Archives-nra listserv members may be interested in the following
web site, "Cornucopia", which has been launched by the Museums and
Galleries Commission:
http://www.cornucopia.org.uk/
"Cornucopia" allows users to search a database which gives
summary details of the collections of 50 museums which have been
awarded "Designated" status by the MGC. According to the MGC's own
recently launched web site (http://www.museums.gov.uk/),
Designation "is a mark of status awarded to non-National Registered
museums with pre-eminent collections of national and international
importance". Designated museums are eligible from this financial year
to apply for grants from a Designation Challenge Fund administered by
the MGC.
The present "Cornucopia" site is a pilot version. The MGC intends to
extend the database in 2000 to cover the collections of all UK
museums which have achieved Registered status under the MGC's
voluntary Registration Scheme (currently about 1700 museums).
There are a large number of entries for archives in the database.
Not surprisingly, these are treated in a way which grows out of the
museum tradition of cataloguing rather than the archival one.
Peter Garrod ([log in to unmask])
Assistant Archivist, UK National Digital Archive of Datasets
Postal address: ULCC, 20 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1DZ
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