National Records of Scotland retains accredited archive status

The National Records of Scotland (www.nrscotland.gov.uk) has regained its archive accreditation status on the basis of several factors, including "organisational health, archival collections and stakeholder engagement" (https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/news/2022/nrs%E2%80%99-archive-service-accreditation-success).

I recently wrote to the Archive Service Accreditation standard folk in London to ask if the NRS was in breach of its standard, which is explained at https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/archives/archive-service-accreditation-standard-june-2018.pdf - my enquiry asked whether provisions 1.4, 3,2 and 3.3 had been breached after an extraordinary two years of what many have perceived to be an incredibly poor service provision in comparison to the UK's other national archives, even with Covid taken into consideration. I received a response on July 13th, which you can read at http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2022/07/response-from-archive-service.html, in which I was advised that the ASA Committee had released a statement which "recognises that archive services may have to offer a reduced service based on public health guidance and risk assessments, and that this will not affect Accreditation status.". In other words, how the NRS responded to the challenges of Covid would not have impacted its assessment for accreditation.

At the end of June an open letter of protest was sent by genealogist Fergus Smith to the NRS (see http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2022/06/open-letter-protesting-ongoing.html), which made several national newspapers across the country. It was signed by 90 genealogists, academics, historians, university course tutors, and others, who clearly had had enough with what is perceived to be a deteriorated service provision. The NRS is not a privately run clique, it is a taxpayer funded institution tasked with the care of our national archive, and has obligations to its user base, as well as its staff. If the Archive Service Accreditation Standard is to mean anything, stakeholder engagement has to be an equal priority to its other concerns.

A lot of work does go into the seeking of accreditation for an archive, and so congratulations are due to the NRS on receiving it, with the status held for the next six years. But after a period where the relationship between the NRS and many within its user base has fallen substantially, its biggest task now is to perhaps convince many within that user base that it deserves it.

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.