Business archives can support the current work of businesses in many ways: providing a corporate memory of past products, policies and personalities; supporting good corporate governance and social responsibility; and adding colour and interest to a company's past.

Good examples of how companies use their archives are available on the Business Archives Council website. But business archives are often neglected and overlooked even though they provide invaluable evidence of our industrial and commercial heritage.

Company archives are often best looked after by the businesses which created them. However, there are occasions when a business can no longer keep its historical records, and needs advice on finding a new home for them. Archives Sector Development at The National Archives can help with this process and is a point of contact for any matters relating to business archive collections which have become vulnerable to loss, dispersal and neglect.

A guide to managing business archives

To launch the publication of 'Corporate memory: a guide to managing business archives', the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Archives hosted an event at the House of Lords on 9 July 2009.

The guest speakers at this event included Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Stuart Rose, Chairman of Marks and Spencer and Dame Stella Rimington, former head of M15 and a professional archivist.

This guide is designed to help the business community maximise their own archives and records collections, and to use this business information asset effectively to improve performance, explore new markets and above all to succeed in today's competitive global markets.

Corporate memory: a guide to managing business archives (PDF, 7.20Mb)

The Business Archives Strategy

The National Archives and its partners, the Business Archives Council, Society of Archivists, Museums Libraries and Archives Council, the Welsh Assembly Government (through CyMAL), Economic History Society and Association of Business Historians, have developed a strategy for business archives arising from a series of round table meetings of interested parties.

It is intended to raise the profile of such archives and to promote their value to businesses and researchers alike, ensuring that future collections of such material are more representative of economic activity and more valued by businesses themselves for commercial purposes, and are better cared for and utilised in the future.

The strategy for England and Wales can be found on the Business Archives Council website: businessarchivescouncil.org.uk

Best Practice online website: managingbusinessarchives.co.uk. This website has been developed in order to help businesses manage their archive collections. It is aimed at company personnel with no prior knowledge or expertise in archive management as well as professional business archive practitioners.

Religious archives

See the latest report from the Religious Archives Survey.

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The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 4DU. Tel: +44 (0) 20 8876 3444. Contact us