" ..... The Government is asking people for their views on its proposal for a new policy on archives, published today (6 May).
The consultation document, "Archives for the 21st century", seeks to build the foundations for a sustainable future for archival services, responding to the challenges of the digital age and the opportunities to make archives accessible to a wider range of people.
Comments on the policy proposals are welcomed from all parties interested in archives, including local authorities, universities, individual information professionals, archival organisations and the general public.
Michael Wills, Justice Minister with responsibility for The National Archives, said: 'Publicly funded archives have a vital role to play in society: they are the custodians of our collective memory, and an integral part of a healthy and robust democracy. It is crucial that archival services are able to embrace the digital revolution and start addressing the complex challenges this has created.'
'I would encourage anyone with an interest in archives to participate in this consultation, and look forward to hearing people's opinions on our proposals,' Mr Wills added.
Commenting on the importance of archives within the community, Culture Minister, Barbara Follett, said: 'Our archives hold the stories of our past and therefore play a unique role in building understanding and learning for our future. It is important that public archives are easily accessible, whether that is in physical buildings or online, so that the benefit is spread to as wide a range of people as possible.'
Baroness Andrews, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, also commented on the crucial role of archives: 'Archives play a fundamental role in shaping our sense of individual, community and national identity and place. They make a valuable contribution to local democracy and accountability, and to learning, history and culture within the communities they serve.'
The consultation will run for a period of 12 weeks, until 12 August. ...."
Link:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/stories/304.htm?news=rss

published on Salon Jewish Studies Blog ( http://board-js.blogspot.com/2009/04/summary-cologne-archives-collapse-xv.html)

Help through the cultural heritage protection organization „Blue Shield“
A bus full of archivists and conservators left Den Haag on April 26, 2009 morning to support the recovery and rescue of material at the collapsed Cologne Historical Archive (CHA). 75 experts from France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and America will help for a week.
On May 5, 2009 it was reported that in four days nearly 2 (shelf)km were processed. Besides compliments, some supportes at the scene also express critical points (extract from Archivalia May 4, 2009):

"I noticed that German archivists see their job mainly as administration not tradition (store and prepare heritage)…
Double or not relevant material is not separated from the inventory, so the collections are unorganized and confus. In Germany not much of the material is assorted and rearranged, many documents are in original packages (as they came) and rivets and clips are not removed systematically.
The German colleagues did a good job on organizing transport and accommodation for 80 people from abroad.
More supervision during the work was needed. Some of the volunteers had no experiences in archival work and were confused by the registration of the documents. Nobody checked our work, it seemed that the organization focuses on speed. This was successful in any case, in four days, nearly 2 (shelf)km processed!"

Archival collections recoverd from the intact archive cellar on April 21, 2009
The fire department recovered 850 (shelf) m of inventory from the intact archive cellar of the collapsed building – mostly newspapers but also parts of private papers and collections.
Among others the personal collections of Wallraf and Schneider-Wessling were recovered intactly from archive cellar:
" .... The rescued material is in proper condition, the speaker of the fire department Daniel Leupold announced. The ceiling of the room was able to bear the weight while other parts collapsed. The fire department recovered the material through the back of the building with the help of a seven meter ramp and rolling containers.
The complete collections of the architect Prof. Erich Schneider-Wessling and the author Günter Wallraf were stored in this cellar. Wallraf received the message that his 200 boxes with material were recovered while arguing with lawyers. ‘Today, I celebrate my second birthday’ Wallraf announced. Wallraf calls it lucky because he just needed a part of his material for a current project.
Schneider-Wessling is also happy that his work from the last 50 years is accessible again, originals of plans, competition papers, sketches and much more…” (Koelner Stadtanzeiger, April 21, 2009)

" .... The essays seek “to enlarge and enrich the contexts of Plath’s writing with the archive as its informing matrix, unraveling tangled connections backward to the middle decades of the twentieth century and forward to issues raised by contemporary literary and cultural criticism” ...."
More on: http://readingarchives.blogspot.com/2009/05/unraveling-literary-archive.html

http://www.npr.org/blogs/library/2009/04/the_granting_of_patent_7508978.html?ft=1&f=96651030

http://www.dango.bham.ac.uk/Dango.Presentation.htm

"DANGO, the Database of Archives of UK NGOs since 1945, is an online, free-to-access database, enabling researchers to identify NGOs that interest them, and then access both existing and new information about the content, location and accessibility of archival holdings relating to those bodies."

Via
http://geschichtsweberei.blogspot.com/2009/05/dango-database-of-archives-of-uk-ngos.html

Bodman Collection of Italian Renaissance Manuscripts

http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/col/irm

In this digital collection are eleven autograph, signed letters written between members of the Medici family of Florence and others in their social and political circles, including Angelo Poliziano, the Sforza family, Palla Strozzi, and Francesco Guicciardini. Written between 1426 and 1522, the letters touch on a number of issues urgent to the House of Medici including military campaigns, political associations, and the trials of family life.

Fashion Plate Collection, 19th Century

http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/col/fpc

Over 700 full-color fashion plates from the Macpherson Collection of the Ella Strong Denison Library at Scripps College were culled from a variety of women's periodicals and other mass-circulating works published between 1789 and 1914. The images are primarily from France, Britain, America, and Spain, and depict scenes of nineteenth-century middle- and upper-class life with an emphasis on the leisure practices of bourgeois women, men, and children. A number of plates also derive from trade journals for tailors, who used the images to create made-to-order garments for fashionable men.

http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/566-guid.html

Cartoon by Judith Economos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/field_museum_library/

http://www.fieldmuseum.org/research_collections/library/library_sites/photo_archives/flickr.htm

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/04/30/30-creative-commons-sources/

Catalog:
Manuscripts and archival materials are integrated in the general catalog; but you may execute your search either in the entire catalog or by typologies; for manuscripts, select "Manuscript and private papers"
Up to now, there are more than 7.000 notices, including medieval and renaissance codexs, XVII-XXth manuscripts and archival materials (over 200 private archives, mainly personal)
http://cataleg.bnc.cat/*eng#

Digitised Manuscripts
Documents are accessible through the webpage "Memoria digital de Catalunya"; again, there is a section devoted to manuscripts, that includes up to now 185 documents; the number should be largely increased this year.
http://mdc.cbuc.cat/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=%2FmanuscritBC

Via mail from
Anna Gudayol
Head of the Manuscript Department