Heritage Open Day at the Kent History & Library Centre

About

The encounter with Kent’s archives during our tour can make a lasting impression. Seeing a large number of archives gathered together in one place in our strongrooms; experiencing a personal closeness to documents that are hundreds of years old; watching the reprographer explain and demonstrate the Phase One camera and the minute level of detail it captures, and tell the story of the ongoing digitisation and indexing programme; hearing about the day-to-day work of an archivist in collecting, accessioning and cataloguing archives and describe them in their finding aids; and stepping into the spacious and well-equipped Conservation Studio, devoted to the physical care of books and documents, to see its features and examples of items undergoing conservation treatment: all this, we are confident, will help those who take the tour understand how Kent’s county archive office functions, how a record becomes an archive, preserved for future generations, and how we strive to make the collections accessible to in-person and remote users alike.

The tour will be supplemented with a small display of original archival material selected to chime with the HOD’s 2026 theme and celebrate the National Year of Reading at the same time. It is entitled 'Every Day's a School Day: Learning and Literacy in Bygone Kent'.

Book via email to archives@kent.gov.uk or call 03000 420673.