Whether you're after a stroll through the woods in springtime, a canoe safari on the Norfolk Broads, a day at the caber-tossing Highland Games or afternoon tea at a fancy hotel, this book will lead you to the best holiday destinations and experiences Great Britain and Ireland have to offer. Its easy-to-use season-by-season format and six themes - History and Heritage; Wildlife and Landscape; Cities, Towns and Villages; Outdoor Activities; Family Getaways; and Festivals and Events - make planning your time on these beautiful isles easier than ever.

This unique and important directory incorporates some 3,200 entries. It covers all types and sizes of museums; galleries of paintings, sculpture and photography; and buildings and sites of particular historic interest. It also provides an extensive index listing over 3,200 subjects. The directory covers national collections and major buildings, but also the more unusual, less well-known and local exhibits and sites. The Directory of Museums, Galleries and Buildings of Historic Interest in the United Kingdom is an indispensable reference source for any library, an ideal companion for researcher and enthusiast alike, and an essential purchase for anyone with an interest in the cultural and historical collections of the UK. Features include: * Alphabetically listed entries, which are also indexed by subject for ease of reference * Entries include the name and address of the organization, telephone and fax numbers, email and internet addresses, a point of contact, times of opening and facilities for visitors * A breakdown of the collections held by each organization, giving a broad overview of the main collection as a whole * Details of special collections are provided and include the period covered as well as the number of items held.

This book sets a new standard as a work of reference. It covers British and Irish art in public collections from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the end of the nineteenth, and it encompasses nearly 9,000 painters and 90,000 paintings in more than 1,700 separate collections. The book includes as well pictures that are now lost, some as a consequence of the Second World War and others because of de-accessioning, mostly from 1950 to about 1975 when Victorian art was out of fashion. By listing many tens of thousands of previously unpublished works, including around 13,000 which do not yet have any form of attribution, this book becomes a unique and indispensable work of reference, one that will transform the study of British and Irish painting.

The National Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland (MAGNI), created in 1998, brought together the Ulster Museum, the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, and the Ulster-American Folk Park (and it is also responsible for the operation of W5, the first Science Discovery Centre in Ireland, opened in 2001). The collection comprises some 1.45 million artefacts and works of art. The NIAO examined the structure of MAGNI, and the documentation and storage of the collection. Since 1994 all acquisitions have been documented to SPECTRUM (Standard ProcEdures for CollecTions Recording Used in Museums) standards, an internationally recognised standard for museum documentation. Although considerable progress has been made in computerisation, less than ten per cent of records are currently computerised. NIAO recommends: (i) a key performance indicator covering the percentage of the collection documented to international standards, reported annually; (ii) more photographing of important items (for records and internet use); (iii) regular physical inspection of a sample of records. At present only ten percent of the collection is on display. Storage of the remainder in some 50 separate locations was found to be poor or unacceptable in 30 locations, although the main stores holding the bulk of the collection are classed as good to excellent. NIAO welcomes the storage development plan being created, and recommends consideration of a centralized store, and performance indicators on storage conditions and internet accessibility to improve public access to the collections.