Keele Air Photo Archive (TARA)

[Chris Going]

Dear All

Ten years ago I wrote a report on the Air Photo Archive at Keele. I am updating it for publication as part of a series on the 150th anniversary of the earliest air photo in 2008.

How have you found the archive in the past ten years? Has it been good/bad/overpriced/underpriced/welcoming? etc etc.

Contact me off board...


best wishes


chrisg

[Matzos]

Members may not be aware, that TARA is/has moved away from Keele.

In fact it is moving to Scotland under the control of: -



The following is taken from the RCAHMS website - http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/news.html

"One of the world's most important aerial photography collections is on its way to RCAHMS.


The Aerial Reconnaissance Archives (TARA) are made up of over 10 million photographs, from images of Second World War Allied and German aerial reconnaissance, to RAF aerial photography around the world up to the 1990s.


Over 100,000 canisters of film and boxes of prints are being transported by articulated lorry from Keele University, the home of the archive for the last 45 years, to storage facilities near Glasgow and the RCAHMS premises in Edinburgh. The sheer size of the archive will see the relocation process continue for several months.


The move is part of a joint initiative between RCAHMS, The National Archives and Keele University to secure TARA's future long-term preservation and continued development. The transfer of post-war aerial photography from the Ministry of Defence is also expanding the imagery held by TARA.


RCAHMS has a track record of effective archive management of large collections of aerial imagery, and is a world leader in the delivery of heritage information and digital imagery on-line. RCAHMS already holds collections of RAF and Ordnance Survey aerial imagery of Scotland.
The move will be completed later this year and will enable TARA, after a period of assimilation, to be preserved, further digitised and made accessible to the general public.


For more information email info@rcahms.gov.uk."

Personnel note, is this a good or bad move, I think only time will tell.
As long as the public has access to the archive.

[Matzos]

I see that their new site is noe up and running.

http://tara.rcahms.gov.uk/