The Archives Hub celebrated its official launch on 13 March 2001. The
event was held in the very appropriate surroundings of John Rylands library
on Deansgate in Manchester. There was a chance to see demonstrations of
the new-look website (http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/) and to hear a welcome
address by Professor Sir Martin Harris, the Vice-Chancellor of the
University of Manchester. Other distinguished guests representing the
partners involved in providing the service also spoke, highlighting the
importance of the service to researchers and archivists alike and praising
the development work which has gone into creating the project. Photos of
the launch can be seen on the Archives Hub website in the 'News' section.
Funding has now been allocated for the next round of data contribution and
by the end of 2002 there will be over 18,000 collection-level descriptions
of archives held in over 30 universities and colleges throughout the UK,
from Aberdeen to Exeter. Many of the pilot project contributors will also
be taking part in the current round and they are joined by a wide range of
other libraries and special collections departments including BLPES at the
London School of Economics, the Bodleian Library and Dundee University
Archives.
The service is funded by JISC and hosted at MIMAS in the University of
Manchester. The other partners are the University of Liverpool whose
Special Collections and Archives Division have developed the infrastructure
and who are continuing to develop the technical side of the service and
CURL (the Consortium of University Research Libraries) whose Resource
Discovery and Description Steering Group monitors the progress of the
Archives Hub.
Amanda Hill
Archives Hub Project Manager
MIMAS
Manchester Computing
Oxford Road
Manchester
M13 9PL
0161 275 6789
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http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk
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