Our aims | Your
views | Volunteering |
Our policies
London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) is the archive repository for
many London-wide organisations. The archives of the City of London
Corporation (COL) and the former Greater London Council (GLC),
London County Council (LCC), Middlesex County Council (MCC) and
their predecessors are held here. LMA also holds records for many
religious, public, business, local authority and other
organisations based in London. The dates of items that can be found
here range from medieval to the present day, and our collections
are constantly expanding. At the moment, there are documents to
fill around 105 km worth of shelving! You can find out more
detailed information concerning our holdings by looking at our
collections page.
The majority of items held here can be freely viewed by the
public. Exceptions might include instances where personal
information is protected (under the data protection act), or some
instances where damaged documents have been withdrawn for
conservation protection reasons. Anyone can visit LMA and view
documents. You can see detailed document handling guidelines in our
policies section.
Watch this video for an introduction to our services and
collections.
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Our Aims
The holdings here at London Metropolitan Archives are an
important part of London life, its past, present and future. It is
our privilege to look after them, and with this privilege comes a
responsibility which is reflected in our core service aims.
We aim to:
- Build an archive collection that tells the story of London and
its people
- Provide the best possible access to the information in our
care
- Ensure that our resources are available to as wide a range of
people as possible
- Build an environment where learning is fun
- Develop our staff so that we can provide expert services
- Make full use of current techniques to provide an effective
service
What you can expect from us:
- Courteous and informed advice from our staff in the public
rooms
- Research facilities that include public access computers,
microfilm reader/printers and portable computer points
- Production of documents within 20 minutes of each collection
time
- All heavily used archives to be available on self-service
microfilm
- Full access to catalogued archives deemed open and fit for
consultation with all our catalogues available online
- All information leaflets translated into appropriate community
languages on request
- Applications for access to damaged archives to be considered
and items to be repaired where possible
- Enquiries by letter, telephone, fax and email to be answered
within ten working days of receipt
What we expect from you:
- To behave courteously to members of staff and other
readers
- To respect the quiet environment of our public rooms
- To handle all archives and books carefully, by observing the
guidelines available in the public rooms
- To abide by the regulations for readers
- To respect the fact that there may be restrictions to accessing
certain records: these will be in place for reasons of
confidentiality and preservation
- To comment constructively on our services in order to help us
improve them
Your comments, complaints
and questions
We want London Metropolitan Archives to be excellent and we
recognise that improvements to our services are part of a
continuous process. Many of the changes we have introduced over the
past few years have emerged from consultation with our users. We
think it is important to maintain an exchange of ideas at all
levels and we are always interested to hear your views.
If you would like to comment on our services, please
contact the enquiry team.
Volunteering
There are many opportunities to become a volunteer at LMA. Visit
our
volunteer page to find out more about volunteering, and to see
some of the work that volunteers have been involved in.
Full policies
London Metropolitan Archives produces detailed policies on various
key aspects of our service. These policies are grouped into two
areas, those which relate to 'stewardship' of archives, i.e. our
collecting policy, preservation of the records and 'Access'
policies, ie what we do to provide an archive service and make the
information in our care available to the public.
Please note that more policies will appear on this site as they
are drafted and ratified. All policies are dated and may be revised
by LMA where appropriate. We will endeavour to have the most
up-to-date versions available on this page. If you cannot find a
matter of LMA policy addressed in the files below, please
contact the enquiry team.
London Metropolitan Archives is owned and managed by the City of
London, and consequently subscribes to all published policies of
the City of London.
Policy files
Access and Interpretation
Policy (36kb)
Appraisal Policy (41kb)
Archive Preservation and Conservation Policy
(116kb)
Child Protection Policy (25kb)
Collections Policy (37kb)
Copying and Handling Policy (723kb)
Digital Preservation
Policy (25kb)
Due Diligence Policy (29kb)
Fundraising Policy (16kb)
Green Policy (LMA site) (41kb)
Internet Acceptable Use
Policy (27kb)
Learning and Development
Policy (14kb)
PAT Collections Policy (31kb)
Security Policy (29kb)
Volunteer Policy (135kb)