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The AALT website is the product of a series of negotiations over fifteen years, all oriented to make the resources of the National Archives more accessible to the general scholarly audience at no charge. All the negotiations have sought to make use of the substantial resources attached to the Cullen Chair of History and Law to secure that result. After the latest and only successful negotiation, AALT's licence was finally signed on August 3, 2006. However, since it was clear as early as January, 2006 that an agreement was possible, acquisition of material began at that time. The licence determines the possible content of the website. Roughly, the contents can range between the dates 1272 and 1650 and cover only the major legal series of documents. Acquisition of content will continue, hopefully, for a further five years and will complete these series. The website is financially well endowed and run through a the O'Quinn Law Library, so that the continuance of the website does not depend on the continuing interest of an individual or the annual allocation of funds. It will therefore be a stable and dependable academic research resource. The work on AALT during its first year of acquisition comes from Robert C. Palmer, the current Cullen Professor of History and Law at the University of Houston (responsible for funding, administration of the website, webpage writing and content, and acquisition of Latin materials) and Elspeth K. Palmer, currently a graduate student in English literature at the University of Texas at Austin (responsible for acquisition of English language materials, webpage templates, and graphics). |
