Helping you to explore York’s incredible history
In April 2024, Explore York began its ‘Setting the Record Straight’ project, a collections based project aimed at improving access to our wonderful collections. During this project, the Archives Reading Room is closed for three days a month so that staff can focus on working on our collections.
The community and civic archives we hold on behalf of the City of York Council are one of the most important local authority archives outside London. Yet many of the records in our care remain invisible to York’s communities, and to our national and international researchers. Incomplete and fragmentary cataloguing in the past, records in need of preventative conservation, and a lack of online information is compromising the ability of our users to explore our collections and find the information they need.
The Setting the Record Straight project will:
This work will have a significant and lasting impact on our users. Researchers will reap the benefits of increased discoverability and understanding of our collections. We will be able to share more of our collections with our communities, connecting them with archives that help to tell their story. The project will also put our collections in a better place for a programme of digitisation, which has the potential to transform access to the archives for current and future generations.
Please give
Explore Archives is part of Explore York Libraries and Archives Mutual Limited. A mutual organisation owned by our staff and community members. Although we are contracted by the City of York Council to look after the Archives Service on their behalf, we need to raise additional funds to ensure the continued conservation and maintenance of the collection.
Please donate to enable us to continue our work through our website at Giving – Explore York.
Reading room closures
Below is a calendar of our planned closures for April 2026 – March 2027:
Monday 20 April – Wednesday 22 April 2026
Monday 18 May- Wednesday 20 May 2026
Monday 15 June – Wednesday 17 June 2026
Monday 20 July – Wednesday 22 July 2026
Monday 17 August – Wednesday 19 August 2026
Monday 14 September – Wednesday 16 September 2026
Monday 19 October -Wednesday 21 October 2026
Monday 16 November – Wednesday 18 November 2026
Monday 7 December – Wednesday 9 December 2026
Monday 18 January – Wednesday 20 January 2027
Monday 15 February – Wednesday 17 February 2027
Monday 15 March – Wednesday 17 March 2027