Archives in the UK - Part 2

2.What are ‘archive collections’?

When archives accumulate as part of the normal activity of an organisation, business or individual and survive together they represent a ‘collection’.  Maintaining the integrity of the collection is important because it is vital to understanding the content.  Fragmenting collections destroys inherent information and contextual evidence that is essential for understanding the individual items.  Collections vary in size from small, relating to a short period, to very large, perhaps spanning centuries and including long series of records (e.g. accounts) and/or many kinds of activity. The ‘collection’ is therefore the unit on which archive catalogues are based.  

2.1 How are archive catalogues structured?

Cataloguing any archive collection requires the application of ‘first principles’. The process involves sorting the collection to understand the content, identifying an appropriate arrangement to reflect the activities that created the collection, and ‘describing’ each individual item within the context in which it was created.  The catalogues are hierarchical: the top level is a brief description of the collection and its content, but this is not sufficient to allow users to access the contents or enable the archivist to have control of the contents for reference purposes. The catalogue must therefore be arranged in sections which reflect the subjects and activities which created the collection, and each item is described individually.  Only then is the catalogue useful for researchers and archivists. The existence of ‘item-level’ descriptions is the criterion used when describing a collection as ‘catalogued’.

2.2 Why are archive catalogues different from book catalogues?

This difference is clearly explained by Caroline Williams in Managing Archives: foundations, principles and practice (Oxford: Chandos Publishing Ltd., 2006, p.74): ‘Books are single items that do not depend on other items for their meaning.  They are catalogued as discrete units, often by subject.  However, each archival collection is an aggregate: it comprises a sequence of interrelated documents.  It has a collective significance, and significance is lost if documents are treated as single items.  Much of the meaning of archives is derived from their context: from an understanding of the origins, functions, administrative or business process that generated the information they contain….’.  

Current international descriptive standards for archives are influenced by the technical demands of electronic data exchange and search systems, as well as the benefits of standardised approaches. The General International Standard of Archival Description (ISAD(G)) governs the ‘levels’ of description and the core elements.  Other national/international rules apply to specific issues, such as names, and are designed to address the needs of search systems and indexing.

2.3 Who looks after our archives?

The range of repositories and services is wide but not as large as the spectrum of libraries.  A total of about 2,500 includes national institutions; university libraries, Oxbridge colleges and learned institutions; a network of county and local archive services which developed during the 20th century – many prompted by changes in society and communities resulting from WW1 and WW2.  Some of the national institutions have rich archive and manuscript collections in addition to books, art works and other media, such as the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, founded in 1907, which is one of the six ‘legal deposit’ libraries in the UK and Ireland with a right to receive all UK publications.  Its huge archive collections include some Public Records on deposit from The National Archives, such as the records of the Court of Great Sessions in Wales which operated between the mid-16th century and the 1830s.  Some libraries and museums also hold archives alongside their principal collections, and there are many business archives and ‘special interest’ collections developed by interested groups. 

The patterns of custody are complex, and there is no statutory responsibility for archives (unlike libraries) other than those designated as ‘Public Records’.  Also, responsibility for culture and heritage in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is largely devolved, so some policies and strategic services have developed differently since the late 1990s. The main repositories are as follows:

• The National Archives at Kew (TNA) is an amalgamation of the former Public Record Office, founded in 1838 for England and Wales to focus on the Public Records, and the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, founded in 1869 to focus on the welfare of archives and records of ‘private’ origin.  
• The British Library was originally part of the British Museum (founded 1753) but became separate in 1973.
• Some national galleries and museums, such as the Imperial War Museum and Tate Britain hold significant archives.
• Local or county archives services are largely 20th century in origin and supported by local government, but they are vulnerable in local government reorganisation because their collections reflect historic boundaries. 
• ‘Special Collections’ of archives held by university and college libraries and the archives of the institutions themselves are their own responsibility.

This collection of individual Acts of Parliament written on parchment rolls from the 16^th century onwards is at the Parliamentary Archives at Westminster.

Blog by Dr Susan J Davies, member of the Aberystwyth at War Project Steering Group