UK delighted to have joined APE
The UK is delighted to have joined the Archives Portal Europe. You can now search for archives held in UK universities and colleges, specialist repositories. local authorities and business archives.
The UK is contributing through the Archives Hub (archiveshub.ac.uk), which is a Jisc-funded national aggregator in the UK. It brings together descriptions and holds them in a standardised open format. The Archives Hub has taken on the role of Country Manager for the UK, enabling institutions to have a straightforward means to share their descriptions more widely – not only through a national portal but also through a European portal. This arrangement has many advantages, not only because the data is already in a format that can be used by APE, but also because the Archives Hub has a strong role within the UK archives community, and links with hundreds of archive repositories, so the support structure is already in place.
The Archives Hub represents well over 200 institutions, and hopes to have all these included in APE. The more representation APE achieves, the more invaluable it will be for those researchers who are keen to look across the European stage for their sources. It will enable UK archives to be connected to related archives across the continent.
This is a great example of the advantages of interoperable data, as the archives on the Archives Hub can enjoy a higher profile through more exposure online, without the need for substantial additional resource.
