Dear all

I have been sent the following message from Sarah Flynn at the PRO which
may be of interest to members and their students.

> A2A site updated
>
> The A2A website at http://www.a2a.pro.gov.uk was updated on Friday 26
> October and now contains almost 1.3 million records (catalogue entries)
> describing archives held in 100 record offices and other institutions
> across England - catalogue entries which may now be searched and browsed
> together via A2A's single database.
> Information added on 26 October includes catalogues to the papers of the
> British Prime Ministers Andrew Bonar Law and David Lloyd George, and to
> those of other political figures, provided by the *Political Archives
> Consortium*; the extensive archive of original Acts of Parliament dating
> from 1497 to the 1990s, held at the House of Lords Record Office; and
> further catalogues from the *London Archives on the Wider World* project:
> including sources for the history of medicine held at the Wellcome Library
> for the History and Understanding of Medicine, papers of military figures
> at the Imperial War Museum, and archives of exploration held by the Royal
> Geographical Society.  Further finding aids relating to family and estate
> archives held in the South East of England have also been added by the
> *From Landlord to Labourer* project, as have catalogues relating to the
> archives of Quarter Sessions and Petty Sessions courts and a range of
> other records, held by local archives services including those of
> Cambridgeshire, Cumbria, Devon, Liverpool, Norfolk, Suffolk and Somerset.
> These finding aids further enhance A2A's value as a research resource for
> the academic community, and their presence on A2A's site will also open up
> the archives they describe to other researchers, including local and
> family historians, school children and students, and to the public at
> large.  The site includes contact details for the archives institutions
> involved, so that users can easily arrange to see or obtain copies of
> relevant source material.
> Preparation for Phase 2 of the A2A programme is continuing, and further
> projects are in the pipeline, planned by archivists and archives users
> across England, to start in April 2002.
> A2A is the English strand in the UK archives network and will make 8
> million catalogue entries for archives dating from the twelfth to the
> twentieth centuries and held in national, local and specialist archives
> available on the www by March 2002 at <http://www.a2a.pro.gov.uk>.
>
> * * * * * *
> Sarah J A Flynn
> Regional Liaison Co-Ordinator, A2A
> Public Record Office
> Kew
> Richmond
> Surrey TW9 4DU
>
> Tel (direct line): 020 8392 5328
> Fax: 020 8392 5281
> Email: [log in to unmask]
> www: http://www.a2a.pro.gov.uk
>

----------------------------------
Jim Grant
Head of Humanities
Cirencester College
Fosseway Campus
Stroud Road
Cirencester
GL71XA
Tel : 01285 640994  ex 258
Email: [log in to unmask]

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