The National Archives 'State and the Citizen' Project

At a recent meeting of the National Archives  (TNA) User Advisory Forum
details were presented about a new project being developed by the National
Archives Records Management Department (RMD)  - entitled 'The State and the
Citizen'.

In brief, the project is examining the criteria used for the preservation of
records produced as a result of the various interactions between government
departments and individuals in the UK (e.g. driving licences, child benefit
records, health records, taxation records, criminal records, etc.).

Currently the three main groups of records that are under consideration are:
(1) Records where groups of society are (or in the past have been) excluded
- e.g. driving licences are not held by all adults, some people are
currently excluded from holding a licence on medical grounds and, prior to
the early part of the 20th century, women faced exclusion in this category.
(2) Records where groups of society are not recorded - e.g. a person's
sexuality is not recorded on a driving licence.
(3) Records which record prosecutions

The State and the Citizen project manager, Linda Stewart, is keen to receive
feedback from both archive users and practitioners on the types of records
that we think should be preserved by the National Archives, and the best
ways to appraise and preserve records about the state's interactions with
individual citizens as they become available. It is interesting to note
that, in the past, much of the government documentation about individual
citizens that has been preserved has tended to be heavily biased towards the
history of non-working class, white men in the UK, so there are strong
social inclusion arguments in favour of researchers and archive users -
particularly those interested in women's studies and the histories of BME
peoples in the UK - to support this project and make suggestions as to how
it develops.

To help with the consultation process the RMD staff responsible for the
State and the Citizen project have devised a series of questions which they
would like researchers/archive users (particularly historians that are
regular users of the National Archives)  to address:

*       What government records not currently accessioned by the National
Archives would you like to see preserved?
*       What problems have you experienced in the past with large government
datasets: insufficient contextual information; lack of funding for
digitisation, unsuitable formats?
*       What are your views on sampling: is it necessary to have the whole
series of data available from which to make your own sample, or would a
pre-selected sample be acceptable?
Please feel free to forward your responses to the BASA list to start a
discussion, or send suggestions directly to the National Archives c/o Linda
Stewart, Records Management Department, The National Archives (PRO), Kew,
Richmond, Surrey, TW9 4DU; Telephone: 020 8876 3444; Email:
[log in to unmask]
To find out more about the National Archives User Advisory Forum, please
contact Rachel Hasted (Social Inclusion Manager) by email at
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Carol Dixon
Learning and Access Officer
London's Museums, Archives and Libraries
c/o London Libraries Development Agency
35 St Martin's Street, London WC2H 7HP
Tel: 020 7641 5276
Fax: 020 7641 5266
Email: [log in to unmask]
Website: www.lmal.org.uk