We ran free guided archive tours for the public at Keyworth, for one day only on Saturday 5 December 2009. This event is in support of the national Archive Awareness Campaign 2009.

What is the AAC about?

Local and national archives open their doors throughout the year to celebrate the wealth of archive material across the UK.

BBC Video of the BGS 3D visualisation facility.

2009 AAC event

Voyages of Discovery — from Darwin to the Moon and beyond

There were ten tours, each lasting 90-minutes, throughout the day with something for everyone. Tours included the Library, the Fossil Museum, the National Geological Records Centre, the vast Material Collections storage hall and ended in the 3D Visualisation Suite. They followed some of the earliest expeditions and surveys across the world, from the ocean depths to the furthest corners of the Earth and beyond our planet into space.

Visitors saw examples of innovations and geologists’ adventures from the past right up to the present using archives and other materials from Darwin’s trip on the Beagle, William Smith’s earliest maps, journeys into the jungle, Moon and space research, and exploration from the deepest oceans to the Poles.

These tours are a unique opportunity for the public to see displays and demonstrations based on state of the art computing technology and the BGS’s collections of millions of records and specimens.

2008 AAC event

The 2008 event Communities, industry and Earth history: how the past influences our environment (400KB pdf) displays used archives and other materials related to major industries in the Midlands demonstrating how the geology has had a significant influence on the development of these areas and their communities and environment.

Download AAC 2008 poster

2007 AAC event

The 2007 event Freedom and Equality — Women in Geology (140KB pdf) displays and demonstrations showed women’s important contribution to geology and how the science has developed, from the 1840s to the present day.