The development of the 1986 GAOL resource into the current collection of web-based materials has been only been made possible due to the active support of Kevin Ward and his staff at the Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service (BLARS).  As well as providing excellent access to the original records and documents,  their research expertise was vital in the detective work required to develop the extended studies and bring these individual cases to life. 

Much credit must also go to the  team of Bedfordshire Teachers and Advisory staff who worked so hard back in 1983-1986 to bring the original GAOL pack into being. Their work in obtaining and organising the information into a format that enabled it to be queried within a database environment  made the subsequent transfer to PC and then the Web possible.

In addition, the support from the Eastern Region Broadband Consortium in commissioning the research and video productions has been key in making this project happen.  Their patience has also been greatly appreciated!

And finally........

This project faltered for a whole variety of technical and non-technical reasons during the period 2002-2005.  Fortunately BLARS carried on the database work and has greatly extended the entries from the original 1300 to over 19000 with a projected final database size of over 35000.  Encouraged by this, the resources on the site have been updated and the suggested educational activities completed.   

However, we have only scratched the surface here, with archive services becoming digitised in the UK and abroad, these resources can be used as a starting point to encourage access many other databases and record collections to aid in personal or professional research.