The UK's National Archives has set a 2007 deadline to boost its online services and become a leading source of historical information on the internet, according to its latest annual report.
Online services will be the main growth area for the organisation over the next few years, with the development of products and services geared to meeting the needs of new online audiences.
"In its first year, National Archives has created the first ever online archives of government websites and made over 3.5 million documents available online," Sarah Tyacke, National Archives chief executive, told Government Computing News on 20 August, 2004.
Eventually the organisation will provide digital archival services to everyone with an interest in history, said Tyacke.
The report sets out how a single "gateway" will enable other archives, libraries, museums and higher education institutions to find information online 24 hours a day.
To achieve its goals, National Archives will begin work on a UK wide archival information network. The way records are managed and selected will be improved and the agency will launch a programme to raise public awareness and understanding of archives.
National Archives was set up in 2003 by bringing together the Public Record Office and the Historical Manuscripts Commission. It looks after one of the largest archival collections in the world, spanning 1,000 years of British history, from Domesday Book of 1086 to government papers recently released to the public.
Projects successfully launched over the last year include the Moving Here website, designed to explain the history of people who have migrated to the England over the last two centuries. National Archive believes this is the first website of its kind.
Copies of records can now be ordered online via the National Archives website. Visitors to the site can create password protected accounts and to check previous orders.
An extended version of the award winning Learning Curve website, aimed at teachers and pupils, received 1.4 million visits last year, an 83 percent increase on 2002/03, according to the report.
The National Archives annual report, A new gateway to British history, was published on 13 August, 2004.
