Milton Keynes Museum has officially joined BT's Connected Earth partnership.

To commemorate the occasion, the museum will receive a large collection of items from the BT heritage collection as well as funding towards a new Connected Earth gallery dedicated to the history of telecommunications.

Further sources of finance for the gallery are being investigated and the museum hopes the project will be complete in 2005. Until then, the telecommunications heritage collection will be on display in the Telephone Museum within Milton Keynes Museum.

Connected Earth is a web-based museum underpinned by a series of physical collections at a number of sites across the country.

These include the Science Museums in London and Manchester, the National Museums of Scotland, Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings, the Museum of London, Amberley Working Museum, Porthcurno Museum of Submarine Technology and the Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station Experience.

All have received artefacts to supplement existing collections, in addition to funding towards new displays. Details: www.mkmuseum.org.uk / www.connected-earth.com