Welcome to the new look BirminghamLives site. You might notice a few changes, especially in the way that the material is displayed. We think it's far more friendly to use and we hope you think so too! Here's a little information about some of the new features. Of course, the best way to find out about the new site is just to click a few buttons, explore and have fun!

News
This will contain items of news about the archive or events of interest to Brummies so keep coming back regularly to keep up to date with what's happening.

Links
We have now included links to other web-based resources which we think you may find interesting or useful.

Teaching ideas
Major users of the archive are primary and secondary schools in order to help support the teaching of the History curriculum. This area contains shared ideas and resources to help teachers with their planning or for those that want a few quick ideas in how to bring history alive in the classroom.

My resources
This the most significant change to the archive. It allows you to add/delete/prioritise favourite items in the archive to a personalised list. The list is created 'on the fly' as you browse, almost like an electronic notebook. Your personal list of 'My Resources' can then be saved to your browser and recalled whenever you need to access it. This list can also be emailed to others so your research can be shared. For more information, click on the 'My Resources' link on the top toolbar.

Themes
This facility links together items from the archive that share a similar subject. For example, you may be wanting to research Birmingham during the Second World War. Searching for themes from the dropdown list will display the results, one of them being, 'Birmingham at War'. This resource will display a central image from the archive which illustrates the theme together with a set of links to other material from the archive that share the same subject matter.