During 2007 MLA London will be working with consultants and a pilot group of London archives to develop the Revisiting Collections methodology as a tool that will support archives to reach out and engage new audiences and to listen to, understand and record external perspectives on the collections that they hold.

The Revisiting Collections toolkit was initially developed by MLA London in partnership with MDA (formerly the Museums Documentation Association) for use with object collections and museum collection description systems

We would like all London archives to consider getting involved. Expressions of interest are invited for submission by Friday 2^nd February 2007.

Each of the pilot archives will receive a grant of £2000 to support their participation. They will be required to work with a team of appropriately skilled consultants and one or more focus groups. The focus groups might be drawn from any section of the community, and we will be looking to involve at least one community based disability group. Further funding might be available to support working with groups with special needs to overcome potential barriers to participation such as language, mobility, learning difficulties, hearing or visual impairment.

Further information is available by following the links from our projects website page:

http://www.mlalondon.org.uk/lmal/index.cfm?NavigationID=102

A one-day event to be held in central London on Wednesday 17^th January 2007 to set the context for this piece of work help you understand the objectives and the commitment that will be required from participating archives. Full details and a booking form are available at:

http://www.mlalondon.org.uk/lmal/index.cfm?ArticleID=1203&NavigationID=103

Do come along if you would like your archive to benefit from this great opportunity or just have an interest in how Revisiting Collections might work for you.

Caroline Reed
Development Manager
MLA London

Fourth Floor

53-56 Great Sutton Street

London

EC1V 0DG

Direct line: 020 7549 1714
Main line: 020 7549 1700
Fax: 020 7490 5225
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www.mlalondon.org.uk

MLA London is the strategic regional development agency for museums, libraries and archives in London. We are part of the MLA Partnership.

For further information please visit our website at www.almlondon.org.uk.

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