Press Release issued by the Public Record Office and Resource
25 March 2002

More money to put archives on the web

A national project to open up archives catalogues to all, regardless of location or mobility, took a further step forward today. Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries and the Public Record Office announced that Resource has made a grant of £22,500 to the National Council on Archives. The funding - for Phase 2 of the A2A programme (Access to Archives) - will further support the UK national archives network, as A2A brings together, in one web-based location, catalogue entries on archives held in geographically dispersed archives offices across England.

Chris Batt, Acting Chief Executive of Resource said: "This grant will be a partnership contribution to the funding of regional A2A projects, and will help to enable participation in A2A by archives services for whom raising small amounts of matched funding is a challenge."

The grant will be put towards consortium A2A projects overseen by Regional Archives Councils from April 2002 to March 2004. These projects will involve finding aid retroconversion, catalogue enhancement, new cataloguing and interpretation of England's rich archival heritage, building on the success of A2A Phase 1 which ends in March 2002. Project leaders are typically seeking additional funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Sarah Tyacke, Keeper of the Public Records, said: "Resource's grant will be most welcome to those planning A2A Phase 2 projects and will further support the work of archivists in England."

Nicholas Kingsley, Chairman of the National Council on Archives, commented: "This partnership funding will assist Regional Archives Councils in their efforts to promote access to archives for all through the national archives network."
                        
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Notes for editors:

* Access to Archives (A2A) website: www.a2a.pro.gov.uk is the English strand of the UK archives network. Its database at contains over 2 million catalogue entries on archives held across England. A2A aims to create a virtual national archives catalogue for England and make it available globally from one source via the World Wide Web. The historical records covered by A2A are of national, regional and local importance and date from periods between the twelfth and twentieth centuries. They are held in geographically dispersed archives offices in England, and many have been comparatively under-recognised in the past.
A2A stands alongside sister archives network projects in Scotland, Wales and the higher education sector, which are working together to ensure that a single search on a single Web site will be able to open up archives to the whole public, in England, the UK and world wide.
A2A enables a variety of archive repositories (including those that are small-scale and less well resourced) to benefit from the expertise in retroconversion (retrospective conversion of existing paper-based catalogues) built up by the Public Record Office, and to make their catalogues known to a far larger audience than would be possible acting alone.

* The National Council on Archives (website: nca.archives.org.uk) brings together the major bodies and organisations concerned with the care, custody and use of archives. Information from the NCA about Regional Archives Councils is at http://nca.archives.org.uk/rac.htm.

* The Public Record Office website: www.pro.gov.uk is the national archive of England, Wales and the United Kingdom. It brings together and preserves the records of central government and the courts of law, and makes them available to all who wish to consult them.

* Resource website: www.resource.gov.uk provides the strategic leadership, advocacy and advice to enable museums, archives and libraries to touch people's lives and inspire their imagination, learning and creativity.

For further details contact:

Justin Frost, Resource Archives Adviser, 020 7273 1477, [log in to unmask]

Sarah Flynn, A2A Central Team, Public Record Office: 020 8392 5328, [log in to unmask]




Emma Wright
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Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries
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