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With apologies for any inconvenience caused by cross-posting; and best wishes for Christmas and the New Year to all A2A's online visitors and contributors. sjas ~~~~ A2A Update, December 2004 Monthly A2A usage reaches record high A2A (Access to Archives) - the English strand of the UK archives network at http://www.a2a.org.uk - was last updated on Tuesday 21 December 2004. 3,084 catalogues were added to A2A. The database now contains 7.3 million catalogue entries, in over 86,000 catalogue files, describing archives held in 381 record offices, libraries, museums and other repositories all over England - including 13 institutions new to A2A. A2A remains popular with existing and new users of archives: there have now been 5.1m searches of the database in total since launch in 2001, and 11.9m catalogue downloads as a result. November 2004 saw over 300,000 database searches and more than 750,000 catalogue downloads - with just over 60,300 downloads on 11 November alone. This month's new additions include finding aids describing the following: * school archives held at Tyne and Wear Archives Service, contributed through the locally-funded North East regional project Bell, Book and Candle; * estate and family archives held at Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, contributed through the HLF-funded project Hidden Talent; * business archives and personal and other papers held at Derbyshire Record Office, the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland, Northamptonshire Record Office, Nottinghamshire Record Office and Nottingham University Library, contributed through the East Midlands HLF-funded project Home and Abroad; * parish and school archives held by the archives services of Bromley and Redbridge, contributed through the HLF-funded project Magpie's Nest in London; * various archives held at Cornwall Record Office and Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office, contributed through the South West HLF-funded project South West Access All Areas; * local archives and photographs held at Sheffield Archives, contributed through the self-funded project South Yorkshire County Records; * Church of England parish archives held at East Sussex Record Office, contributed through the HLF-funded project Sussex Parish Chest; * the archives of the late Bernie Grant MP held at Middlesex University; * and a range of archives held at Birmingham Archdiocesan Archives, Lambeth Palace Library, Cumbria Record Office in Barrow, the Royal Northern College of Music Archives, University College London Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and various museums in Hertfordshire. On the now-traditional seasonal note: you might like to know that the archives described in A2A include the following: * a 1944 Christmas Day menu from HQ Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia, among the papers of RAF Sergeant Eric Walton, a confidential clerk attached to the staff of Lord Mountbatten of Burma during the Second World War (Home and Abroad project: Derbyshire Record Office, ref D6022/5/5); * photographs and a programme from the 1980s production of 'A Christmas Carol' at the Progress Theatre, an amateur theatre in Reading (Aladdin's Cave project: Berkshire Record Office, refs D/EX 1151/2/79/1-8 and D/EX 1151/3/21/1) * and a drawing for an advertisement, c 1890s, among the archives of Beechams Pills Company Ltd, depicting cats before and after consuming Christmas pudding - and then taking the company's pills to "overcome the excesses of the meal" (Mills, Mansions and Corner Shops project: St Helens Local History and Archives Library, ref BP/1/6/94). You may also be interested to know that several of the 'Movers and Shakers' featured in the current free exhibition at The National Archives in Kew (see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/events/calendar/movers.htm) are also mentioned in A2A catalogues, among which are descriptions of: * archives relating to Oliver Cromwell, including the papers of his son; * archaeological papers of and diplomatic notes by the traveller, scholar and diplomatist Gertrude Bell; * archives relating to Winston Churchill held in various repositories; * and the papers of the codebreaker and mathematician Alan Turing (with links to digital images). Why not see if you can find them? A2A is the English strand of the UK archives network; its database at http://www.a2a.org.uk already contains the electronic equivalent of over 700,000 catalogue pages describing archives held across England in national, local and specialist repositories and dating from the 700s to the present day. The A2A programme will make a further 150,000 catalogue pages available on the web by July 2005. * * * * * * Sarah J A Stark Regional Liaison Co-Ordinator, A2A The National Archives Kew Richmond Surrey TW9 4DU Tel (direct line): 020 8392 5328 Fax: 020 8487 9211 Email: [log in to unmask] www: http://www.a2a.org.uk See also http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/partnerprojects/a2a ... * * * * * * ********************************************************************** National Archives Disclaimer This e-mail message (and attachments) may contain information that is confidential to The National Archives. 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. 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