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Archives Accreditation Celebration

Posted on 31 July 2018

Borthwick staff and volunteers celebrate Archives Accreditation

On the 24th July, staff and volunteers at the Borthwick Institute for Archives came together to celebrate our Archives Accreditation success.

Archive Service Accreditation defines good practice and agreed standards for archive services across the UK, thereby encouraging and supporting the development of the archive service. We were proud to be accredited earlier this year for a term of six years. The awarding panel commended the Borthwick as an “outstanding service”. They also said that the strength of our digital preservation development makes the service a national lead.

Chris Webb and Gary Brannan with our Accreditation cake

We were fortunate to be joined for our celebration event by Dr Valerie Johnson, Director of Research and Collections at The National Archives (who awarded us with our Archives Accreditation certificate) and Professor Debbie Smith, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of York.

In her speech Valerie Johnson stressed that we were members of an exclusive group - to date approximately 5% of archives in the UK have been awarded Archives Accreditation. She praised our well-written and rigorous application, our clear policies and the additional case studies that we had submitted.

Debbie Smith, having just had a tour of the Borthwick Institute and seen the range of archives that we hold, described the Borthwick as "the unsung jewel in the crown of the University of York".

Gary Brannan receiving our Accreditation certificate from Valerie Johnson

Gary Brannan, Acting Keeper of Archives, who received the certificate on behalf of the Borthwick Institute for Archives summed up the importance of this award to us and to our users:

"At a time when the veracity and trustworthiness of information has never been under greater threat, it is vital that we are able to show that our approach to managing data and making these data accessible is via a trusted, externally validated framework so we can look back to our past, and to our future, with trust."

Borthwick staff in the Exhibition area

Read more about Archives Service Accreditation.