## Archives Matter

- [Archives Inspire video played]1 
 

## Introduction

 
- Thank you, it's a great pleasure to be here. 
 
- I hope you will agree with the conclusion of the video you've just 
seen. Archives across the globe are **facing a paradigm shift**. And 
while it's an interesting and exciting time to be a part of it, we all recognise the need to work at pace to address the challenges and to embrace the opportunities on the horizon.  
 
- So today, I'd like to talk about how The UK National Archives is 
collaborating with archives and other institutions in the UK and 
beyond, to meet this paradigm shift. 
- I'll talk about our ambitious, audience-focussed four-year strategic 
plan, *Archives Inspire* that sets out to change the way people think 
about archives. 
 
- I'll talk about how the UK archive sector has created its own 
robust and innovative strategic vision.  
 
- I'll then share how we are working to embrace the challenges and 
opportunities digital technologies present, and our strategy to meet these. I will argue that it is only by collaborating and working 
in partnership that we'll address these challenges. Finding 
pioneering solutions to problems like digital preservation is an international team sport. 
 
- Finally, I'll talk about how *Archives Inspire* broke with our past 
strategies, how it articulates what archives are for rather than what 
they do - and to that end, why archives across the globe can deliver 
so much more than their public task and, in doing so, fulfil their 
potential as **a public good.**  

## Archives Inspire

- Imagine a world without archives. Without records, people could not 
prove where and when they were born, or who owns the property 
they live in. They could not trace their ancestry, explore their collective and individual identities, or hold government and 
organisations to account.  
 
- The **impact of archives is felt right across society,** underpinning 
academic research, fuelling the digital economy and inspiring innovation and creativity. 
- In short: **archives matter!**  
 
- Over the last few years, the UK public has witnessed a rise in highprofile inquiries, and public appreciation of the importance of 
archives has never been higher. However, this comes with 
increased expectations about ease of access, and the ability to find everything at the click of a mouse.  
 
- Archives are at a cross-roads. They face unprecedented 
opportunities, especially the ones offered by digital technology. 
But archives also need to undergo fundamental transformation if 
they are to capitalize on these opportunities.  
- In April 2015, the UK National Archives launched *Archives Inspire*, 
our ambitious, audience-focused, four-year strategy. It was a 
deliberate departure from our previous business plan, For the 
Record, For Good, which was largely an articulation of our public 
task to *collect, preserve* and *provide access* to public records. 
 
- *Archives Inspire* speaks to the public good we deliver, changing 
the way people think about archives - by articulating what 
archives are for. It looks outwards, arguing that we need to think and organise ourselves differently, if we are to meet the needs of our four core audiences - government, the public, academia and 
the archive sector. 
- From the outset, *Archives Inspire* explicitly identified digital as the 
single biggest challenge facing us all. Implicitly, it identified the 
need for greater collaboration and partnership across the UK and 
globally.  
 
- *Archives Inspire* recognised the need to work together with the 
archive sector and its stakeholders to make the case for archives as a vital part of a nation's heritage. In the UK, *Archives Inspire* was a 
catalyst for the archive sector to create its own strategic vision - 
Archives Unlocked. 

## Archives Unlocked

- *Archives Unlocked* is the UK government's strategic vision for 
archives. It was launched by the then Minister for Digital and 
Culture in March 2017. 
- The development of the vision was led by the UK National Archives. 
However, it was very much the sector's own vision, developed 
through an extensive process of co-creation with the sector and with 
key partners. 
- The scale of the challenges facing archives can be overwhelming, 
so the vision needed to present an inspiring message for the future. It had to be practical and grounded to help guide archives through 
the change. It also needed to be something that resonated with the entire archive sector, while providing a compelling message 
for decision makers and funders. 
- The UK benefits from an extensive and distributed archival 
collection, and from sound professional practice that has evolved 
over the last century. The UK National Archives is proud to lead and 
work with over 2,500 archives across the country.  
But the UK's archives are funded by - and belong to - a wide range of organisations including: local authorities, universities, businesses; charities, religious bodies and private individuals.  
 

- **Each archive is therefore different**, and the leadership approach 
to the sector needs to reflect this diversity. Together, the sector is 
an *ecosystem* of collections that intersect to form the rich tapestry 
that is the nation's documentary heritage.  
This is underpinned by a profession that is well-networked to support researchers to connect and analyse records from many different sources.  
 
- The breadth and diversity of this archival infrastructure is a great 
strength, as it means archives are not dependent on one source of 
funding - and the ecosystem can evolve and adapt as funding 
climates change.  
 
- However, such diversity also presents challenges when creating 
overarching strategies that are meaningful to such a broad constituency.  
 
- Furthermore, agendas can change quickly. So, the new vision 
needed to focus on the *fundamental* values that archives bring 
to society. This meant creating a vision that would remain inspiring 
over time - while providing both sustainability, and the impetus for 
sector transformation. 
- The UK National Archives embarked on a year-long process of cocreation to develop the vision. From the outset, this was far more 
than just a consultation. The intention was to start with a blank 
sheet, and for us to lead and work with the archive sector and stakeholders to generate a vision that everyone felt they owned.  
 
- It had to be **a real tool for change** - not a glossy brochure that sat 
forgotten on a shelf. The co-creation work began with a series of roundtable events throughout the country, attended by representatives from across the archive sector and beyond.  
 
- The emerging vision was then tested through an open survey, and 
explored in a series of targeted interviews. We coordinated expert panels to draw in knowledge from organisations that sat within and 
around the archive sector, including digital bodies. 
- To support this, we pulled together a reference group of thought 
leaders, innovators and sector leads, who critically assessed the 
emerging vision in terms of **ambition and deliverability.**  
- And from this wide-ranging co-creation process, a coherent 
message emerged about the role of archives. This was then distilled 
into three core values - (i) archives will strengthen society through 
the **trust** they inspire, (ii) the **enrichment** they offer, and (iii) their 
openness to all.  
 
- Archives are homes for our collective memory. Records give us new 
and often very personal perspectives on what we thought we knew 
about the past. They are vital resources that underpin research and inspire creativity. They connect us to our past, inform our present, 
and illuminate our future. Most crucially, they allow society to hold 
those who held power - in government and elsewhere - to 
account.  
 
- In 1989, ninety-six people tragically lost their lives owing to fateful 
overcrowding in a football stadium in Sheffield, in the North East of England. The Independent Police Complaints Commission, the body then responsible for overseeing complaints against police forces in England and Wales, conducted an investigation into this 
tragedy, which became known as the 'Hillsborough disaster'.  
 
- The investigation provided a powerful example of **trust**, illustrating 
the vital role archives played in providing information and evidence to underpin the democratic process.  
- The integrity of such archival processes, and the safe custody of 
records like these, **reassure** the public that archives can be relied 
on to support accountability. 
- The vision used further case studies, including the archive of the 
children's charity Barnardo's, the archive of the John Lewis 
Partnership - one of the UK's most prominent retailers - and the 
digital mapping project for the West of England, 'Know Your Place'. 
These helped bring to life - in practical and inspiring ways - how 
archives are not just inspiring trust, but are also enriching people's 
lives, and **opening themselves up** to innovative use, and re-use.  
 
- These practical case studies were complemented by think-pieces 
from contributors within and beyond the archive sector, challenging existing norms and provoking new ideas for the future. 
- Finally, the co-creation process explored the key development 
challenges facing the archive sector, to enable the creation of a clear action plan to underpin the vision.  
- This action plan was a vital part of building confidence in the vision, 
and in securing commitment from the wide range of delivery partners from across sectors. It was vital that the UK National 
Archives didn't deliver the action plan in isolation. 
- Three specific areas for development were identified within the 
action plan: (i) to build digital capacity, (ii) engineer resilience 
and (iii) demonstrate impact. The plan includes a wide range of 
initiatives under each area, including pilot programmes and 
innovation testing, targeted grants programmes, training 
programmes, guidance and advice.  

## Archives Revealed

 
- The focus for the first year has been on developing coherent and 
multi-layered strategies for **workforce development** and digital 
capacity building.  
 
- The action plan is supported by over 1.5 million pounds2 of funding, 
including 825,000 pounds3 under *Archives Revealed,* a partnership 
programme between us, and the heritage grant-giving body, The 
Pilgrim Trust - with additional financial support from the Wolfson 
Foundation.  
- For 2017-18, *Archives Revealed* also welcomed an additional 
50,000 pounds4 of funding from the Foyle Foundation. It is the only 
funding stream available in the UK dedicated to cataloguing and 
unlocking archival content.  
 
- From the Heritage Lottery Fund - the body in the UK which 
distributes lottery funding to heritage projects - a further 749,000 
pounds5 was secured to help expand digital expertise across the 
archive sector. 
- The funding for this 'Bridging the Digital Gap' initiative was awarded 
as part of the Heritage Lottery Fund's 'Skills for the Future' programme to fund 24 digital trainees. It aims to help drive forward 
the **digital archive skills** that are essential to the survival and 
promotion of the nation's digital heritage.  
 
- 'Bridging the Digital Gap' is supported by the Archives and Records 
Association - the professional body for archivists and records managers in the UK and the Republic of Ireland - and by the Digital Preservation Coalition. 

## The Digital Challenge

 

- So, *Archives Unlocked* frames the major challenges facing the 
archive sector. Of those challenges, the most pressing and the most urgent is the challenge of digital.  
 
- The shift to digital is transforming every aspect of the archival 
landscape - be it appraisal and selection, preservation, access, 
presentation or use. 
- **Each and every archival function** is in the process of being 
profoundly changed. Where yesterday's records were tangible, 
those of today and tomorrow are intangible. The very nature of what 
a record is has changed - from a world of letters, memos and 
minutes, to email, data and computer code. The ones and zeros  
are **the record.**  
 
- Archives need to develop new capacity and capabilities to ensure 
that digital records can continue to be kept and used. It was 
therefore not surprising that, of the three major themes to emerge 
from *Archives Unlocked*, digital capacity was at the forefront. 

- In the area of digital, the following actions were identified:  
 
o *Scope* a programme to build digital capacity for the sector, to 
address digital preservation, discoverability and digitisation; 
 
o *Foster* expertise and shared solutions through a learning set of 
archivists. This involves local and regional digital preservation 
projects;  
 
o *Increase* access to archives through innovation in online 
catalogues, data collection, analysis and re-use;  
 
o *Build* partnerships with digital and IT leaders to establish 
shared standards and models of good practice;  
 
o And, *develop* the archive service accreditation scheme, to 
assess and support improved management of digital collections.  
 

- Since the vision was launched, we have worked hard to deliver 
initiatives to support this digital programme. An Archives Unlocked board has been established, comprising representatives not only 
from archives, but from the wider digital, professional and cultural sectors, to take forward the vision. Over the course of the 
rest of this year and 2019, a coherent strategy for digital capacity will also be developed, in conjunction with the board.  
 
- In the meantime, we have already supported some specific 
initiatives. For example: 
o *Research* in Dorset, in the south-west England, into digital 
audience expectations. This will be used as a template for 
other archives; 
o *Funding* and support for a number of pilot projects in digital 
preservation;  
 
o and, the *delivery* of digitisation seminars to help address 
sector need - delivered in collaboration with the arts 
organization, Tate; and the not-for-profit digital services and 
solutions body, Jisc.  
- In addition, the foundations have been laid for a number of broader 
pieces of work. These include kick-starting the facilitation of a Digital Action Learning Set, which will share learning through a 
series of events to join up knowledge and approaches. It also includes commissioning an audit of sector digital skills to inform a training and development programme. 
- *Archives Unlocked* and the challenges it aims to address are of 
relevance to other sectors too. So, we have established a 
Memorandum of Understanding with Jisc, developed our current 
Memorandum with Research Libraries UK and, we continue to work on a range of issues with the Digital Preservation Coalition.  
 

## Digital Strategy6

 
- The digital capacity strand of *Archives Unlocked* does not, however, 
sit in isolation from the rest of the UK National Archives. It is closely 
connected to our **digital strategy**, which was launched in the same 
month as *Archives Unlocked*.  
 
- The digital strategy's focus on the areas of preservation, context, 
presentation, and enabling use, directly maps onto the Archives 
Unlocked ambitions of trust, enrichment and openness.  
                                            

- Trust in the digital archive can only be achieved if users can be 
assured of the provenance and authenticity of the records 
contained in it. Furthermore, it can only enrich and be open if 
people can use it and find what they need. 
- Our digital strategy sets out a radical new departure in thinking.  
It recognises that many principles in archival theory are 
fundamentally challenged, and identifies some of the practices that  
are holding us back in the digital era. It maps out some of the 
completely new capabilities that we need. 
- The strategy therefore sets out ambitious plans to meet the 
challenges presented by digital records by:  
 
o *creating* the 'disruptive' digital archive;  
 
o *extending* our reach and engaging new audiences using the 
web; 
 
o *transforming* how the physical archive is accessed and used; 
 
o *developing* digital capability, skills and culture;  
 
o and, *forging* partnerships with other archives progressing 
digital transformation.  
 
- This searching focus on the challenge of digital ensures that we can 
continue to provide leadership and support to the wider archive sector, as the outputs of this high-level work filter down into 
common practice.  
 
- However, in order to achieve the paradigm shift and to find solutions 
to the digital challenges and opportunities facing archives, the 
sector also needs to **invest in digital skills**, and undertake digital 
research.  
 
- That's why, alongside the Heritage Lottery Funded programme, 
'Bridging the Digital Gap', we are also investing directly in digital 
skills development. In 2017, five software developer apprentices 
from Ada, the National College of Digital Skills, started at the UK 
National Archives on a two-year apprenticeship as part of their 
foundation degree in Digital Innovation.  
 
- Two years ago, we also commissioned work on digital research 
challenges, which was then subsequently taken forward to form a Digital Research Roadmap, since wrapped into our broader 
Research strategy.  
- Our Head of Research has now developed research themes, 
priorities7 and questions so funding can be targeted. Research 
partnerships have been developed to test approaches that will 
address some of the key problems raised by the shift to digital.  
 
- Staff at the UK National Archives are already working on projects to 
explore innovative solutions. For example, the **Archangel project,** 
in partnership with the University of Surrey, is investigating whether 
distributed-ledger technology could provide a new approach to digital authenticity. 
- Meanwhile, our recent research project, **Traces through time,** links 
methodologies to mathematical certainty measures, to suggest 
potential matches for archival search queries. This offers researchers results they might otherwise have missed.  
 
- It is through research and partnerships such as these that the wider 
information sector, both nationally and internationally, will move 
forward.  
 

## Archives Inspire *The World*

- Indeed, **collaboration is the golden thread** that links the UK 
government's vision for the sector, *Archives Unlocked* with our 
organisational strategy, *Archives Inspire* and our international 
strategy, *Archives Inspire the world*8. 
 
- *Archives Inspire the world* aims to leverage international 
collaboration to build a future for archives on a truly global scale.  
 
- It's an **international calling card** - encouraging partners from 
around the world to work together, to drive the development of an 
exciting future for archives. By working in partnership with other government bodies, archives, cultural and heritage organisations, 
academic institutions and businesses, we aim to help champion:  
 
o *Collections* - by promoting their value and enabling greater 
access;  
 
o *Digital* - by pioneering approaches for digital preservation;  
 
o *Commercial* - by generating income through appropriate and 
profitable activity;   
 
o *Research* - by developing innovative resources and networks to 
share knowledge and expertise;  
 
o and, *Standards* - by supporting policy development, standard 
setting and access to legislation. - Fortunately, archivists are born collaborators, and there should be 
no geographical borders to collaboration. The challenges and 
opportunities facing the UK archive sector are shared by archives around the world. This is especially true of digital access and 
preservation.  
 
- As I said earlier, digital preservation is an international team 
sport but, like any sport, it requires determination, effort, and focus 
to achieve results, not just a predilection for collaboration.  
 
- Archivists are fortunate to work in a sector that finds itself at a 
'once-in-a-lifetime' watershed moment. They have the commitment 
and the appetite, if not yet all of the skills, to enable transformational 
change. 
- As I said earlier, we are proud to be the leadership body for the UK 
archive sector, and privileged to be the custodian of some of the 
nation's most iconic documents dating back more than 1,000 years. 
Archives present a uniquely personal experience within the cultural sector, and the sector must continue to engage audiences in new 
and exciting ways. 
- However, the reality is that **digital has also transformed** the way 
that researchers and archivists think about records, the way that archives look after them, and the way that access is provided to them.  
 
- But this isn't about a *shift* from paper to digital. It is fundamentally 
about preserving and rejoicing in the nation's physical documentary heritage, while also exploiting the endless virtual opportunities 
presented by digital technology. 
- Digital has transformed access to that shared content, **opening up** 
collections and transforming people's lives wherever they live, irrespective of where the record resides.  
 
- For the last 12-months, we've been working with volunteers from the 
Friends of the UK National Archives on an ambitious project to open up prisoner-of-war collections. This involves almost 200,000 records 
of allied servicemen captured in German-occupied territory in the 
Second World War. Not just British prisoners of war, but individuals 
from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. 
 
- While at its heart a traditional cataloguing initiative, the project blog 
has attracted comments from across the globe, connecting 
generations, and enhancing the collective understanding of who 
we are, where we came from, and where we are going.  
 
- The discoverability of, understanding of, and access to collections 
across the world is being enhanced through partnership working.  
In 2017, we started a collaboration with the National Archives of the United Arab Emirates to digitise and make available records relating 
to the UAE and other Gulf States. The **Arabian Gulf Digital Archive** 
combines the skills and knowledge of both institutions to make 
available 500,000 images from our holdings.  
- In 2018, we also began a ground-breaking 20-year research 
collaboration with the University of Oldenburg - uncovering 
hundreds of thousands of letters and papers confiscated from ships 
captured by the British, between 1652 and 1815. The 'Prize Papers' 
project, as it's known, is funded by the German Academy Programme, and is of unprecedented scale for a humanities 
research project.  
 
- To capitalise on collaborative opportunities like these requires 
ambition and bold leadership not just at the local and national level 
but also globally.  
 
- The Forum of National Archivists, or FAN is a section of the 
International Council on Archives. It is a body of national archivists 
responsible for developing high-level strategic responses to the 
contemporary challenges of managing archives.  
 
- Like the UK, FAN has identified digital as its key strategic 
priority. It is now in the process of sharing best practice and digital 
resources while encouraging new approaches that can inform and 
benefit national, regional and local practices. 
- Recently FAN also recently delivered an international digital 
symposium that took place at the UK National Archives, exploring 
the use of **artificial intelligence** and machine learning in archives. 
 

## Widening The Public Value Of Archives

 
- I hope that what I've talked about so far today has demonstrated 
why archives truly matter. How they can make an impact across 
societies; how they inform a broad sweep of research disciplines; how they enable pioneering solutions in digital preservation, and how they inform digital economies. 
- Yet, there is no getting away from the fact that archives need to be 
used to be useful. Those of us that work in archives may well 
recognise or own value and worth. But, against rapidly changing societal and economic contexts, and rapidly evolving digital 
technologies, the future for archives across the world is as 
uncertain as it is exciting!  
 
- I mentioned earlier that *Archives Inspire* set out to illustrate what 
archives are for, rather than what they do. There are things that we 
have to do, but there are also things that we **choose to do**. 
Alongside our core purpose or task - preserving records and 
providing access to our diverse collections - there are also the 
things we do that add to our value, to the audiences we serve.  
 
- In considering how an archive might widen its **public value**, 
realising more benefits above and beyond its core purpose, we 
could ask ourselves a few key questions: 
 
o Why are things the way they are?  
 
o How might things be different for archives for the future? 
  
o What does all of this mean for fulfilling our value as an archive, 
and in our case, as a public institution?  
 
- We have come a long way since we started out on our Archives 
Inspire journey, but there are deeper strategic questions ahead. In 
our case, *Archives Inspire* will come to completion in April 2019, so 
it presents a timely moment to ask the question - What's next? What more of our potential might we realise? 
- It might help to frame this by way of a story. At their best, archives 
are storytellers, after all.  
 
- At the UK National Archives, we have a wonderful education 
service. We believe it's vital to bring children into direct contact with 
the primary sources we hold.  
 
- Our Head of Education could tell this story perhaps better than me, 
but in essence, here's how it goes. In every school in the UK, five 
and six year olds learn about the Great Fire of London in 1666. 
Indeed, speak to a six year old and you will find that they know a lot 
about the Fire. They know where and when it started, and how much of the city burned. They know that the fire started in Pudding Lane. 
- When groups of five and six year olds come to visit us at Kew, there 
is, therefore, little to be gained from teaching them about the Great Fire of London - they know it all already! Instead, we teach them 
about the importance of evidence, by way of a momentary existential crisis.  
 
- We ask the children to tell us what they know about the Fire. We 
compile the whole story from these young minds and from what 
they know. And then we ask them, **how do they know?**  
- The typical answers that come back are usually 'my teacher or my 
mum told me', and we gently point out that, old as their teacher may 
be, they weren't alive in 1666. It is then that you see the thought 
dawning on the children. How do we know? In fact, how do we 
know anything? How do all of these people telling us all these 
things know anything?  
 
- At this precise moment, the moment of crisis and doubt, we 
introduce them to the record.  
 
- *[See slide 8 of the Archives Matter PowerPoint presentation].*  
On the image on the right, you can see the name Thomas Farriner, 
Baker who owned one oven on Pudding Lane. It is amazing to see 
a child respond to seeing this document. *This* is how we know; we 
know because of the record. It's not just what we've been taught 
- it is what the evidence leads us to understand.  
 
- Hopefully, those children will grow up and still work with, and enjoy, 
and **experience the joy of discovery that is the archive,** and 
remember the importance of evidence. 
 
- This joy of discovery is a huge part of what it means to experience 
an archive.  
But - it's also interesting to think about what the joy of discovery will be for records that are in a very different form, in the digital age. Aided by advanced technologies, what new discoveries might we be able to unearth from our extraordinary collections?  
 

- Thinking about the future, it's today's children who will perhaps 
most benefit from our work - to identify, capture and preserve the 
current record of government, as prospective users of the archive in 
20 or 30 years' time.   
 
- The right information, in the right place, has the power to 
change lives. The rise of the World Wide Web has given wonderful 
opportunities to archives. It has enabled us to reach and engage 
new audiences. By making our catalogues available online, people who never knew that an answer to their question might be found in 
an archive, can find us in a click from a Google search. With 
digitised content, learning resources and research guides - the 
archive is in people's hands in a way that was unimaginable 20 
to 30 years ago. 
 

- The economics of content in the information age also pose new 
questions. At the UK National Archives, we've pioneered the 
commercial digitisation of our collection; and it has worked brilliantly to widen access. But, it also means people pay for the content they 
use when accessing the archive from home. We work hard to avoid it, but in charging, there is a risk that some people might be excluded. But without charging, hundreds of millions of records would never have been digitised in the first place. 

- What is the right thing to do for an archive in this scenario? What 
are the right sets of decisions? Especially when funding constraints 
exist, and archives need to turn to additional sources of funding to 
open up their collections? 
 
- It's a tricky issue. We are long time advocates of the benefits of 
open data. But, we are also a cultural and heritage institution 
looking to maximise our public value with rich content online - more 
than we can afford to produce with taxpayer funding alone - and through the power of physical records, by drawing people into the 
archive through inspiring events and activities. 
 
- So, how do we go about maximising our public value? How does 
this relate to our public task? Where best to deploy our taxpayer funding, and how do we take advantage of commercial opportunities in the service of our strategy? 
- Our public value is so much bigger than the sum total of the 
things we have to do, to meet our legal obligations. Archives 
Inspire speaks to a sense of a wider public value - and potential 
value beyond that. As I mentioned earlier, the strategy sets out how an archive is hugely useful for many different people, for many different purposes, and that we should act to help realise more of 
our potential. 
 
- So, we are rightly focussed on the things the law says we must do, 
on our public task. But, we are also keenly aware of the things we 
might choose to do, and **know what we are capable of doing** as 
an archive, such as educating children.  
 
- When we look into the future, underlining all of this is a wider sense 
of the potential value of archives - and this potential is enormous.  
 
- We are all having to change the ways in which we work, and how 
we engage with the world because funding is scarce. Funding constraints concentrate the mind, but we have also known for 
decades that we are more than the common expectations 
people hold.  
 

- We have already found new ways for people to access our 
collections, such as making more records available online.  And, 
this wider sense of public value already exists at the heart of 
Archives Inspire - a determination to realise more of our 
potential, coupled to the belief that **archives matter** - for our 
societies and our economies.  
 
- In economic terms then, the archive is part **Public Good** and part 
Merit Good.  
 
- Some of what we do is a **pure public good.** We offer value that is 
both non-excludable and non-rivalrous: 
 
o Having **non-excludable** value means that archives can be 
considered in the same way as the criminal justice system. 
Everyone benefits from the system, and if it is funded, you 
cannot exclude anyone from receiving the benefits. 
o **An archive is also non–rivalrous**. Its value doesn't get 
diminished through its use. 
- We are also an economic **public good** in at least two respects: 
 
o **Preservation -** by keeping records in the present we make it 
possible for people in the future to benefit from the archive. 
o **Intellectual control** - by cataloguing our collections, we enable 
people to reference the records we hold. People can make claims 
based on records held in the archive, and point to a source.  
 
- But the archive is also a **Merit Good.** There are things that we do 
that are simply beneficial for society. For instance, at the UK 
National Archives, we provide free access to our reading rooms, and, as I mentioned before, we provide ways for children to experience original evidence that complements their state 
education.  
 
- Understanding all of this helps us be clear about how we deploy the 
funding we receive from Her Majesty's Treasury. This is important because in real terms, our government funding is getting smaller.  
 
- We could just concentrate on delivering our core public task, be 
more efficient, and do things for less. But, if we stuck to that world 
view, we'd cease to realise the value of the archive beyond what 
the law requires us to do. The potential public value of the archive 
would go unmet. 
- *Archives Inspire* says we will widen the public value of the archive. 
When we generate commercial income, for example, with projects 
such as the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive, it is to fund our wider 
public value. 
- This is one of the reasons why we are looking to expand our 
revenue base by setting up a charitable arm, The National Archives' 
Trust.  
 
- This is really important when it comes to looking at, for instance, 
what we do with our website and charging. At present, we are also exploring introducing a subscription offer on our website - partly to 
raise money, but mainly to realise **more of our value** by having a 
more effective system for charging. This could grow the numbers of 
people that are using our collection, and widen the amount of use 
they are making of it.  
 

- It's a difficult concept, but finding ways in which we can do this 
online is a huge opportunity for us and our audiences.  
 
- So, what are the yardsticks for thinking about this? What is our 
public task? What has the taxpayer paid for? Where is the market demand? Is this something only we can do, or something other people can do? What should be free? What are our constraints? 
Can we identify the sweet spots - where we both widen our public 
value and generate income - as we have done with commercial 
digitisation?  
 
- These are quite a complex set of things to think through, and being 
clear about the economics - the archive as a public good; the 
archive as a merit good - helps. 
 
- It comes down to a determination to maximise the public value 
of the archive. That we have so much more to offer than our 
statutory obligations. In essence, it means thinking hard about the 
value we can provide for the children of today, and for them as the 
future researchers of archives that we hope they will be in 20 or 30 
years. 
 

## Conclusion

- This is a truly exciting time for archives. For those who care for 
them and for those who use them. The records, both physical and digital, held in archives around the UK and across the world can 
change people's lives. 
- There is **no doubt in our minds that archives matter**. The 
challenge for archivists is to ensure that the records of the past and the future not only survive, but thrive. 
- By working in partnership, locally, national and globally as part of a 
broader archive ecology, archives can ensure that more and more people are connected and inspired by the records they look after.  
 
- Our audiences are mostly aware of our most popular story - that we 
protect the records about the heritage of our nations. But our public value is so much wider than what people know and 
believe. It is up to us to act, to realise the enormity of the potential 
we can wield.  
- But digital technologies are fundamentally transforming the global 
archive community as we know it, and it will keep rapidly changing 
for the foreseeable future. The opportunities ahead are within our 
reach. Ultimately, together, we can help change the way people think about archives, now and forever.  

## End Of Speech