David Mander has asked me to post the following message, please address
replies to Louisa Macdonald and not to me.
THE NATIONAL COUNCIL ON ARCHIVES
LONDON ARCHIVE REGIONAL COUNCIL
THE LONDON A2A PROJECT
At the inaugural meeting of the London Archive Regional Council it was
agreed to establish a task force to see through a London A2A project.
At the national A2A meeting at the Public Record Office on 29 November
1999, the London region group agreed to a framework on which to proceed.
It was the desire of the task force, supported by the London region
group on 29 November, that the region should carry out further
consultation with archive offices in all sectors to ensure that all
those who wish to participate can become involved. The three layered
framework of local/regional proposals, proposals that recognise
London's role as the capital city and proposals that concern records of
international importance was intended to provide a means to help direct
potential partners to come together, but there may be schemes that do
not fit into this pattern. In addition to the regional groupings, there
is also the possibility of sectoral collaboration. Those interested in
this should contact the secretary of the Access to Archives project
directly see <http://www.pro.gov.uk/a2a/default.htm>.
If you are interested in participating, and believe that your office
has the hardware in place to store the data that will return via the
PRO, then we would like you to come along to the public meeting of the
London A2A Project, which will be held at London Metropolitan Archives,
40 Northampton Road, London EC1R 0HB on Wednesday 23 February 2000 from
10am.
You should be prepared to indicate an interest in one of the existing
proposals, or if you wish to suggest a new topic, seek for partners on
the day who can share in your chosen subject, so that it has a wide
application across a range of offices. We will seek to match up offices
within bidding groups. It has been accepted that London has too many
record offices and record holding bodies to allow a single scheme to be
sufficiently all inclusive, but conversely we shall be seeking to keep
bids under ,100,000. In turn this reduces the match funding required
from the partners to a minimum of 10% of the total bid, of which 5% can
be in kind, but 5% must be in cash. Individual offices may bring
different levels of involvement to any given bid, but the figures
within each bid will have to meet the Heritage Lottery fund criteria.
Although the A2A project is confined to archive lists, we are hoping to
seek for pairing with the People's Network where appropriate, which is
includes the potential for the retro-conversion of library catalogue
material. In the case of the local authority project, there has
already been interest expressed in associating printed material
produced by the local authorities, and possibly some key books and
theses on aspects of local government services.
The precise role of the London A2A Task Force has yet to be determined,
but we are seeking funds for a short term project officer, and if this
comes to fruition, the Task force may be able to offer considerable
support to any London based consortia. We hope to have more details for
you on 23 February.
Attendance at the meeting is free. We will begin with a plenary session
and then hope to be able to group delegates into working groups to come
up with bid proposals. The first round of A2A bids need to be in early
in 2000, but because of the number of London offices, we felt that an
autumn submission might be a more realistic target.
So now it is up to you to express an interest. Even if you have some
qualifications about how the project will work for your office, we
would like you to come and hear your views!
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London Archive Regional Council. London A2A Project
Consultation Meeting Wednesday 23 February 2000
Venue: London Metropolitan Archives.. Time: 10am-1pm
Name....................................................................
...........................................................
Office..................................................................
..............................................................
........................................................................
..............................................................
Tel:................................. Fax...........................
e.mail.................................................
1.I would like to attend the meeting on 23 February
2. I am unable to attend the meeting on 23 February but would like to
be kept in touch with the project. I am interested in
.................................................................
/would like to suggest the following
topic...............................................................
[delete either 1 or 2]
Please return this form to Louisa Macdonald, London Metropolitan
Archives 40 Northampton Road, London EC1R 0HB. Fax 0171 837 4306.
Email: [log in to unmask]
Dick Sargent
Director of the National Register of Archives
Historical Manuscripts Commission
Quality House, Quality Court,
Chancery Lane
London WC2A 1HP
tel 0171 242 1198
fax 0171 831 3550
email [log in to unmask]
website htttp://www.hmc.gov.uk
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