Registering as a researcher
Anyone may read the public catalogue. To book a visit to the reading room, ask for reproductions, keep research collections or work on a research project, you register as a researcher.
Registering
- Sign up for an account, or sign in to the one you have.
- Open Research (
/research) and register: your name, how to reach you, your affiliation (such as a university, a government body or none), and what you are researching. - Submit. Your registration is pending until the reading room staff approve it; you are told by e-mail.
A registration can be approved, rejected, suspended or expire after a time, as the institution sets. Research shows yours and when it ends.
What a researcher can do
- Book a visit to the reading room, with the records you want to see; see Booking the reading room.
- Ask for reproductions: copies, scans, photographs, transcriptions or certified copies; see Reproductions.
- Ask for access to files that are kept back; see Access requests.
- Keep collections of records, notes and bibliographies, and save searches.
- Work on projects, alone or with others, with their sources, claims and outputs; see Research projects.
- Cite what you use; see Citing a record.
For the reading room staff
Researchers (/reading-room/researchers) lists every registration, pending first. Open one to see what they told you, and approve, reject or suspend it, verifying their identity where the institution asks. Kinds of researcher (/reading-room/types) defines the kinds the institution distinguishes, such as academic, genealogist, student or journalist, each with how long its registration lasts and what it may book.