Archives for the 21st century

Publicly funded archive services have a vital role within the communities they serve to contribute to local democracy, strong and cohesive communities, social policy, education, research, history and culture. Archives for the 21st Century (Cm. 7744) sets out the strategic vision for the sustainable development of a vigorous, publicly funded archive sector across England and Wales. It replaces the Government Policy on Archives (Cm. 4516) that was issued by the Lord Chancellor in 1999 and focuses on actions for publicly funded archives while acknowledging that private archives remain vital to the archival health of the nation. Section 1 outlines how the landscape in which archive services operate has changed - large organisations now keep most, if not all, of their information in electronic form. Section 2 provides a vision of the true potential of publicly funded archives. Section 3 outlines the challenges facing archive services in the delivery of their core task of preserving authentic information and helping people to access and understand the past. Section 4 sets out five key recommendations: develop bigger and better services in partnership; strengthened leadership and a responsive, skilled workforce; co-ordinated response to the growing challenge of managing digital information; comprehensive online access for archive discovery through catalogues and to digitised archive content by citizens at a time and place that suits them; and, active participation in cultural and learning partnerships promoting a sense of identity and place within the community. Section 5 highlights the need for concerted action by all parties connected with the archive sector to ensure a sustainable future.