Following comments received from members, we have altered the 'Record View' on the mobile version of our website. The view on a smartphone is now closer to that on our desktop website. It shows a gallery of thumbnails, each of which can be touched to display a complete high-resolution image. Below each high-resolution image there is a set of navigation buttons for moving backwards and forwards through the gallery or displaying them as a slide-show. Alternatively, the individual images can be swiped to move backwards or forwards through the gallery. The map view can be selected via the button below the thumbnail gallery, and can be enlarged to full-screen size via the 'expand' icon on the right-hand side.


In another area, we can report the recent completion of a significant long-term goal. Towards the end of 2015, we initiated a plan to eliminate the backlog of records awaiting validation. The backlog had progressively developed since the UKDFD was launched in 2005, and had reached well over 500 records. By April 2017, we had reduced this figure to around 200 records, but inevitably some of those that remained were the most problematic of all from a research and identification perspective. Thanks very largely to the efforts of our team members Bob Green and Sandra Shaw, the backlog has now been completely eliminated. Our aim is that new records remain in this area for a maximum period of one month. If validation proves impossible within this time frame, we will write-up as much information as possible and move the record to the applicable unidentified/undated category. Records in the unidentified/undated categories are continually reviewed with the aim of identification and validation wherever and whenever possible.

Another recent change, small but useful, is that we have added the Record Number to the Comparison Table. This makes it unnecessary to remember which records you have already added when you return to the table at a later date.

The UKDFD Team
15 April 2018