With apologies for cross-posting:

We would like to invite archivists and records managers in Scotland who
work with or care for business archives to attend a focus group session.
The session will be held at the National Archives of Scotland on
Thursday 24 September 2009 from 1030 until 1230.

This focus group is your chance to feed your ideas and thoughts into a
National Strategy for Business Archives in Scotland.  The focus group is
an opportunity to:

- find out the purpose of the proposed strategy in a UK context
- help identify the issues that you feel affect your custodianship of
business archives
- identify links and partnerships that could be created to raise the
profile of business archives
- identify actions that could be undertaken to ensure business archives
are captured, preserved and made accessible to as wide an audience as
possible

As you may have seen from recent postings, a National Strategy for
Business Archives has been published for England & Wales.  This strategy
aims to "raise the profile of business archives, ensuring they are
utilised by business and research alike and that future collection are
more representative of the UK's diverse economic activity."

With the support of the National Archives of Scotland and the Scottish
Council on Archives, the Business Archives Council of Scotland and the
Ballast Trust are working to create a similar strategy for Scotland that
reflects our national context.  Similar focus groups will be taking
place in September aimed at users, academics and non-archivists who care
for records.

Following the focus group sessions a draft strategy will be formulated
and put out to wider consultation with the aim of a final version being
agreed in the new year.

If you would be interested in attending, please contact David Powell
([log in to unmask]) on 0141 330 4159 or Kiara King at
[log in to unmask]  

Regular updates on the strategy's development and planned events will
also be available at our blog:
http://businessarchivesscotland.blogspot.com/



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Kiara King
Archivist (Ballast Trust)
 
Tel: +44 (0)1505 328488
Tel: +44 (0)141 330 5516 (Tuesdays)
www.ballasttrust.org.uk
   
Archive Services, University of Glasgow, 77-87 Dumbarton Road, Glasgow
G11 6PW The University of Glasgow, charity number SC004401
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