We are pleased to announce that that Phase 2 of the second Review of Archive Service is now complete and that the Archive Service Accreditation Committee has agreed the final changes to the standard and its associated documentation at their meeting in May 2025 as follows:
- Embedding Inclusive Practice: Requirement 1.1 Mission Statement has been broadened to become 1.1. Mission and Values and other smaller changes have been introduced across the standard, including some new questions and guidance within the supporting documentation. The revisions look at inclusive practice in the context of the archive service and how it is embedded across the delivery and development of the service.
- Stakeholders and their experiences: This section is now renamed ‘Access and Engagement’ to better reflect expectations in this section. We have adopted the term ‘community’ throughout this section to refer to all those who have an interest in the service, whether currently or in the future. In addition, there has been some restructuring of requirements, editorial changes to make language clearer, more consistent and to reduce repetition and there are additional questions so that applicants can explain how they deliver access beyond access for research and in response to different communities.
- Digital preservation delivery: The risk management element of analogue and digital collections in requirement 2.4.3 Collections Care Procedures has been separated out to reinforce risk management more generally. DPC RAM has been included in 2.4.3 as an alternative to NDSA levels of Digital Preservation for applicants to complete in this section and there is an additional question about the management of risk regarding born digital records.
- Environment sustainability: There is a new open question in requirement 1.3 Forward Planning that asks applicants to demonstrate how the archive service is planning change in this area.
At the moment we expect to publish the revised standard and supporting documentation during late summer 2025. The first archive services will apply under the revised standard at least six months after the publication of the revised documentation.
Changes across the standard, guidance and application form will take into the different types and sizes of archive service that might apply for accreditation.