RCTS Digital Archive

[shawmat]

As Digital Officer for the Railway Correspondence & Travel Society, one of my projects has been to digitise the whole back catalogue of out-of-print RCTS books and magazines, and to make them available to the public via the website. The RCTS is a charity with educational objectives, which this project helps to support.

The project is now complete. Woo-hoo! There are now 72 books available + approx 1,100 editions of The Railway Observer magazine from 1928. All are available as searchable PDFs, and some can be read online free-of-charge. Amazon also offers some books on a print-to-order basis for those who want a physical book to hold.

Here are a few links you may find useful:

1. The RCTS Digital Archive Home page
2. The Catalogue - an Excel file you can download
3. The Shop for PDFs page
4. A links page listing books available via Amazon

To read online, please Register first.

The RCTS Digital Archive also includes photos. The Photograph Collection contains items where RCTS owns the rights, and these can be purchased. Registered users can also view scans of other photographs held by the RCTS Archive & Library at Leatherhead.

Scanning the back catalogue has comprised about 55,000 pages, so no mean task!

Here's a selection of books just added. Just click the images to discover more.

 

[Pigeon]

To read online, please Register first.

Do not do this. It is an infuriating habit to assume that because the registration doesn't cost any money it must therefore be an acceptable imposition, and for read-only access there is no earthly need for it. If you're going to make the files "freely available" then make them freely available, ie. via a single stateless HTTP GET request without imposing any requirement to jump through hoops or otherwise mess about, so that someone looking to read them can do so as easily as they can any other ordinary web page.

 

[shawmat]

Do not do this. It is an infuriating habit to assume that because the registration doesn't cost any money it must therefore be an acceptable imposition, and for read-only access there is no earthly need for it. If you're going to make the files "freely available" then make them freely available, ie. via a single stateless HTTP GET request without imposing any requirement to jump through hoops or otherwise mess about, so that someone looking to read them can do so as easily as they can any other ordinary web page.

Got to. The RCTS Digital Archive contains published and unpublished materials, RCTS-copyright and non-RCTS copyright. The professional advice we've received is that we must be able to identify users and get them to confirm they are bona fide researchers. Pretty-much every archive in the physical world requires visitors to hold a readers' card that you obtain in advance, usually free. I hold such a card for the Berkshire Records Office in Reading. So, it's not a technical choice. The requirement to register takes a minute to complete. Be assured that the RCTS does not sell details to 3rd parties.

 

[devon_belle]

As Digital Officer for the Railway Correspondence & Travel Society, one of my projects has been to digitise the whole back catalogue of out-of-print RCTS books and magazines, and to make them available to the public via the website. The RCTS is a charity with educational objectives, which this project helps to support.

The project is now complete. Woo-hoo! There are now 72 books available + approx 1,100 editions of The Railway Observer magazine from 1928. All are available as searchable PDFs, and some can be read online free-of-charge. Amazon also offers some books on a print-to-order basis for those who want a physical book to hold.

Here are a few links you may find useful:

1. The RCTS Digital Archive Home page
2. The Catalogue - an Excel file you can download
3. The Shop for PDFs page
4. A links page listing books available via Amazon

To read online, please Register first.

The RCTS Digital Archive also includes photos. The Photograph Collection contains items where RCTS owns the rights, and these can be purchased. Registered users can also view scans of other photographs held by the RCTS Archive & Library at Leatherhead.

Scanning the back catalogue has comprised about 55,000 pages, so no mean task!

Here's a selection of books just added. Just click the images to discover more.


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This is excellent news, well done on completing this endeavour.

 

[Big Jumby 74]

I registered with the RCTS archive link a couple of years ago. Was a fully paid up member many years ago, but my (railway) interests these days generally revolve around the years that formed my youth and early days 'on the job'. Whilst able to comment about more recent issues, largely from a former professional viewpoint, the present day railway holds little real interest for me, hence having access to old(er) issues of such things as the RCTS 'Observer' I find very useful. So I will add my thanks to those who have the patience to make all such information readily available (albeit one has to 'register') for those of us who have an interest in past events. Thank you.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Oct 2024 ==

I hold such a card for the Berkshire Records Office in Reading.

How many people remember the old 'CARN' readers tickets for same. All RO's (Record Offices) had their own version of such things, if not the CARN ticket. Sorry to digress!