Within the last week  heads of repositories in England 
should have received information about the "Access to 
Archives" networking project in a mailing  based on 
"Records Repositories in Great Britain", and on Places of 
Deposit addresses from the PRO.  This present message hopes 
to alert those repositories which may have fallen through 
the net in some way - and to give those repositories which 
have not yet registered for the retroconversion workshops 
the opportunity of doing so on-line.
Background information and a registration form follow:
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This documentation including the registration form is also 
attached as a Word file
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BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Access to Archives (A2A) is one of the ‘first-stage 
implementation projects’  making up the   National Archives 
Network conceived by the National Council on Archives. Last 
year’s NCA report" Archives On-line" recognised that a 
national network would require a major investment in the 
conversion to electronic form of  the manual lists which 
comprise the bulk of finding aids in most repositories.
 
As a consequence, the A2A steering group has started its work by convening 
two workshops  looking at the issues surrounding 
retrospective conversion one at the  PRO on 29 April, and 
the second  at Lancashire RO on 5 May 

METHODOLOGY
There will be an open invitation to join the network for archives services 
which are ready to do so.   A2A  provides an opportunity for the lists of 
priority archives in English repositories to be converted into database form
 - and it’s important to note that the project will be dealing solely with 
existing lists, rather than looking at new cataloguing inititiatives. The 
resultant database would be mounted on the world wide web with a search  
engine, using Encoded Archival Description as a display format. It would 
thus be searchable by both free text retrieval and dedicated field searches.  This methodology has been used extensively and successfully by the PRO.  Links would also be created to related entries in the NRA’s on-line indexes. 

As a further development, utilities would be constructed to enable the data 
to be re-exported to contributing repositories in the form their in-house 
system required [CALM, SEAX, CAIRS, etc] thus providing the  repositories 
with the opportunity to perform any data enhancement that might be required 
to make their catalogues suitable for more technically demanding cross-
searching networking projects in future.  

STEERING GROUP 
 The A2A steering group  has been established to prepare the way for the 
 quasi-  independent entity which will operate the English 
network. Its objectives include 
· developing credible bids to the Heritage Lottery Fund and other 
funding agencies compatible with developments in the wider cultural sphere,
· defining  the tasks and structure of the proposed legal entity 
· liaising effectively with the wider archival community  
· and of course,  submitting the lottery bid, probably  in late May 
or June. There  will be  wide consultation  on the form and content 
of the  bid.
 
STEERING GROUP MEMBERSHIP
The group,  chaired by Sarah Tyacke of the PRO,  is made up of 
organisations across the spectrum of the English archival community.  
It includes representatives of the  HMC, local government,  the British 
Library, higher education and the NCA.  Communications Officer for the 
steering group is Margaret Procter who’ll be able to answer any 
queries at this stage (e-mail [log in to unmask])
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			   REGISTRATION FORM	
                        A2A  - ACCESS TO ARCHIVES 
                     THE NETWORK INITIATIVE FOR ENGLAND

                         RETRO-CONVERSION WORKSHOPS
 

29 April, PRO, Kew  2-4pm
or
5 May, Lancashire RO, Bow Lane, Preston 2-4pm

Programme

The programme at both venues will include
· Scope  of A2A
· Structure and Funding
· Minimum standards of conformity for submitting data
· How the database will work - storage and retrieval issues
· PRO experience of large-scale retro-conversion projects with practical 
  examples
· Issues surrounding marking up legacy data 

Legacy finding aids vary widely in  format and content and the session will 
look at criteria for identifying priority archives for inclusion in the 
network. As importantly, repositories may have examples of  hard copy lists 
or other finding aids which they feel may not readily be suitable,  and 
delegates are invited to bring examples of these to the workshops so that 
specific difficulties can be resolved.

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Repository		____________________________________________

Representative (one per repository only)  _____________________________

Venue		Preston/Kew (delete as appropriate)

OR  
We are unable to send a delegate to either of the workshops, but would 
like to register our interest in the Network at this stage     __________________________
 
Please return to/contact				
Margaret Procter
Communications Officer, A2A
University of Liverpool Library (HCL)
PO Box 123
Liverpool L69 3DA

e-mail 	[log in to unmask]
tel	0151 794 5675
fax	0151 795 5417