February Issue 2002

The AIM Bulletin is the main communication channel for the UKs 1000+ independent museums and heritage organisations - half the total provision for the British Isles - which have been in the forefront of the museum movement for over 25 years.

IN THIS ISSUE

• Independent museums have come a long way since Sir Arthur Drew described them as the ‘primordial slime of the museum world’.  Over the next 25 years independent museums led the field with innovations across the breadth of museum work, especially in management and interpretation.  Celebrating this legacy and looking forward to independent museums of the future are the twin themes for this year’s Silver Jubilee AIM Conference, held at Sheffield Galleries & Museums on 9-11 May. Speakers include AIM president and chairman of English Heritage, Sir Neil Cossons; Michael Day, director of Jersey Heritage Trust and John Hamshere of the Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust. Workshops sessions in the afternoon will be followed by the annual dinner and the next day, visits to Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet, Eyam Museum and Chatsworth House and Gardens. The full programme and booking form can be obtained from Diana Zeuner (see contact details below). Page 1.
  
  
• AIM has produced the first authoritative practical guidance for smaller museums on the mysteries of ICT. The latest paper in AIM’s series of FOCUS information papers is published in association with the Committee for Area Museums Councils.  Written by Nick Gander of Yorkshire and Humberside Area Museum Council, with additional material by Bob Melling, AIM Council member with the ICT brief, ICT for Museums aims to answer all the questions small-medium museums may have about ICT and its applications for their projects. Members receive a free copy and additional copies can be bought, price £4.50 by contacting Diana Zeuner at the address below. Page 2.
  
  
• Resource, the Council for Museums Archives and Libraries, should ensure museum services currently carried out by area museums councils do not fall into a ‘black hole’ until the proposed new ‘hub’ structure for museums is in place. The hubs are the central idea in the recently-published Renaissance in the Regions report about the future of regional museums. Smaller independents are worried about the loss of advisory and support services which will no longer be provided by AMCs as they are replaced by strategic single regional agencies incorporating archives and libraries as well as museums. Independents, meanwhile, have been urged to get involved in their local hubs, which may replace AMCs as a source of help in the future.  Page 3.
  
  

Also in this issue

• Making money out of foreign coins
• Strategy for rural tourism and its effects on museums
• Re-engineering museum boards
• AIM’s brainstorming session on the association’s future
• Museums & Heritage Show plans – 6/7 March
  
  

Plus

Information on AIM’s latest events, AIM’s Trading Survey, the Bob Harding Training Fund Bursaries and FOCUS information papers, and the two-page AIM Directory – 30+ providers of products and services for the museum sector.

Further information contacts:  Sam Mullins, AIM chairman - Tel 020 7379 6344.  Fax 020 7565 7250.   Email  samm@ltmuseum.co.uk.  Diana Zeuner, AIM Bulletin editor - Tel/Fax 01243 811364.  Email  heavyhorse@mistral.co.uk.