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Earlier this year I worked on phase 1 of the review of Archive Service Accreditation, along with Kevin Bolton and Larysa Bolton of Kazky, and Caroline Sampson.
The National Archives, on behalf of the Accreditation Partnership, has just published the Executive Summary of our report.
We made 16 recommendations, which are now being taken forward. In summary these included
- Embedding Inclusive Practice: proposals to explore how best to strengthen inclusive practice across the standard.
- Audiences and future expectations: making the language on "Stakeholders and their Experiences" (section 3) clearer and more consistent, and providing more opportunities to include the wide range of methods archive services may use to engage with their different audiences.
- Digital preservation delivery: separating out the risk management of analogue and digital collections, reinforcing risk management more generally, and including the DPC Rapid Assessment Model as an alternative to the NDSA levels of Digital Preservation.
- Environment and sustainability: including an open question to enable applicants to demonstrate an awareness of these themes and how services plan changes in this area. This area will be kept under regular review by the Committee as practice, evidence and guidance develop.
These recommendations were based on extensive consultation with stakeholder groups, archive services and individuals working with archives across the UK through a series of interviews, surveys and focus groups.
The Partnership says:
At the moment we expect the revised standard and supporting documentation to be published during 2025 with the first archive services applying under the revised standard at least six months after the new documentation is published.
We are very grateful to everyone who contributed to Phase 1 of the Review as part of the consultations whether by participating in a focus group, the survey, or an interview. These contributions will help shape any coming revisions to the standard and make sure any changes are realistic and achievable for the many different types of archive services across the UK.
The Accreditation Partnership now plans to commission an external contractor to take forward the recommendations about inclusive practice and audiences.
