The SoA Specialist Repositories Group has recently been contacted with
details of a proposed bid by Channel 4 Schools to the New Opportunities Fund
for a Digitisation of Learning Materials project on diaries. Channel 4 are
looking for participant repositories with suitable material, so if you are
interested read on...
Dear Susan Snell,
I hope you don't mind me approaching you in your capacity as Chair of
the Special Repositories Group of the Society of Archivists. I do so on
the recommendation of Dr Christopher Kitching at the RC on Historical
Manuscripts.
I would be very grateful for your opinion on a proposal I am currently
shaping into a bid to the New Opportunities Fund, on behalf of Channel 4
Schools, for the Digitisation of Learning Materials.
As you probably know the first drafts of these bids have to be submitted
by the end of this month; in June successful applicants will be invited
to participate in a second round with more detailed proposals.
I would be interested to know if any members of your Special
Repositories Group would be interested in participating in this project
if it proves to be successful. At this stage, only expressions of
interest and willing in principle are required!
Briefly, Channel 4 Schools proposes to build a 'People's Archive' by
making accessible diaries written by ordinary people in the past. These
diaries - most of them handwritten and unpublished - are deposited in
libraries, archives and collections all over the UK and are inaccessible
to all but the most dedicated researchers. Yet, their accounts either
of important events or of the ups and downs of everyday life can make
history vivid for anyone with the mildest curiosity about the past.
Channel 4 Schools seeks funding to digitise as many of these personal,
eyewitness accounts as possible, to make them available on the internet,
to provide contextual information and navigational facilities.
Partnerships with collections are sought to help identify suitable
material, to lend their expertise in information management, historical
knowledge, assistance with permissions from rights holders and goodwill.
I'd be very interested to receive comments and advice from you or from
any other members of your group.
Yours sincerely
Tana Wollen
49 Tremadoc Road
London SW4 7NA
Tel/fax: + 44 (0)171 720 6476
Forwarded by:
Helen Wakely,
Assistant Archivist, Contemporary Medical Archives Centre,
Wellcome Library, 183 Euston Road, London NB1 2BE
0171-611 8486 (tel)/ 8703 (fax)
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