In 2023-24, The National Archives conducted research into public engagement across the archives sector in England. The research gathered data on infrastructure, current activity, challenges and future ambition, which will inform our ongoing sector support.
This report sets out the key headlines from this research and our priorities for follow-up action.
Outline of research project
The research had three main objectives:
- Build a national picture of public engagement work, including loans, touring exhibitions and education, and gauge archives’ interest in partnering with The National Archives in these areas
- Identify the sector’s training and development needs to help inform the Archives Sector Leadership department’s planning
- Understand archives’ funding needs for public engagement and help inform funding applications by both The National Archives and The National Archives Trust
The research was conducted in two parts: a survey and follow-up focus groups.
The survey ran for five weeks from early September to early October 2023, and asked questions across a range of areas including public engagement activity, infrastructure, loans, future plans and partnerships.
This was followed by five focus groups, led by consultant Janice Tullock, to take a more in-depth look at areas of particular interest resulting from the responses. Participants were drawn from survey respondents who had expressed interest in taking part in follow-up research.
Survey: profile of responders
137 archives across England responded to the survey.
Almost 50% of these were local authority archives, with the others drawn from Higher Education, charity, business and museum/gallery archives.
Around half of all local authority archives in England responded to the survey, giving the results from that group greater statistical significance than for other archive types that were less represented in the responses.
Alongside good representation from all regions of England, the north west had a particularly high number of responses (38). However, a comparison of the results from this region against the nation as a whole does not show notable evidence of the north west having different experiences to the rest of the country.
The majority (52%) of respondents said they had 1-5 paid, full-time equivalent (FTE) employees.
Key findings from survey
Activities
The most commonly offered public engagement activities among respondents are temporary themed exhibitions and displays (84%) followed by community engagement projects (76%) and onsite talks (74%). The activities that respondents most frequently charge for are talks and onsite school sessions, with just under half charging for at least some of their offer in these areas.
Education
59% of respondents offer some school education sessions onsite. However, a further 28% have offered this in the past but are unable to at present.
Barriers
The main barrier to providing public engagement activity was lack of staff resources, with 92% of respondents naming this as an issue. Other priorities and financial resources were a problem for 74% and 83% respectively, and lack of space affected just over half. Less than a quarter of respondents suggested a lack of interest was a problem.
Visitor numbers
Whilst almost all respondents collected visitor numbers, only a third collected demographic data. The approach to collecting demographic data also varies considerably across the sector so monitoring impact is currently very difficult.
Volunteers
89% have onsite volunteers. Online volunteers are less common, with two thirds having none.
Buildings and facilities
Only 27% of archive services don’t share a building with another organisation or service, and this was consistent across different responder types. Among local authorities, facilities are often shared with local museums or libraries. Business, higher education and charity archives are often housed with their parent organisation.
A third of archives are doing capital development, despite financially challenging times.
Funding
Over half of respondents have made funding bids for public engagement activity, and a further third intend to in future. Time to write applications (76%) and the resources to deliver activity (78%) are the key barriers to making bids.
Working in partnership
While only 16% of respondents have worked in partnership with The National Archives on public engagement activity to date, 78% have worked with another organisation, with 48% having collaborated with another archive service.
Respondents showed considerable interest in working with The National Archives on public engagement activity, particularly should additional support be available through successful funding bids. This included taking loans (76%), hosting outreach and education staff (70%), and co-curating exhibition content (76%).
The reported barriers to achieving this collaboration centred on money and resources.
Progress since our interim report
In our interim report, we laid out our aims in response to your feedback. Below, you can read these aims, and what we’ve done since then.
Lack of staff resources
What you said
The main barrier is lack of staff resources. Only a quarter have staff dedicated to public engagement.
Our response
In our interim report, we said that we will meet with national funders to discuss where archives are eligible for their programmes and how to enhance this offer.
Since then, The National Archives has successfully applied to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for £5million to support the Archives Revealed funding programme. The programme’s cataloguing and consortium grants will now have a stronger focus on public engagement.
No consistent demographic data
What you said
Only a third collect demographic data, and approaches vary significantly.
Our response
In our interim report, we said that we will hold a focus group on collecting demographic data to produce sector guidance and possible training.
Since then, we have held a focus group on collecting demographic data and will be producing sector guidance later in 2024.
Lack of online volunteers
What you said
89% have onsite volunteers but two thirds have no online volunteers.
Our response
In our interim report, we said that we will explore developing additional training on online volunteering to support and increase the number of online volunteers in archives.
Since then, we have started working with experienced consultants to develop training on running successful online and onsite volunteering programmes. These online training sessions will be available this autumn.
Lack of resources to work with The National Archives
What you said
Strong interest in working with The National Archives but need money and resources to achieve this.
Our response
In our interim report, we said that we will run a focus group to explore the issues and opportunities involved in working with us.
The National Archives Trust will develop programmes to fundraise to achieve this work.
Since then, we have held a focus group to explore the issues and opportunities involved in working with us, and we will use the findings of this focus group to plan future projects and fundraising bids.
Lack of money, staff and resources
What you said
Lack of money, staff and resources are the main barriers to more public engagement.
Our response
In our interim report, we said that we will hold a focus group on working with communities to explore how this can be taken forward more widely, as this can be a good route to fundraising for projects.
Since then, we have held two focus groups on working with communities and are responding to the requests for support as noted below.
Advocacy is crucial
What you said
Advocacy for archives is very important for future resourcing and support.
Our response
In our interim report, we said that we will run a focus group on the value of archives and how archives and Archives Sector Leadership can advocate better.
Since then, we have held a focus group on the value of archives to explore this and how we can advocate better for archives.
Outcomes from the focus groups
We commissioned Janice Tullock to hold five focus groups to explore four main areas of enquiry:
The value of public engagement to archives
Findings suggest that:
- Public Engagement helps to raise the profile of archives with key stakeholders (for example councillors in local authorities), increasing support for the service
- Using collections for this purpose demonstrates the value of investing in and maintaining a collection
- Public Engagement enables new interpretation of collections
- Examples show that using archives in public programming has potential to make an impact in addressing issues of national importance, such as racism and other injustice
- Engagement work allows people to feel represented by the collections, especially where items are proactively collected from or interpreted in collaboration with people or communities, leading to strong partnerships
- Seeing new audiences engaging with collections is often motivating for staff
Experiences of archives and public engagement
Findings suggest that:
- Archives would like to see opportunities for the profession to learn more about audience development and public participation techniques, including cohorts learning from each other
- Archives would like a public engagement network group to share their experience and work on joint projects. This group could act as a sounding board for future work by The National Archives on public engagement.
- Archives would like to see more training and support on learning, engagement and measuring the impact of public engagement
- There is significant difference in experience for archives who share resources with a museum or gallery (especially those with Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation status) compared with those who do not
Demographic data and how to improve its collection
Findings suggest that:
- All services have difficulties in deciding what quantitative and qualitative data to collect for public engagement activities and in analysing that data
- Archives want The National Archives to develop a data and evaluation toolkit to standardise what data an archive service should collect about its audiences
- Training and guidance should be provided on data collection, analysis and advocacy
Collaboration between the archives sector and The National Archives
Findings suggest that:
- Working with The National Archives on public engagement projects is desirable, but only when it meets the needs of both partners for mutual benefit
- Collaborative projects need to be worthwhile, add value to existing offers, and be locally relevant and compelling. To be successful there needs to be clarity from the outset, enough lead-in time for planning, and provide sufficient resource.
- An attractive model of joint working on public engagement would enable all archive services to participate at an appropriate level
- Any planned activity should recognise the pressure and restrictions that many services are working under
- The National Archives needs to consider itself as a part of the wider sector for partnerships to really work
- While taking locally relevant material on loan from The National Archives was considered as an attractive opportunity, it can be very resource intensive in both staff time and money
The focus groups were very successful in eliciting ideas and ways forward for The National Archives to work with the archives sector. They also showed the benefits of providing staff from across the sector with a forum to share ideas and experiences and to explore opportunities together in a well facilitated environment.
Next Steps
Archives Revealed funding programme
The National Archives recently submitted a successful application to The National Lottery Heritage Fund for £5million to expand the Archives Revealed programme. Our Grants & Funding team and the Archive Sector Leadership team collaborated on this project, and the sector’s contributions to the public engagement research, through both the survey and the focus groups, were crucial to strengthening the funding application’s case for support.
We will re-launch Archives Revealed in September 2024 – continuing our long-standing partnership with the Pilgrim Trust and the Wolfson Foundation – with a three-year programme of cataloguing, scoping and consortium grants. For the first time, public engagement will be a core part of Archives Revealed grants, enabling greater investment in this vital area of work.
Training programme
Archives Sector Leadership will continue developing its training programme to include support for public engagement.
Knowledge exchange
Archives Sector Leadership will create new ways for the sector to exchange knowledge and ideas to develop their public engagement.
Advocacy
Archives Sector Leadership will publish a statement demonstrating the value of public engagement to the sector and providing examples on different budgets.
Partnerships
Teams in The National Archives’ Public Engagement and Sector Leadership Directorate will use the feedback received in the focus group to inform future project development for regional partnerships and collaborations. This will include devising a framework to ensure equity of access and opportunity.