Local history links - libraries & museums

The British Library has an extensive site (as you would expect) and it has recently collaborated with the North East Musuems, Libraries and Archives Council to create a website which acts as a gateway to educational resources, visitor information, historical background and other useful websites relating to the Lindisfarne Gospels and to Holy Island in Northumberland. How Northern English has been spoken over the last fifty years is now the subject of a growing on-line archive which has been launched by the Library. The present 11 hours of recordings should increase to over 30 hours by the end of 2004. The British Library Sound Archive is the biggest in the world and its website contains details about the oral history collections, access to its online catalogue, useful reading and information about oral history methods. Collect Britain contains 800 digitised maps from the Library's pre-1600 collections, providing links to over 90,000 images and 250 hours of sound recordings.

The British Museum

The Imperial War Museum

The National Library of Scotland's website contains a large number of maps, including over 1,200 images of town, county, marine and military maps covering the period 1560-1928, all at high resolution and zoomable.

Project Earl - The Consortium for Public Library Networking.

The following libraries provide telnet access to catalogues:
Hertfordshire
Bodleian library

JANET (Joint Academic Network)

A list of library catalogues and other services, including museums, in Britain and Ireland with web access.

Chertsey Museum

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

COPAC — an internationally accessible catalogue giving unified access to some of the largest university research library collections in the UK and Ireland.

The International Council of Museums

the northeast - a service led by the public library network across the region which brings together local web sites and incorporates a free enquiry service.

The Hunterian Museum, Glasgow.

Internet Library of Early Journals - a digital library of 18th and 19th century journals.

Dungarvan Museum Society - a big site, over 150 pages, containing a comprehensive history of this locality in West Waterford.

The Weald & Downland Open Air Museum in Sussex.

The Flintham Museum, in Nottinghamshire — 'Rural life through the eyes of a village shopkeeper'.

Surreyheath Museum — follow the links through Tourism or Leisure to the museum.

Cheltenham Museum - featuring its internationally important Arts and Crafts collection.

A guide to museums on the island of Jersey.

24 Hour Museum, the National Virtual Museum, the gateway to over 2,500 museums, galleries and heritage attractions in the UK.

Global Museum - the international museum webzine.

Beamish Museum is a great open-air museum in County Durham and its Regional Resource Centre contains a photographic archive, oral history recordings, a reference library and a vast collection of objects.

Bromley Library has a new online catalogue.

The University of London has a website called Helpers, which is intended to help family and local historians utilise higher education libraries and archives.

Sheffield's Local Studies & Archives website has had a makeover.