Access and preservation in the 21st century: What has changed?

The opportunities for access to archives in the 21st century are the result of populist interest in archives, technical advances making wider dissemination easier, better provision of disabled access and the inclusion of archives in the government social agendas. Preservation benefits since surrogacy and off site storage are becoming more popular and funding bodies increasingly recognise the importance of preservation. But there are still a myriad of smaller archives where the access and preservation situation is getting worse, both for traditional types of materials and especially for electronic records. Partnership and co-operation are needed to ensure that all archives have the ability to offer access to well preserved materials.