 December 2009. T.E.Powell@bath.ac.uk