I think I will remember 2009 as the year when I started to sense a renaissance in affection for physical collections – often surfacing as a desire to create electronic, virtual catalogues of not only books, but documents and artifacts. This is not to replace the real collection, but to increase access and to tell the world how much art and history add to life – go there and see the real things .. And I keep coming across the concept of ‘convergence of library, museum and gallery services’, although this is not really new from my perspective; we have offered a course tailoring  information skills for the cultural sector at City University London for 4 years now. Nevertheless, I can only see this renewed interest in organising collections as a good thing.

If you are one of these ‘renaissance’ types – you may be interested in this event at the National Gallery in London on 10/0/09 – entitled “Not Museum Pieces? – the developing role of archivists and librarians in museums”

“Organised by the London Museums, Librarians and Archivists Group (LMLAG), this one-day conference is of interest to all who use, or work in, museum/gallery libraries and archives and are concerned about their future development.”