With apologies for any inconvenience caused by cross-posting
sjas

~~~~

A2A Update, February 2003

This month's A2A Update contains information about additions to the A2A
database; current projects which have been granted funding by the Heritage
Lottery Fund; and housekeeping information for A2A contributors.
The latest update to the A2A database at www.a2a.pro.gov.uk took place on 3
February 2003; the database now contains nearly 4.15 million catalogue
entries from 251 archives repositories in England.
The new additions included: catalogues of poor law union archives held at
Shropshire Records and Research Centre, archives of Methodist churches held
at Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies, and Church of England parish
records held at Worcestershire Record Office, submitted through the West
Midlands Region's Seven Ages of Man project; a catalogue of the papers of
Cecil Frank Powell FRS (a 20th-century pioneer in particle physics, best
known for his discovery of the pion) held at the University of Bristol,
newly prepared by the National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of
Contemporary Scientists at the University of Bath through the Cosmic Rays
and the Solid State project; and the catalogue of historical correspondence
relating to English Freemasonry held at the Library and Museum of
Freemasonry, submitted through the Antients and Moderns project.
Further collection-level descriptions from the Yorkshire Signpost project
have also been added, as have catalogues of various archives held at
Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Centre, Cheshire and Chester
Archives and Local Studies Service, East Sussex Record Office, Hastings
Museum and Art Gallery, and the Rural History Centre at Reading University.
More finding aids for hospital archives - held at several repositories -
were also included this month.  The next A2A database update should take
place towards the end of March.
The A2A Central Team is very pleased to report that the Heritage Lottery
Fund has announced five more grants - to the following A2A projects.  Access
to the Crimlisk Fisher Archive will provide new catalogues for the archives
relating to Filey in East Yorkshire held at Filey Town Council's Crimlisk
Fisher Archive.  Shafts of Light, led by Rotherham Archives and Local
Studies, will provide access to archives of coal mining and coalfield
communities held by the four local authority archive services in South
Yorkshire.  Saints and Sinners, led by London Metropolitan Archives, will
enhance and automate catalogues of diocesan archives in eight repositories
in London and the South East.  Aladdin's Cave and Local Governance and the
Community are South East Region projects: both led by West Sussex Record
Office, they will provide access to (respectively) non-official archives
ranging from the personal diary of a nineteenth century gentlewoman to a
photograph album of the interior of a local department store in the 1940s,
held in six record offices in the region; and the archives of local bodies
including parish councils, Poor Law Unions and schools held in 11
repositories in the South East.
Lastly, those who have submitted catalogues to A2A and whose projects have
been completed may be interested to know (or be reminded) about the
procedure to be followed for revised catalogues, should you wish to make
significant amendments to your master copies.  This is available on the A2A
information pages on the Public Record Office website at
www.pro.gov.uk/archives/a2a/revisedcats.htm - or from the Standards and
Guidelines link on the main menu page at www.pro.gov.uk/archives/a2a.
A2A is the English strand in the UK archives network: its database at
www.a2a.pro.gov.uk already contains the electronic equivalent of over
400,000 catalogue pages describing archives held across England in national,
local and specialist repositories and dating from the 900s to the present
day.  The A2A programme will make a further 300,000 catalogue pages
available on the web by March 2004.

* * * * * *
Sarah J A Stark
Regional Liaison Co-Ordinator, A2A
Public Record Office
Kew
Richmond
Surrey TW9 4DU

Tel (direct line): 020 8392 5328
Fax: 020 8392 5319
Email: [log in to unmask]
www: http://www.a2a.pro.gov.uk

* * * * * *




This e-mail message (and attachments) may contain information that is confidential  to The Public Record Office.
If you are not the intended recipient you cannot use, distribute or copy the message or attachments.  In such a case,
please notify the sender by return e-mail immediately and erase all copies of the message and attachments.
Opinions, conclusions and other information in this message and attachments that do not relate to the official business
of the Public Record Office are neither given nor endorsed by it.