Update: Disbursal of the Mendham Collection by the Law Society of England and Wales

Additional signatures in support of the petition are requested:

http://tinyurl.com/Mendham-Collection-disbursal

+++ Forwarded announcement +++

Dear fellow petitioners,

More than 3,500 people have signed the petition entreating the Law Society of England and Wales to reconsider their decision to break up the historic collection of Joseph Mendham. It is remarkable to have the support of people from all over the world, and with diverse interests in the material contained within the collection. Petitioners’ comments about why the integrity of the Mendam Collection matters makes for powerful reading.

The petition has caught the attention of the UK media, and the plight of the collection has been covered in such diverse publications as Private Eye, Country Life, the Independent, and the Sunday Times, as well as on the radio and TV news. Twitter and bloggers have played an important role in getting the word out, and in keeping the campaign in the public eye. A recent example is Michael Caines’s excellent post on the TLS Blog.

We believe that the petition and the media campaign has caught the attention of the decision makers at the Law Society, but we are still some way from achieving our goal of securing the future of the Mendham Collection in perpetuity.

I therefore hope that we can maintain or even increase the petition’s momentum, and I would be grateful if you could alert your personal and professional networks about the situation. The more signatures and comments that our petition attracts, the harder the campaign will be for the Law Society to ignore.

Our collective expression of the value of this collection as a public resource is proving to be a vital part of our argument to save it.

Thank you for your support,

Alixe Bovey
Chair, Mendham Task Force
University of Kent
a.bovey@kent.ac.uk

See also

http://www.djshaw.co.uk/Mendham.pdf (Article on the Mendham collection)

http://archiv.twoday.net/stories/110776633

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