A reminder of the above workshop, which is taking place at the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum, Bristol, on Saturday 8 September. The final programme and registration form are now available, and are attached to this message (registration is free!). The workshop organisers would be very grateful if those who are interested in attending could return completed registration forms to Patricia Diango at [log in to unmask], or by post to Patricia Diango, HLSS, St Matthias Campus, UWE Bristol, Oldbury Court Road, Fishponds, Bristol BS16 2JP, by Monday 3 September.
The following text was originally forwarded to this list on 9 July:
Large Research Collections in Museums and Galleries: a workshop on meeting conflicting needs.
8th September 2007, Bristol.
Museums are designed to display their collections. Increasingly, however, they are hosting material with limited display potential, but significant research and educational value. In particular, with the passing of the colonial generation, there are increasing depositions of paper-based expatriate material in UK museums and libraries. The University of the West of England, in partnership with the British Empire & Commonwealth Museum, Bristol, is organising two workshops under the umbrella title, 'Return of the Empire: private expatriate archives in UK Museums and Libraries', to discuss the particular problems that arise from this situation.
Researchers, depositors, archivists, museum curators and nationals from the countries of origin all have different interests in, and anxieties about, how this material is preserved and made accessible. There are practical and ethical issues that currently stand in the way of developing research access to such material. We hope that these two workshops - one focusing on how museums deal with archival (rather than display) material, and the other focusing on the specific challenges posed by expatriate material - will begin the process of resolving these problems.
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