29 January 1999

Meeting summaries

The Committee held its twelfth meeting at the offices of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (HMC) on 29 January 1999. The following topics were discussed:

Archives On-Line: the establishment of a UK Archival Network

The PRO is circulating a succinct description of the project and the action to date. A copy is appended at Annex 1.

Government's response to Archives On-Line

IDAC agreed to endorse the project but decided that taking it forward was primarily a matter for the archival bodies themselves.

Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF)

Draft strategic plan It was hoped that the final version of this plan would make full mention of the archive sector's initiatives and development needs. Allocation of money to archives continued to be modest despite the efforts of the lottery adviser. IDAC would try to help by promoting the exchange of information and encouraging co-ordination.

New Opportunities Fund (NOF)

The NOF had a corporate existence and real money to spend on content creation projects in the current year. There would be guidance for content holders. The National Grid for Learning (NGfL) had had a major up-grade, the content was expanding and it was open for contributions. The requirement was for primary material rather than catalogues. The private sector was being encouraged to provide a wide range of content to an approved standard. The DfEE would be publishing its content strategy shortly. Archival bodies were invited to adapt their plans to it.

Future of enhanced IDAC

Work is continuing on updating the terms of reference for IDAC. The benefits of continuing close contacts between the home countries was recognized. IDAC would also provide a collective voice in the European Union and in dealing with UK wide organizations like the HLF. IDAC's terms of reference would be developed in parallel with the emerging Museums, Libraries and Archives Commission to avoid overlap and provide a clear demarcation of responsibilities. Although IDAC's role was in Government and the proposed MLAC would be a provider of external advice to Government, the two bodies needed to relate to one another. The MLAC Design Group would be considering territorial issues probably in March and any recommendations would go to ministers.

Membership of IDAC

The National Council on Archives (NCA),would be invited to join IDAC as an expert adviser. [Post meeting NCA agreed to nominate Mr Vic Gray as their representative.] The Heritage Lottery Fund would be invited to send a representative once a year to attend an IDAC meeting which would focus on funding issues. The Association of Chief Archivists in Local Government (ACALG) and the Local Government Association (LGA) would both be invited to represent the interests of local government at an IDAC meeting, also once a year, which would be devoted to structural issues.

Draft proposed National Archives Policy

The purpose of the policy was to provide government officials with coherent discussion of issues, advice and recommendations for ministers. The policy should aim to put archives on the political map by delivering on key government objectives and removing the obstacles to achieving agreed desirable outcomes. Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland would be included. There would be new legislation on archives in Scotland in the autumn.

ACALG Proper Arrangements Guidance

The Association of Chief Archivists in Local Government would pass their draft proposals to IDAC by March. The interested parties would be convened at an IDAC meeting to discuss them.

The Changing Structure of Government

Northern Ireland

The Office was working towards devolution in March. The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland would be grouped together with the libraries and museums under the Department for Culture, Arts and Leisure. There would be scope for structured co-operation within Northern Ireland and for cross border links and practical co-operation with the Republic of Ireland.

Scotland

The arrangements for Scotland were not yet clear. There might be no change.

Wales

Wales was working towards the establishment of a national assembly.

English regions

The instigation by the NCA of discussions on establishing regional archive forums in line with DCMS policy was welcomed.

Police Records

It had become apparent that there was a major problem in securing the systematic archiving of police records. The issue would be raised with the Association of Chief Archivists in Local Government by the HMC.

SJB 26 April 1999

Annex 1

A2A: THE ACCESS TO ARCHIVES PROJECT

The origins of the project

In 1998, the National Council on Archives (NCA), which represents the interests of the owners, custodians and users of archives in the UK, commissioned a report on the scope for putting the catalogues of archives on to the Internet. The report recognized that technology now offers a precious opportunity for simplifying the resource discovery process while respecting the proper independence of the bodies responsible for caring for archives.

The report recommended that there should be a managed network for archives to assist users to locate material for their research. It would operate as a distributed network of archival data capable of being searched from a central gateway. There would be direct links between the National Name Authority Files [for people, places and corporate bodies] which are in course of development and the occurrences of these names in catalogues.

The report acknowledged that this development would require major investment in the retroconversion to common data standards of the manual lists held by the various archival repositories. Costs would have to be met collectively. It pointed out that the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (HMC) had put the indexes of its National Register of Archives on-line and that many of the necessary components of a network were being piloted by the Public Record Office (PRO) in its AD 2001 project. The report proposed that the initiative to create a National Archives Network should start with a series of First Stage Implementation Projects, which would expand progressively until they formed the envisaged distributed network. Projects are being undertaken in Scotland [the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) funded Scottish Archive Network] and the higher education sector [the Archival Hub Project]. In late 1998, the NCA proposed that a further Implementation Project should focus on the retrospective conversion needs of English repositories.

The response of the government departments

These proposals were put to the government's Inter Departmental Archives Committee (IDAC). IDAC agreed that the initiative corresponded both with government priorities and the interests of the archival community as a whole. It also agreed that, while it might not be appropriate for government departments to have direct involvement in managing an implementation project, there would have to be an initial impetus from the large national archival bodies - namely the PRO, the British Library (BL) and the HMC, together with the NCA - to set a major retrospective conversion initiative in motion. At the same time, it was essential that the project should quickly secure the active co-operation of bodies across the archival community. It was agreed at an early stage that an independent legal entity would have to be established to receive and administer funds on behalf of the network.

The Steering Group

The PRO, BL, HMC and the NCA formed a Steering Group, chaired by Mrs Sarah Tyacke, the Keeper of Public Records, to promote the English retrospective conversion initiative which is to be called Access to Archives (A2A) and begin work on the legal and administrative aspects of forming the entity to receive and administer funds. Representation of the Association of Chief Archivists in Local Government and the higher education sector has since been added. PRINCE project management methodology has been adopted, with the Steering Group as the programme committee.

The purpose of the project

A2A is intended to provide an opportunity for the lists of priority archives in English repositories to be converted into database form using the PRO's proven retrospective conversion methodology. The resultant database would be mounted on the world wide web with a search engine, using Encoded Archival Description as a display format. Links would be built in from the data records to related entries in the on-line National Register of Archives indexes. It would thus be searchable by both free text retrieval and dedicated field searches. Crucially, utilities would be constructed to enable the electronic data to be re-exported to the initiating repositories in whatever form their in house collection management system required [CALM, SEAX, CAIRS, etc.]. It would thus be possible for a repository to utilise significant bodies of converted data locally, and the opportunity would be created for repositories to perform any data enhancement that might be required to make their catalogues suitable for more technically demanding cross searching networking projects in future.

The terms of reference of the Steering Group are as follows

The Steering Group is an interim body preparing the way for the quasi-independent entity which will operate the archival network. Its objectives are:

Action taken by the Steering Group

The Steering Group has appointed task groups to take particular aspects of the work forward. The Lottery Application Task Group will prepare a bid to the HLF. HLF funding will be essential for retroconversion and content creation. The bid has to be ready by June at the latest. The Retroconversion Workshops Task Group will organize workshops at PRO on 29 April and at the Lancashire Record Office on 5 May 1999.

Involving the wider archival community

There will be an open invitation to join the network for archives which are ready to do so. The Steering Group will conduct wide consultation on the form and content of the lottery bid.

Form and location of the proposed managing entity

The tasks of the entity will be defined as the project proceeds. Legal advice will be taken on its structure.

Members of the Steering Group

Contact: Margaret Procter, Liverpool University Library, PO Box 123, LIVERPOOL L69 3DA