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The National Archives (UK)
Encyclopedia
Executive agency
An executive agency, also known as a next-step agency, is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate in order to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Assembly or Northern Ireland...
of the Secretary of State for Justice. It is "the UK government's official archive, containing 1,000 years of history". There are separate national archives in some of the devolved parts of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
: the National Archives of Scotland
National Archives of Scotland
Based in Edinburgh, the National Archives of Scotland are the national archives of Scotland. The NAS claims to have one of the most varied collection of archives in Europe...
holds government and private documents relating to Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland is situated in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is a division within the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure ....
holds records for Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
.
TNA was formerly four separate organisations: the Public Record Office
Public Record Office
The Public Record Office of the United Kingdom is one of the three organisations that make up the National Archives...
, the Historical Manuscripts Commission (formerly the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts
Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts
The Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts , a UK body, was established in 1869 "to make enquiry as to the places where manuscripts and private papers of historical interest were located and to report on their contents"....
), the Office of Public Sector Information
Office of Public Sector Information
The Office of Public Sector Information is the body responsible for the operation of Her Majesty's Stationery Office and of other public information services of the United Kingdom...
(OPSI) and Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO).
It is institutional policy to include the definite article, with an initial capital letter, in its name (hence "The National Archives", sometimes abbreviated as TNA) but this practice is rarely followed in the media.
Location
The National Archives is based in KewKew
Kew is a place in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in South West London. Kew is best known for being the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens, now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace...
in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames is a London borough in South West London, UK, which forms part of Outer London. It is unique because it is the only London borough situated both north and south of the River Thames.-Settlement:...
in South West London
South West (London sub region)
The South West is a sub-region of the London Plan corresponding to the London Boroughs of London Borough of , Kingston upon Thames, Lambeth, Merton, Richmond upon Thames, Sutton and Wandsworth. The sub region was established in 2008. The south west has a population of 1,600,000 and is the location...
. The building was opened in 1977 as an additional home for the public records, which were held in a building on Chancery Lane
Chancery Lane
Chancery Lane is the street which has been the western boundary of the City of London since 1994 having previously been divided between Westminster and Camden...
. The site was originally a World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
hospital, which was later used by several government departments. It is near to Kew Gardens Underground Station.
Until its closure in March 2008, the Family Records Centre
Family Records Centre
The Family Records Centre provided access to family history research sources mainly for England and Wales. It was administered jointly by the General Register Office and The National Archives....
in Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
was run jointly by The National Archives and the General Register Office
General Register Office
The General Register Office for England and Wales is the section of the UK Identity and Passport Service responsible for the civil registration of births , adoptions, marriages, civil partnerships and deaths in England and Wales and for those same events outwith the UK if they involve a UK citizen...
. The National Archives currently has offices in central London (Admiralty Arch
Admiralty Arch
Admiralty Arch is a large office building in London which incorporates an archway providing road and pedestrian access between The Mall, which extends to the South-West, and Trafalgar Square to the North-East. It was designed by Sir Aston Webb, constructed by John Mowlem & Co and completed in 1912...
) and Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
, both of which are primarily for former OPSI staff. There is also an additional record storage facility (DeepStore) in the worked-out parts of Winsford Rock Salt Mine, Winsford
Winsford
Winsford is a town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It lies on the River Weaver south of Northwich and west of Middlewich, and grew around the salt mining industry after the river was canalised in the...
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
.
History
For earlier history see the article on the Public Record OfficePublic Record Office
The Public Record Office of the United Kingdom is one of the three organisations that make up the National Archives...
The National Archives was created in 2003 by combining the Public Record Office
Public Record Office
The Public Record Office of the United Kingdom is one of the three organisations that make up the National Archives...
and the Historical Manuscripts Commission and is both a non-ministerial government department in its own right and an executive agency
Executive agency
An executive agency, also known as a next-step agency, is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate in order to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Assembly or Northern Ireland...
reporting to the Secretary of State for Justice. The current Acting Chief Executive (formally Keeper of the Public Records and Historical Manuscripts Commissioner) is Oliver Morley. He succeeded Natalie Ceeney, formerly Director of Operations and Services at the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
, who was Chief Executive from 2005 to 2010. She replaced Sarah Tyacke (also previously of the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
), who retired in October 2005.
On 31 October 2006, The National Archives merged with the Office of Public Sector Information
Office of Public Sector Information
The Office of Public Sector Information is the body responsible for the operation of Her Majesty's Stationery Office and of other public information services of the United Kingdom...
(OPSI), which itself also contained Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO) which was previously a part of the Cabinet Office
Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for supporting the Prime Minister and Cabinet of the United Kingdom....
. The name stayed The National Archives. The merger's aim was to create a stronger National Archives which can lead information management, ensuring that government information is managed effectively - both to support today's government effectiveness and to guarantee the long term role of the archive.
Key roles
TNA claims it is "at the heart of information policy - setting standards and supporting innovation in information and records management across the UK, and providing a practical framework of best practice for opening up and encouraging the re-use of public sector information. This work helps inform today's decisions and ensure that they become tomorrow's permanent record."It has a number of key roles in information policy:
- Policy — advising government on information practice and policy, on issues from record creation through to its reuse
- Selection — selecting which documents to store
- Preservation — ensuring the documents remain in as good a condition as possible
- Access — providing the public with the opportunity to view the documents
- Advice — advising the public and other archives and archivists around the world on how to care for documents
- Intellectual property management — TNA (via OPSI and HMSO) manages crown copyright for the UK
- Regulation — ensuring that other public sector organisations adhere to both the public records act and the PSI reuse regulations.
Types of records
The National Archives is the UK government's official archive, 'containing 1000 years of history from Domesday BookDomesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
to the present', with records from parchment and paper scrolls through to digital files and archived websites. The material held at Kew includes the following:
- Documents from the central courts of law from the twelfth century onwards, including the Court of King's Bench, the Court of Common PleasCourt of Common Pleas (England)The Court of Common Pleas, or Common Bench, was a common law court in the English legal system that covered "common pleas"; actions between subject and subject, which did not concern the king. Created in the late 12th to early 13th century after splitting from the Exchequer of Pleas, the Common...
, the Court of ChanceryCourt of ChanceryThe Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid the slow pace of change and possible harshness of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of equity, including trusts, land law, the administration of the estates of...
, the Court of ExchequerCourt of ExchequerCourt of Exchequer may refer to:*Exchequer of Pleas, an ancient English court, that ceased to exist independently in the late nineteenth century...
, the Supreme Court of JudicatureSupreme Court of JudicatureSupreme Court of Judicature may refer to:* Supreme Court of Judicature . Supreme Court of Barbados* Supreme Court of Judicature , Supreme Court of Guyana* Supreme Court of Judicature , the supreme court in Ireland from 1877 to 1920...
, the Central Criminal CourtOld BaileyThe Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...
, Assizes, and many other courts. - Medieval, early modern and modern records of central government.
- A large and disparate collection of maps, plans and architectural drawings.
- Records for family historians including wills, naturalisation certificates and criminal records.
- Service and operational records of the armed forces War OfficeWar OfficeThe War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...
, AdmiraltyAdmiraltyThe Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
etc. - Foreign Office and Colonial OfficeColonial OfficeColonial Office is the government agency which serves to oversee and supervise their colony* Colonial Office - The British Government department* Office of Insular Affairs - the American government agency* Reichskolonialamt - the German Colonial Office...
correspondence and files. - Cabinet papers and Home OfficeHome OfficeThe Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
records. - Statistics of the Board of TradeBoard of TradeThe Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions...
. - The surviving records of (mainly) the English railway companies, transferred from the British Railways Record Office.
There is also a museum, which displays key documents such as Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
and has exhibitions on various topics using material from the collections.
Access to documents
The collections held by the National Archives can be searched using their online catalogue.Entrance to The National Archives is free. Anybody aged 14 or over can access the original documents at the Kew site, after producing two acceptable proofs of identity and being issued a free reader's ticket.
The reading room has terminals from which documents can be ordered up from secure storage areas by their reference number. The reference number is composed of three sections: the department code of up to four letters, such as WO for the War Office
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...
; a series or class number, for the "subcategory" or collection that the document comes from; and an individual document number. Documents can also be ordered in advance.
Once a document has been ordered, The National Archives aims to get it to the reader within 35 minutes (assuming it is kept at Kew rather than at their second repository, "Deep Store" – a former salt mine in Cheshire): it can take 2-3 days for files to be retrieved from the latter. Special arrangements are in place for readers wishing to retrieve large groups of files.
A reader's ticket is not needed to access records on microform. Frequently accessed documents such as the Abdication Papers have been put on microfilm, as have records for two million First World War soldiers. The originals of the latter were stored in a warehouse in London along with four million others, but incendiary bombs dropped on the warehouse in the Second World War started a fire in which most were destroyed. The surviving third were largely water or fire-damaged and thus acquired the colloquial name of the "Burnt Documents." Because they were mostly too fragile for public access, they were put on microfilm with the aid of the Heritage Lottery Fund
Heritage Lottery Fund
The Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...
. They have now also been digitised and are available on the Ancestry website.
Some of the most popular documents have now been digitised and are available to download, via the DocumentsOnline delivery system, for a small fee. All of the open census records have been digitised, and there are also significant other sources online (such as wills proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 1383-1858). Researchers are encouraged to check the online services first, to see if they can get what they want online. If a document is available online, The National Archives' policy is to encourage people to use the digital copy and not the original, even if they come to Kew, in order to protect the original from damage.
The National Archives has also now set up a 'digitisation on demand' service (called 'Digital Express') where for a small fee a document can be scanned and sent to the researcher electronically (up to 10 pages for a fixed fee) to enable people to access the documents wherever they are, (excluding particularly large or fragile records).
Storage
They are generally stored in acid-free
Acid-free paper
Acid-free paper is paper that has a neutral or basic pH . It can be made from any cellulose fiber as long as the active acid pulp is eliminated during processing. It is also lignin and sulfur free...
folders or boxes.
In the event of a fire The National Archives would be clearly unable to use sprinklers
Fire sprinkler
A fire sprinkler system is an active fire protection measure, consisting of a water supply system, providing adequate pressure and flowrate to a water distribution piping system, onto which fire sprinklers are connected...
for fear of ruining its holdings, and so when the building is evacuated, argon gas
Argon
Argon is a chemical element represented by the symbol Ar. Argon has atomic number 18 and is the third element in group 18 of the periodic table . Argon is the third most common gas in the Earth's atmosphere, at 0.93%, making it more common than carbon dioxide...
is released into the air-tight repositories.
2005 discovery of forgeries
In June 2005 journalist Ben Fenton of The Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
received an email from a colleague asking him to investigate documents held at TNA that alleged that a British intelligence agent had, on the orders of Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, murdered Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
, the head of the Nazi SS, in 1945.
The three documents had come to prominence after being revealed by author Martin Allen in his book Himmler's Secret War.
On viewing photographs of the documents Fenton's suspicions were immediately aroused by the fact that such a controversial policy was casually committed to paper, even to the extent of naming the assassin, and by the use of colourful language, unlike the civil service
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
language of the 1940s used by senior Foreign Office officials John Wheeler-Bennett
John Wheeler-Bennett
Sir John Wheeler Wheeler-Bennett , GCVO, CMG, OBE, FBA, FRSL was a conservative English historian of German and diplomatic history, and the official biographer of King George VI.-Early career:...
and Robert Bruce-Lockhart.
Viewing the original documents the next day, Fenton spotted what looked like pencil marks beneath the signature on one of them. This confirmed his suspicions and, along with his experience of analysing historic documents, it enabled him to persuade The Daily Telegraph to pay for forensic analysis.
TNA staff took four files, along with authenticated copies of the authors' handwriting, to Dr Audrey Giles, a former head of Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
's Questioned Documents Unit where she confirmed that the documents were certainly forgeries. One letter head had been printed on a laser printer
Laser printer
A laser printer is a common type of computer printer that rapidly produces high quality text and graphics on plain paper. As with digital photocopiers and multifunction printers , laser printers employ a xerographic printing process, but differ from analog photocopiers in that the image is produced...
, the earliest example of which was produced in 1977 and all had tear marks where they had been threaded on to the security tags. Further investigations by TNA staff revealed that the counterfeit documents contained errors, breaches of protocol and etiquette which their supposed authors would not have committed, prompting one expert to state that the inconsistencies in the papers "would lead any serious historian to question their veracity".
After his account of the deception appeared in the newspaper, Fenton was contacted by a German academic, Ernst Haiger, who informed him of his own suspicions over other TNA documents cited in an earlier Allen book. Examination by TNA experts led to more than a dozen documents being identified as suspicious and submitted to Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
specialists for examination. When they, too, were declared forgeries, the TNA called in the police.
In the addendum to the later American edition of the book (which acknowledged the fact that the papers were forged), Allen theorised that, some time after he saw the documents, they had been removed and replaced with clumsily forged replicas, to cast doubt upon his discoveries.
In all, twenty-nine forged documents were discovered, each typed on one of only four typewriters. They were placed in twelve separate files, and cited at least once in one or more of Allen's three books. According to the experts at TNA, documents now shown to be forgeries supported controversial arguments central to each of Allen's books: in Hidden Agenda, five documents now known to be forged helped justify his claim that the Duke of Windsor
Duke of Windsor
The title Duke of Windsor was created in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1937 for Prince Edward, the former King Edward VIII, following his abdication in December 1936. The dukedom takes its name from the town where Windsor Castle, a residence of English monarchs since the Norman Conquest, is...
betrayed military secrets to Hitler; in The Hitler/Hess Deception, thirteen forged papers supported Allen's contention that, in 1941, British intelligence used members of the Royal Family
Royal family
A royal family is the extended family of a king or queen regnant. The term imperial family appropriately describes the extended family of an emperor or empress, while the terms "ducal family", "grand ducal family" or "princely family" are more appropriate to describe the relatives of a reigning...
to fool the Nazis into thinking Britain was on the verge of a pro-German putsch; in Himmler's Secret War, twenty-two counterfeit papers also underpinned the book's core claims that British intelligence played mind games with Himmler to encourage him to betray Hitler from 1943 onwards, and that ultimately they murdered the SS chief.
In 2007 the Crown Prosecution Service
Crown Prosecution Service
The Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS, is a non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in England and Wales. Its role is similar to that of the longer-established Crown Office in Scotland, and the...
announced that it was "not in the public interest" to prosecute the only suspect questioned by police. Allen's health problems had prevented the police questioning him for nine months, after which he told them he was wholly innocent. In a December 2007 response to questions from Norman Baker
Norman Baker
Norman John Baker is a British Liberal Democrat politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Lewes in East Sussex since 1997. Since May 2010 he has been Parliamentary Under Secretary for the Department for Transport....
MP, the Solicitor-General
Solicitor General for England and Wales
Her Majesty's Solicitor General for England and Wales, often known as the Solicitor General, is one of the Law Officers of the Crown, and the deputy of the Attorney General, whose duty is to advise the Crown and Cabinet on the law...
said that the police investigation, guided by the opinion of a senior barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
, had produced "sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction" on charges of forgery, using a forged document and criminal damage but it had been decided that it was not in the public interest to proceed. In reaching that decision, "matters relating to Mr Allen's health and the surrounding circumstances were significant in deciding that a prosecution was not in the public interest".
Other services
The National Archives also provides services to help users in their research and also find collections beyond those it holds.Education
The National Archives' education web page is a free online resource for teaching and learning history, aimed at teachers and students.'Access to Archives'
Access to Archives (also known as A2A) is a database containing details of archival collections held in many different archive repositories in England and Wales. As of March 2008, there are no more plans to add additional collections to A2A due to lack of funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the changing financial priorities of The National Archives, but existing entries can still be updated. The A2A database was transferred to The National Archives with a new platform with a simpler interface to ensure its availability.National Register of Archives
The National Register of Archives (NRA) is the central point for the collection and circulation of information about the content and nature of archival manuscripts relating to British history. It contains unpublished lists and catalogues that describe archival collections in the UK and overseas. The register can be consulted in the National Archives reading room and the index is searchable as on-line database on the National Archives web site.The information is collected in a variety of ways. TNA is sent hard-copy catalogues from archival repositories who hold records relating to British history. These are kept in the reading room at the National Archives and indexed on the on-line database. TNA conducts an annual survey of archival repositories on the NRA and records all new accessions, and the accession lists are also available on the TNA's web site. Also information is taken from surveys and guides to archival collections as well as other publications.
The NRA index can be searched by the following categories: Corporate name - records relating to businesses and organisations; personal name - records relating to individuals; family name - records relating to particular families and estates; and place names in the UK and overseas.
There is also an National Register of Archives for Scotland which is based in the National Archives of Scotland
National Archives of Scotland
Based in Edinburgh, the National Archives of Scotland are the national archives of Scotland. The NAS claims to have one of the most varied collection of archives in Europe...
ARCHON directory
ARCHON Directory is a database of contact details for archive repositories in the UK and institutions elsewhere in the world which have substantial collections of manuscripts relating to British history.'Your Archives'
Your Archives is a wikiWiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
for the National Archives on-line community which was launched in May 2007. The contributions are made by users to give additional information to that which is available on the other services provided by the National Archive, including the catalogue, research guides, documentonline and National Register of Archive. Your Archives encourages users to create articles not only about historical records held by the National Archives, but those held in other archive repositories.
Databases
The National Archives also hosts several databases on types of records including hospital records; migration records; and manorial records.Civil Pages
The National Archives operates the Civil PagesCivil Pages
The Civil Pages is a computer system that acts as a private social media site for the UK Civil Service. It was set up by The National Archives on behalf of the Cabinet Office .It debuted shortly after an incident where the head of MI6 was identified in a holiday snap on facebook, and was somewhat...
project on behalf of the Cabinet Office, operating as an online directory for the civil service, facilitating working together and providing a means of sharing knowledge securely between government departments.
Smartphone Applications
In January 2011 The National Archives, in conjunction with historian Nick Barratt and smartphone applications development studio RevelMob, developed its first Old Money iPhone app, which uses historic price data from documents held at The National Archives to see what a sum of money from the past (from 1270) would be worth today and the spending power it would have commanded at the time.In September 2011, TNA's museum began using QRpedia
QRpedia
QRpedia is a mobile Web based system which uses QR codes to deliver Wikipedia articles to users, in their preferred language. QR codes can easily be generated to link directly to any Uniform Resource Identifier , but the QRpedia system adds further functionality.QRpedia was conceived by Roger...
codes, which can be scanned by smartphone users in order to retrieve information about exhibits, from Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
.
See also
- International Standard Bibliographic DescriptionInternational Standard Bibliographic DescriptionThe International Standard Bibliographic Description is a set of rules produced by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions to describe a wide range of library materials within the context of a catalog. The consolidated edition of the ISBD was published in 2007...
- Library and Archives CanadaLibrary and Archives CanadaLibrary and Archives Canada is a national memory institution dedicated to providing the best possible account of Canadian life through acquiring, preserving and making Canada's documentary heritage accessible for use in the 21st century and beyond...
- PRONOM technical registryPRONOM technical registryPRONOM is a web-based technical registry to support digital preservation services, developed by The National Archives of the United Kingdom. PRONOM was the first and remains, to date, the only operational public file format registry in the world,, although the "Magic File" repository of the File...
External links
- The National Archives
- National Archives of Scotland — a separate organisation
- Public Record Office of Northern Ireland - the official repository for Northern Ireland
- ARCRE National Archives Search Engine - searches the holdings of the National Archives utilising the TNA RESTful API and includes predefined filters for military history and genealogy subjects.