The Brighton Toy and Model Index (PressRelease 2016-11)
| Press Release |
|---|
2016 |
The Brighton Toy and Model Index, press release, ist November 2016:
Brighton Toy and Model Museum launches online periodical
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
1 November 2016, Brighton, UK
Brighton Toy and Model Museum has relaunched its knowledgebase as a free-access online periodical, "The Brighton Toy and Model Index", ISSN 2399-1798 .
The Index, at www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/index/ , currently contains over five thousand pages of information and over five thousand images, and will be undergoing continual review and expansion.
Editor Eric Baird said, "The Index was originally created as a way of providing background context for the museum's exhibits to visitors, but it's now grown so much that we decided to relaunch it as a stand-alone resource. It's increasingly becoming the main source of information on the internet for a range of topics related to toys and models up to the middle of the Twentieth Century."
Key Facts:
- The Index uses the same software as Wikipedia – "Mediawiki" – but its content is written by authorised museum personnel.
- Images are photographed or digitised from the museum's collections, reference library and archives, and edited in-house.
- The prototype knowledgebase was started in 2011, and was significantly expanded in 2013 with the help of a Heritage Lottery Fund grant to celebrate the legacy of toymaker Frank Hornby and Meccano Ltd.
- The scope of the material reflects that of the museum's collections – toys and models produced or sold in the UK from the Nineteenth Century to circa ~1950.
- The historical toy and model record reflects how people thought and lived at the time. The Index logo's theme – a child's glass marble – represents a toy whose surface reflects the world around it.
- The site was rebranded, renamed and assigned an ISSN number in late September/October as a monthly online periodical, the period 1st-31st October represents its first full official month of updates.
Notes to Editors
About Brighton Toy and Model Museum
Brighton Toy and Model Museum was founded by Chris Littledale in 1991, and is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary.
It is an Arts Council accredited museum and a registered charity (number 1001560), and also serves as a tourist information point for visitors to Brighton.
The museum has world-class collections and displays of mainly British and European toys and models manufactured up until the mid-Twentieth century, with an emphasis on the inter-war period. The museum is built into a series of four Victorian cellars beneath Brighton Railway Station, and its displays include collections representing the output of manufacturers Bing, Bassett-Lowke, Britains, Hornby, Marklin, Meccano, Pelham Puppets, and Steiff. The museum also includes individually-engineered pieces such as the working quarter-scale traction engine and the Spitfire fighter planes in the lobby, and a range of other working scale models throughout the museum.
Further information
Nick Gibson, Manager at Brighton Toy and Model Museum
- phone: 01273 749 494,
- email: info@brightontoymuseum.co.uk
- www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/
- www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/index/
