The Library Association is the professional body representing librarians and information managers in the United Kingdom. Under the terms of our Royal Charter we have a duty to promote high quality library and information services and advise government, employers and others on all aspects of library and information services. Many of our 26,000 members have responsibility within the public sector and elsewhere for archives and archival documents within libraries and information units.

The Library Association welcomes the opportunity to respond to this invitationⁱ. We recognise the increasing importance of archives in promoting cultural and educational policies and goals, and their increasing visibility in the public sector with the growth of interest in family, local and national history. Furthermore the Library Association is committed to ensuring the widest possible preservation of, and access to, information resources of all kinds. To this end we are committed to supporting the conservation of collections of archives and their maintenance as a part of the cultural heritage of the nation and to promoting the development of policies suitable for supporting such access, whether physical or electronic.

The Association has itself been concerned about the condition of archives in recent years, and about problems raised by legislation, funding, storage and dispersal of collections. All these are points which have been raised by members working within the library and information sector, and the response we have framed to your invitation to comment on the health of the nation's archives draws together these concerns and comments and presents them as general points.

Archives are important not only for their use as a record of past achievements, but also as a working research tool on a daily basis for information which affects decisions and actions taken today. Complementary records of government departments, and local and national organisations can between them offer a wider picture for research. Archives are being used for lifelong learning initiatives and for educational work at all levels, and the public interest in them has been reflected in the increase in collections of archival materials, particularly local ephemera, which are available for study in public libraries. Recent research using medical records from the 1920's has shown the considerable value of long term collections which reflect patterns of population growth and health for future health care planning. Material which is deposited for legal reasons may still have a use outside of its purely legal function - witness the increased interest in, and use of, the birth, marriage and death registries, parish records, and armed forces records, by family history researchers and biographers. The cultural wealth of the UK's archival holdings is of interest at all levels, a heritage recognised as providing a unique access to a past otherwise lost to our understanding. The Archival Mapping Project Board has been researching the requirements of local archive services throughout England, and their report, Our Shared Past: An Archival Domesday for Englandⁱⁱ highlights in greater detail many of the points made in this response.

The present legislation governing archives is permissive rather than mandatory, and statutory requirements governing archives need to be strengthened considerably to protect existing archives and archive services. The Local Government Act 1972 requires all principal councils to make 'proper arrangements' for documents, but does not define these arrangements further. The provision of adequate archive services should be a statutory responsibility for principal councils, and the nature of such a service should be clearly defined. The report of the Greater London Archive Network, Towards 2000: the future of London's Archivesⁱⁱⁱ has drawn attention to the deficiencies of the archive services in London, and there have been individual reports from members which have revealed deficiencies in other local archive services owing to the lack of legislative support.

Funding

The financing of archive services is very uncertain, reflecting the permissive nature of the legislation. Many local authorities are custodians of public records, such as those of hospitals, courts and schools, but gain little credit, financial or otherwise, although these collections may be unique, and of great research and historical value. The authority may also accept deposited material, such as company records, and many now hold large collections at no cost to the depositing individual or organisation. The system of welcoming records on deposit free of charge worked well in earlier years, but is now expensive in terms of maintenance and storage, and it has become increasingly common for such collections to be removed from record offices by the owner and sold - often back to the record office, which may have already expended considerable expense on cataloguing, storing and conserving the collection. Consideration should be given to legislation which would offer incentives to organisations and individuals who are prepared to gift their records to national or local archive services, rather than placing them on long term deposit - tax concessions on such gifts are an example.

Gifts of money from owners of archives towards their maintenance attract VAT, which discourages fund-raising. Local authority accounting procedures can also mean that funds which are raised may be lost unless spent by the financial year end, or that such funds may go towards offsetting budgetary overspends in other areas, because of the roll-over accounting procedures in local authorities. This can remove the incentive to raise external funds since there is no visible benefit for the work involved, and it can also lead to difficulties with fund raising bodies who see their work going to waste. In addition, local authority record offices cannot offer tax advantages on charitable donations. Some local authorities have started to raise funds by making charges for access to records, by charging for the use of microform readers, for example. This has raised problems for those who use such records on a regular basis, and is also questionable practice in view of the Library Charges (England and Wales) Regulations 1991^iv. Local authority/charity regulations need revising to make fund-raising more worthwhile for both donors and recipients, perhaps by setting up similar systems as obtain in the USA, or by encouraging the creation of Friends Groups with their own charitable status and access to independent funds. The availability of other sources of funding also needs to be investigated.

Guidelines

There is no national guidance in England and Wales concerning the selection and preservation of local authority records, although the Society of Archivists has pioneered some studies on particular classes of records, (for example, records of Social Services Departments). Consequently, the holdings of local authority archives may differ widely in both nature of the collections, and the length of time material is held. Some local authorities have created their own guidelines to what should be held, but given the standard nature of most local government services, it should be possible to create guidelines which would offer guidance to local authorities, and also relate to the holdings which should eventually be deposited at the Public Record Office. There is also a case, on freedom of information grounds, for making it a statutory duty to preserve and provide access to certain records. Some records, such as those of ephemera held within local studies collection, or the records of commercial companies, are unique in nature, and their loss irreplaceable. Without guidelines there is a danger that with a change of ownership, a change in the scope of the authority, or a drop in funding, such collections can be, and are, consigned to the skip.

Dispersal of Collections

There has been rather loose control over exports in the past, and many important UK archives have been exported as a result. The Committee on Export of Works of Art is now looking at widening the remit of the Waverley criteria, but it also requires a greater control over the export of manuscripts and archives, including modern papers such as literary archives. Such collections are increasingly being offered for open sale, and the sale of other, private collections within the control of smaller organisations, which are often sold because the organisation cannot finance their proper preservation and use, is also leading to dispersal of valuable research collections within the UK and elsewhere. Some private collections may be lost through ignorance, or because the owners value the monetary worth over the intrinsic value. While this cannot be prevented by law, a more robust attitude is needed to actively collect material and protect valuable research resources from being dispersed before they come under threat.

Preservation

Many important records remain at risk, both in public and private hands. In particular, unsatisfactory storage conditions, another aspect of archive provision of particular interest and concern to our members, are creating future problems with the loss of some records from long term neglect. While recommendations to use permanent paper have been promoted by organisations such as IFLA, the National Preservation Office and The Library Association, little attention is being paid to how long records on recycled paper will last, and IT solutions are being offered by those who have little interest in permanent preservation. The promotion of digitisation, which is not a preservation medium, has led many organisations to neglect the preservation of the original medium in order to fund the presentation of IT solutions they perceive as more accessible to their users. Changes in technology and the unsuccessful migration of the electronic medium may make some electronic records redundant in the future, but the original materials may by then be beyond preservation. Greater education and advice is required to alert all organisations to these factors before they spend funding on short term solutions. Moreover, such initiatives as charges for use of microform readers can only dissuade users from accessing alternative preservation media, and put original records at greater risk. Consideration might be given to a national task force to give advice and practical help to owners of records, or to an expanded role, and increased funding for organisations such as HMC and the NPO which might carry such role. Recognition of the importance of preservation must also include tangible recognition of the importance of those institutions which are equipped to take on the burden of acquisition of material as it becomes available from sources which no longer wish or cease to be able to sustain possession. This means the availability of supplementary funds to ensure proper housing of material of importance

Cataloguing

The suggestion that there should be a more co-ordinated approach to the cataloguing and preservation of local government records is one at least partly covered by the report Making the Most of Our Libraries^v and this approach is followed in the Netherlands. Such catalogues would be accessible to the wider community via Internets and Intranets, as suggested in the Consultation paper, Archives On-Line^vi, and their existence would allow organisations to compare holdings, benchmark their practice, and be aware of duplications within their own organisations. The most important single problem is the significant cataloguing backlog experienced by many record offices, which has become worse as the pressure to develop outreach and other activities has diverted staff time away from the records and into user education or other areas. Even well resourced record offices such as those maintained by the Corporation of London have a substantial and growing proportion of uncatalogued resources. The pressure on these organisations to house a wide variety of 'donated' collections increases the problem, particularly when no funding comes with the collections to support their accession. A great deal could be achieved by having a dedicated professional post, but there is at present no 'pool' of archival expertise from which to draw such persons, not least because the need for such a market is not widely acknowledged. This makes the spending of windfall funding on such a post difficult, and funding tends to be spent instead on conservation or purchase, where more easily identifiable goals are apparent.

Sound Recordings and Film Archives

This is a much neglected area with its own specific problems with funding, preservation and promotion. There are large collections of sound recordings and film in both private and public control. They require specialist storage and often specialist equipment to use them, and are difficult to catalogue, which often means that they get only basic cataloguing, if any at all. Long term problems related to storage and technology may require much higher funding than that for paper-based resources, and short term solutions such as digitisation of photographic collections bring their own problems, as noted earlier. Existing organisations, such as the National Preservation Office, or NAPLIB, can provide advice, but trained staff and extra funding are required to preserve these collections for the long term.

Summary

The Association is strongly supportive of any attempt to put the problems and requirements of the wider archival community into perspective, and to recognise particular factors which are common to all, and for which specific action, such as legislative changes or improvements in funding, would be an appropriate solution. We would welcome future opportunities to be involved in advising on, and promoting the implementation of new initiatives to protect, preserve, purchase and promote the archival heritage of the nation, and would be pleased to supply further comments to clarify or amplify our position.

ⁱ Archives at the Millennium - an invitation from the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts to submit written evidence on the 'archival health of the nation'. March 1998.