Last month the [British] National Archives announced that is was digitizing World War I war diaries. Here is the announcement replicated from the Archive’s site:
Digitisation of First World War unit diaries
We are currently digitising part of the WO 95 record series, which consists of unit war diaries from the First World War. The series is one of the most requested in our reading rooms in Kew, and digitising it means that we will be able to make the diaries more accessible by publishing them online. The series is extremely fragile, largely due to its age and popularity, so we are carrying out essential conservation work while we digitise it.
Our war diaries research guide explains the importance of these records for researchers.
We have already started removing the diaries from circulation to conserve and digitise them – the schedule below provides a rough timescale for the unavailability of the series over the next few months:
096-1934: variable*
1935-2071: currently unavailable, due to return 30/9/12
2072-2292: currently unavailable, due to return 31/10/12
2293-2592: will be unavailable from 1/9/12, due to return 30/11/12
2593-2992: will be unavailable from 1/10/12, due to return 31/12/12
2993-3948 (excluding 3155-3910): will be unavailable from 1/11/12, due to return 30/1/13* Due to the complexities of the digitisation process, we may need to remove some pieces from circulation outside these dates. We will try our best to accommodate readers’ requests during this time, and will try to minimise the inconvenience that removing these pieces from circulation may cause.
We will update this schedule on a regular basis, so please check back before you visit.
