MLAG visit #3

Thursday 6 November, 2025 – The Gerald Coke Handel Collection at the Foundling Museum.

The Gerald Coke Handel Collection comprises over 15,000 items from the 18th century to the present and is a major research resource for the study of Handel and his contemporaries. Librarian Katharine Hogg will lead a tour of the collection, including a show and tell of some of its treasures.

The visit is open to a maximum of 12 attendees. If there is enough demand, Katharine has kindly offered to organise a second tour at 2.30pm that same day.

Where: Foundling Museum, 40 Brunswick Square, London, WC1N 1AZ. The museum is a 4 minute walk from Russell Square underground station, and 10 minutes from King’s Cross St Pancras and Euston.

Book your place: booking details can be found on the Listserv. We will run a waiting list too if demand is very high. 

Please get also in touch if you’d like to offer an in-person visit to your library and/or archive; MLAG is keen to organise these visits across the UK as much as possible.

Family History Resources

At our July 2025 meeting, on the subject of family history, several resources were shared both by presenters, and through the chat. Below is a summary with links of the resources discussed, arranged by organisation.

Bank of England

The Bank of England holds staff lists (1743-1997), salary ledgers (1718-1979), and staff examination records. For those researching customers, resources include customer account ledgers (1694–1900), branch bank ledgers (1820s-1960s) stock ledgers (1694–1963), and legal records related to those who have committed fraud agains the Bank (1770s-1890s).

A useful published primer is available: The Bank of England Archive: an introduction for family historians by Malcom Smart (Genealogists’ Magazine: Journal of the Society of Genealogists, volume 35, number 1 (2025), pages 4-15).

Imperial War Museum

IWM provides extensive guidance on tracing Army family history, Royal Air Force and Royal Flying Corps family history, Royal Navy history, Merchant Navy history, prisoners of war, Second World War home front family history, and US forces in Britain. They have guidance on searching for Army service, casualty, and medal records: https://www.iwm.org.uk/research/tracing-your-family-history

London Museum

The Port and River Archive holds personnel index cards and files, establishment books, disciple books, and staff magazines of the Port of London Authority (PLA), the London Dock Labour Board, the Thames Conservancy, and early dock companies. A research guide is available on their website:

‘Tracing family history in the Port and River Archive’.

London Transport Museum

LTM provides guidance on their website for those seeking information about a relative or ancestor who worked on London’s public transport, predecessor companies or other London transport providers: https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/research

Digitised versions of staff magazines have also been accessible for a number of years as a result of a joint project between LTM and the TfL Corporate Archives.

National Army Museum

The NAM holds an extensive collection of regimental histories and journals, as well as the archives of the Middlesex Regiment, the Buffs, the Scots Guards, and the Coldstream Guards. While the NAM Archive does not hold Army service records, it does provide guidance on how to research a former soldier: https://www.nam.ac.uk/collections/how-research-former-soldier

National Maritime Museum

The NMM provides a guide to tracing family history from maritime records. They also hold the following resources:

  • Trafalgar Roll by Robert Holden Mackenzie, containing the names and services of all officers of the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines who participated in the victory of the 21st October 1805, together with a history of the ships engaged in the battle
  • Crews of the Cutty Sark by S.F. Bailey : a comprehensive list of all known crewmembers while sailing under the British flag (1870–95). This book was compiled using the original crew lists held in the archives of the National Maritime Museum.
  • Windrush Day – a compiled bibliography (available on request)

Other maritime resources include The Crew List Index Project, British Merchant Navy, The Ships List (Archive), The Ships List (Re-published)

Railway Museum

For those getting started researching a family connection to the railways, the Railway museum provides a useful guide: https://www.railwaymuseum.org.uk/research-and-archivefurther-resources/family-history

Royal Botanical Gardens Kew

The Archives collection generally holds records relating to the history of botany and the history of Kew Gardens, dating back to around 1840s. This is when staff history records start with John Smith’s List of Gardeners. Staff lists dating consistently from 1893 are available, but there are many other stories ‘hidden’ in other collections. Finding aids on gardening ancestors with published materials available. https://www.kew.org/science/collections-and-resources/collections/archive-collection

General Reference

Where Is the List with All the Names? Information-Seeking Behavior of Genealogists The American Archivist, Vol. 66, No. 1 (Spring – Summer, 2003), pp. 79-95 (17 pages): https://www.jstor.org/stable/40294218

Library and archive groups — CILIP Local Studies Group, IFLA Local History and Genealogy Section (LOCGEN), ALA Genealogy and Local History Committee

External collaborators — Society of Genealogists, Family History Federation: Find a Society

Genealogy websites – Ancestry, Find My Past, My Heritage, Family Search, British Newspaper Archive

Caribbean Studies: Caribbean Studies: Tools for further research, Caribbean Family History Group (Birmingham)

In addition, while there are plenty of resources available to the general public online, many organisations hold staff lists, ledgers, and magazines whose indexes may need to be searched by members of staff upon enquiry.

MLAG Meeting

July 7, 2025, at 15.00, on Teams – The topic for our next meeting is family history research. Penny Allen from the National Maritime Museum/Royal Museums Greenwich will share her skills and experience, but we have time for others to present too.

As a reminder, meeting invites will be sent to institutional email addresses only. If you have joined the JISCmail listserv group with a personal email address but still belong to a library service, please update your details or join ‘twice’ to receive all relevant notifications from the group. If you have signed up with an institutional email address, but have somehow been missed, you can email mlag.blog@gmail.com.

The agenda will be sent beforehand. Please report back any institutional updates by the end of June 30th.

MLAG visit #2

Monday 19 May, 2025 – The British Museum Archive

The British Museum Archive is a unique record of the Museum’s activities since it was founded in 1753. It preserves the story of the Museum, the history of the collection, its collectors and the people who worked here. The Archive is a resource for researchers, academics and members of the public. The Archive is an essential element in supporting the ongoing research aims of the Museum and the wider research community. 

Archivists Francesca Hillier and Angie Grimshaw lead on the visit, which included a chance to network over tea and coffee. Thank you to everyone who attended.

MLAG Meeting

March 12, 2025, at 10.30 am, on Teams – The topic for our next meeting is library and archive service surveys. Some of our MLAG members will briefly present their experiences.

As a reminder, meeting invites will be sent to institutional email addresses only. If you have joined the JISCmail listserv group with a personal email address but still belong to a library service, please update your details or join ‘twice’ to receive all relevant notifications from the group. If you have signed up with an institutional email address, but have somehow been missed, you can email mlag.blog@gmail.com.

The agenda will be sent beforehand. Please report back any institutional updates by the end of March 7th.

MLAG visits

I’m pleased to announce that we are re-launching in-person visits to libraries and archives in 2025. These will be excellent opportunities to meet colleagues from the sector, network, swap notes on projects, practices etc.

On Monday 20 January we will visit not one but two archives, the Port of London Authority and the Sainsbury archives held at London Museum Docklands. 

The PLA Archive comprises several collections related to the Port of London and the River Thames, with a strong focus on the Docklands area. 

The Sainsbury Archive is a collection of documents, objects, photographs and film that charts the history of Sainsbury’s, one of the UK’s largest supermarkets, from its foundation in London’s Drury Lane in 1869.

Archivists Fiona Keates and Allison Foster will lead on the visit, open to a maximum of 20 attendees.

Where: London Museum Docklands, London, walking distance from the Canary Wharf Elizabeth Line and Jubilee Line stations, or West India Quay and Westferry DLR stations.

When: Monday 20 January 10am-12pm, meet at the museum’s lobby.

Book your place: booking details can be found on the Listserv; we will run a waiting list too if demand is high. 

Please get also in touch if you’d like to offer an in-person visit to your library and/or archive; MLAG is keen to organise these across the UK as much as possible.

MLAG meeting

November 12, 2024, at 10am, on Teams – The topic for our next meeting is skills auditing. Hellen Pethers from the Natural History Museum will introduce us to skills auditing, presenting the work being developed in the museum’s library service. We would welcome other members to share their experience with skills audits, but also with the broader aspects of personal and professional development in Librarianship.

As a reminder, meeting invites will be sent to institutional email addresses only. If you have joined the JISCmail listserv group with a personal email address but still belong to a library service, please update your details or join ‘twice’ to receive all relevant notifications from the group. If you have signed up with an institutional email address, but have somehow been missed, you can email mlag.blog@gmail.com.      

DEI Resources

At our August 2024 meeting, on the subject of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), several resources were shared both by presenters, and through the chat. Below is a summary with links of the resources discussed:

Backstage Library Works – An authority control tool with DEI Initiative Support. 

The Kind Librarian – New book by Helen Rimmer discussed during the meeting, particularly Chapter 8: The art of kind recruitment, which details inclusive hiring practices. 

Decolonisation Best Practice and Case Studies in HE Libraries – Google spreadsheet in which participants from UK HE libraries describe DEI initiatives in their institutions. 

Lean In (What is Allyship? Allyship in Practice) – bite-sized Youtube videos on allyship. 

10000 Interns Foundation – Organisation that provides paid internships for Black students and graduates across a range of UK industries.

MLAG Meeting

August 19, 2024, at 4pm, on Teams – The topic for our next meeting is DEI. We will hear from some of our members about their experience managing their service’s external enquiries, followed by time for questions and further discussion.

Please note that this will be the last MLAG meeting to be promoted via JISCMail. Going forward, meeting invites will be sent to institutional email addresses only. If you have joined the JISCmail listserv group with a personal email address but still belong to a library service, please update your details or join ‘twice’ to receive all relevant notifications from the group.

MLAG Meeting

May 1st, 2024, at 11am, on Teams – The topic for our next meeting is enquiries management. We will hear from some of our members about their experience managing their service’s external enquiries, followed by time for questions and further discussion. We hope to see as many of you as possible on the 1st.

Please note that this will be the last MLAG meeting to be promoted via JISCMail. Going forward, meeting invites will be sent to institutional email addresses only. If you have joined the JISCmail listserv group with a personal email address but still belong to a library service, please update your details or join ‘twice’ to receive all relevant notifications from the group.