MLA South East Internet - National Bodies

The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) is the national development agency working for and on behalf of museums, libraries and archives and advises government on policy and priorities for the sector. MLA's roles are to provide strategic leadership, to act as a powerful advocate, to develop capacity and to promote innovation and change. MLA South East is funded through a core grant from MLA and became a member of the MLA Partnership in April 2006.

MLA has announced its plans for a new single national organisation to replace the ten organisations within the MLA Partnership. It will be extending its Executive Board to include three Directors of Engagement, each with specific geographic responsibilities. There will be a regional manager in each region supported both by staff based in Birmingham and regional action teams - flexible, mobile groups formed to undertake specific tasks in priority locations. This unified structure will be fully implemented by April 2009, by which time eight of the existing regional agencies, including MLA South East, will have ceased operations.

Meanwhile, MLA South East's Chief Executive participates in MLA's Partnership Strategy Group and other members of staff take an active role in Partnership projects.

Culture24 exists to promote and support the cultural sector online and to serve the needs of online audiences. It is a not-for-profit online publisher, working across the arts, heritage, education, and tourism sectors. They have been publishing websites, and sharing data and experience successfully since 2001. In that time they have built up a comprehensive set of skills, infrastructure and partnerships, plus a high online profile.

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is regarded as one of the world's greatest libraries. The BL’s vision is to make the world's intellectual, scientific and cultural heritage accessible, and to bring the collections of the British Library to everyone - at work, school, college or home. MLA South is one of the Regional Agency representatives on the Full Disclosure Implementation Group. This is chaired by the British Library (BL) Head of Collections and Research and the BL hosts the Project Officer (funded by MLA). The Project Officer was on the Steering Group for MLA South East's Documentation Backlogs Study. MLA South East also helped arrange a regional Full Disclosure seminar in 2004.

The National Preservation Office (NPO) is based at the BL. They are currently doing some Regional Preservation Needs Assessment work for MLA South East with a number of museums, libraries and archives across the region. In addition, a partnership brought together by the NPO, and including CILIP, Halahan Associates and Elizabeth Oxbarrow-Cowan, won the tender to carry out the development work on the Regional Stewardship Strategy. The NPO host the UK and Ireland Blue Shield Project Officer, and MLA South East developed an emergency planning training day in partnership with the Project Officer.

The Heritage Lottery Fund distributes money raised by the national lottery to support all aspects of heritage in the UK, from historic buildings and museums to archives, nature conservation and oral history. The HLF gives grants to support a wide range of projects involving the local, regional and national heritage of the United Kingdom, providing both capital grants (for buildings and equipment) and time-limited activity grants. As a development agency, MLA South East seeks to have constructive working relationships with all major funders in the South East that may invest in museums, libraries and archives, including the HLF.

MLA South East's relationship to the HLF covers the following areas:

advocating for the importance of museums, libraries and archives in meeting the strategic aims of the HLF in the South East
in partnership with HLF, advocating the value of heritage to the quality of life for people in the South East through our joint membership of the regional cultural consortium – Culture South East
providing informal expert advice to HLF on the development and assessment of applications for its funds, and acting as Statutory Advisor to HLF on the assessment of South East projects
providing advice to museums, libraries and archives in the South East on the development of potential applications to the HLF
acting as a partnership broker for potential applicants
acting as the project monitor for HLF for some successful grants
through its own grant schemes, MLA South East funding can be used by museums, libraries and archives for targeted research or development work which may support an HLF bid.

The National Archives (TNA) of England, Wales and the United Kingdom has one of the largest archival collections in the world, spanning 1000 years of British history, from Domesday Book of 1086 to government papers recently released to the public. TNA provides the main source of national advice to archives of all kinds and collaborates with MLA South East in developing archive standards. MLA South East and TNA have held joint training events covering the implications of the Freedom of Information Act. TNA is often the lead partner in consortium projects which aim to provide coordinated online content from archives eg. Access to Archives and Moving Here websites. MLA South East works to broker regional partnerships in support of these projects and has provided some grant aid towards them.

National Bodies

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