MLA South East has produced 'Future Archives South East - A strategy for archive development in the South East 2004-2007'. The strategy represents MLA South East’s first blueprint for archives in the region, developed in close consultation with our Policy Advisory Group and with the archive community in the South East.
Our development areas are based on evidence gathered during the strategy, which highlighted some new key facts about the scale, use and impact of archives in our region:
- Online use of archives is exploding. There have been over 425,000 Internet searches for archives in the South East in the last 3 years
- 77% of people visiting archives in the South East are researching their family history
- 9/10 people learn something as they visit archives in the South East
- Archives are a boost to the South East’s economy. For 87% of people, visiting the archive is their main reason for visiting an area, and while there 29% ate out locally and 36% used local shops and services
- 6.8% of adults in the South East have visited an archive (compared to 6% of adults or 2.4 million people in England, and 71% of them said they attended once or twice a year.) *
- There are 377 archive repositories and collections in the South East, second only to London.
* In the 12 months prior to their interview:Taking Part Annual Report 2005/06, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, May 2007.
Our Archives Strategy and a briefing sheet are available to download from the right hand side of this screen.
