47 Opening up to Archaeology – the VIP way Glynn J C Davis Introduction The London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre (LAARC) at the Museum of London (MoL) was established to house and make accessible finds and records from excavations across London (Swain 2012, 316-363; Swain 2007, 133-136; Keene 2005, 54-56) (Figures 1 & 2). LAARC currently cares for records concerning nearly 8,500 archaeological investigations and holds over 3,500 detailed excavation archives. In April 2012 it was awarded the title of ‘world’s largest archaeological archive’ by Guinness World Records in London. However, biggest isn’t always best and the LAARC has a good deal of ‘legacy’ archives that do not meet our current standards of deposition. As such these archives remain inaccessible (Figure 3). To quote Nick Merriman from his paper ‘Making Museum Archaeology Matter’ it’s ‘not what you have but what you do with it’ (p32-41). Since its opening, the LAARC’s approach to this challenge has been to involve hundreds of volunteers directly in the care of its collections, especially focusing on our inherited legacy of poorly curated archives. Over the last decade LAARC has developed a series of differing volunteering programmes that have culminated in the creation of its highly successful Volunteer Inclusion Programme (VIP). Figure 1. The London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre (LAARC). Museum of London.