October 2004
NCA Honorary Officers have been elected for the coming year: Nicholas Kingsley (Chairman), Elizabeth Hallam Smith (Vice Chairman), Margaret Turner (Secretary), Adam Green (Treasurer), and Elizabeth Shepherd (Press and Publicity Officer). This will be Margaret Turner's sixth and final year as Secretary.
The Chairman's review at the AGM reported on significant achievements in the past year, including the government's Archives Task Force (to which NCA contributed through the Chairman), the highly successful Archive Awareness Month 2003, the development of the Linking Arms project as a foundation for the new digital Archives Gateway, MLA/NCA's Training and Recruitment Review, the work of PSQG, NCA's Digital Preservation Working Party and the contributions of NCA officers and responses by NCA to Civil Registration review, Boundary Committee proposals for northern England, Sector Skills Council proposals, MLA's Designation Scheme extension, and the Community Access to Archives Project.
Twenty A2A phase 3 projects were successfully awarded HLF funding (91% success rate). 10th anniversary celebrations for HLF will include open days and other activities at funded projects. A bursary scheme for skills shortages in the heritage sector has been announced and it is hoped that a scheme for archive conservation may make a bid. A report to HLF setting out funding priorities for the domain for the next few years is being drafted.
The letter writing campaign about the importance of archives and the implementation of the ATF recommendations has contacted 600 organisations asking them to stimulate letters to MPs. The Council may also consider placing parliamentary questions. No information on the number of letters received by MPs has been forthcoming yet. Meetings with DCMS officials are planned. The Linking Arms bid was submitted to HLF in June and a decision is expected in January 2005. The Community Access to Archives Project methodology was launched in October.
The NCA conference will be held in February 2005 to provide external perspectives to show how archives can link with other domains in order to meet some of the ATF recommendations, including community archives, marketing and regeneration.
The Interoperability Protocol for strands in the archival network is under review by the expert group, led by Louise Craven of TNA.
Plans for the Archive Awareness Campaign 2004 are well advanced, with over 400 events registered and a link with the BBC2 programme Who do you think you are? giving the campaign a high profile.
The PSQG Forum on 10th November is now fully booked. The National Visitors Survey results are now available and will be launched on 10th November.
The Inter Departmental Archive Committee (IDAC) has been asked by the Secretary of State to take the lead on setting priorities for the implementation of ATF recommendations in view of the lack of additional funds for archives. It is writing an action plan to include outstanding items from the Government Policy on Archives Action Plan as well as the ATF recommendations. MLA is also planning to create an Archives Forum, although its remit and structure have not yet been decided. MLA's archive development programme will be published in November and is likely to include positive action traineeships, leadership programmes, the extension of the designation scheme to archives and support for Linking Arms. In addition, MLA's workforce development plans for the whole sector will be published soon.
