The Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Archives
Archives are a rich resource of knowledge for the nation.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport supports the development of policy on archives through our sponsorship of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). A member of the National Council on Archives sits on the MLA Board. Through MLA, we fund Regional Archive Development Officers in each of the Regional Museums, Libraries and Archives Agencies. MLA are taking forward the recommendations of a recent in depth report on the state of the nation's archives carried out by the Archives Task Force over 2002-4. To find out more about the Archives Task Force report and MLA's role in supporting archives in the regions, visit their website at www.mla.gov.uk
Following the merging of the Historical Manuscripts Commission with the Public Record Office in 2003 to form the National Archives, the Department no longer directly funds any public archives bodies, although many of our sponsored public bodies contain substantial and valuable archives within them, such as the BBC's audio-visual archive and the holdings of the British Library.
We continue to liase with and support the work of archives through the National Council on Archives, which also receives some funding through MLA for activities such as the annual Archives Awareness Month in October www.archiveawareness.com. The National Council on Archives represents archives of all kinds, including local government, private, and audio-visual archives. Visit their website at www.ncaonline.org.uk.
The National Archives, based at Kew, is funded by the Department for Constitutional Affairs. For more information on the holdings of the National Archives, events, online projects and educational activities, including resources for schools, visit their website at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Since archive policy issues are dealt with across a number of Government Departments, the Inter Departmental Archives Committee (IDAC) was set up in February 1996 as an essential co-ordinating mechanism within government for the handling of archive policy issues. More information on the work of IDAC can be found at: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/policy/idac
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