Wednesday 28 August 2024

Unreliability of Burns Monument Centre continues

According to its website at https://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/CouncilAndGovernment/BirthMarriageAndDeath/Scotlands-People/ScotlandsPeopleCentre.aspx, there will be no ScotlandsPeople access at the Burns Monument Centre in September:

"Due to circumstances outwith our control the ScotlandsPeople Centre will be closed for the month of September."

Apparently this is due to, yup, you guessed it, "staffing issues". 

For some time the Burns Monument Centre has been jokingly informing folk via its website that it offers three days a week access to ScotlandsPeople - this is how it states it on the site:

"Opening hours are Tuesday to Thursday, 9am to 3:30pm (where available)." 

The "where available" caveat covers the fact that for many months the centre has been only open one day a week, and not necessarily the same day each week - and you can only find out when that day will be on the Friday before. The centre is only four miles from where I live, but it would make no difference if it was based on the moon - it is a completely unreliable set-up, so much so that I have reverted to using the ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh again in recent weeks and months. Not only does the centre in Edinburgh have better screens, it also has longer opening hours, and a library of monumental inscriptions and other useful resources.

Coincidentally, there will be a new ScotlandsPeople platform launched on September 3rd (see https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2024/08/new-scotlandspeople-site-launch.html). I have heard that the ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh has been informally advising folk to pehaps wait until the week after the launch to attend, in case there are any bugs to iron out. 

Hopefully all such issues should be resolved before staff in Kilmarnock can resume operations in October.

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

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