Case Study: 1
The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, UK
Themes
The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council was established on 1 April 2000 under
the name of Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries. On 5 February 2004
Resource changed its name to the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and is known as MLA.
Keywords: National, England, Regions, Cross-domain, Standards, ICT, Digitisation, Learning,
Collections, Advocacy
Relation to wider policy agendas
Inclusion: access, cultural diversity
Information Society: digitisation
E-government and citizenship: community cohesion, cultural entitlement
Learning: learning, life-long learning
Social and economic development
Demand
The organisation was established following eighteen months discussion and consultation on how museums,
archives and libraries could work more closely together to sustain and develop the sector as a whole.
It replaced the Museums & Galleries Commission (MGC) and the Library and Information Commission (LIC).
The process was put in motion by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport under the leadership of
the then Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Chris Smith.
From the beginning the organisation focussed on the needs of users and on providing greater
access to the resources held in museums, libraries and archives. MLA now takes this further with
a number of strategic programme areas described in the case study below.
Description
MLA is a Non-Departmental Public Body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
MLA's roles are to:
- Provide leadership
- Act as a powerful advocate
- Develop capacity within the sector
- Promote innovation and change
MLA has a shared vision with the nine English Regional Agencies for museums,
libraries and archives that it funds. Their shared planning framework sets out the following objectives:
- Enabling easy access to knowledge, information and inspiration for all
- Supporting the government's access, learning and social inclusion agendas
- Driving forward the knowledge society and the knowledge economy
- Ensuring that museums, libraries and archives are at the heart of communities
- Modernising services to focus on collections and their use for the benefit of all
Each of the programme areas of the Operational and Strategic Plan 2004/05 to 2006/07 support
one or more of these objectives and lead to the following outcomes:
- Communities: museums, libraries and archives are at the heart of their communities;
- Learning and skills: the sector helps people to learn and to develop their skills;
- Creativity: the sector fosters and inspires people's creativity;
- Economy: the sector drives and contributes to key economic markets
MLA achieves these outcomes through:
- Supporting and developing the sector for the benefit of all;
- Carrying out research and consultation and collecting robust evidence;
- Operating through strategic partnerships and collaborating to achieve common agendas;
- Maximising the effectiveness with which resources, skills and knowledge are used in order
to deliver improvements and public benefit.
MLA leads on three major long-term strategic programmes to modernise the sector which it represents:
Renaissance in the Regions:
regenerating England's major regional museums;
Framework for the Future: the Government's
ten-year vision for public libraries in England
Listening to the Past, Speaking to the Future:
A major programme of consultation to produce
recommendations to government on ways of transforming and revitalising the UK's archives.
Barriers/constraints
- Developing one institution out of two;
- Merging priorities and strategies and overcoming differences in leadership, language and culture;
- Finding a balance between the executive tasks of the predecessor organisations to develop a new
strategic vision for the sector;
- Overcoming wariness in each of the domains;
- Lack of knowledge within single domains about other domains;
- Finding a balance between single domain strategies and cross-domain opportunities;
- Difficult funding situation with no increase in base-line budget since MLA was established;
- Responding to new Government priorities while maintaining an autonomous vision for the sector.
Keys to success
- Strong Government support for domain-specific programmes such as Renaissance in the Regions and
Framework for the Future;
- Close collaboration with key stakeholders including the professional organisations for mlas and Regional
organisations;
- Buy-in from the sector;
- Strong professional staff committed to MLA's future success.
Products/ services
The following lists a selection of MLA activities with links to MLA's web-resources.
- Access: Cultural
Diversity Checklist;
Disability Portfolio;
Access for All Self-Assessment Toolkit;
- Strategic marketing: work is progressing to develop a national framework for strategic marketing with
a set of tools to support the sector as they adapt their services to meet the needs of users more effectively.
- Learning: work to develop support for the sector in both formal and life-long learning the main tool
for which is Inspiring Learning for All
the subject of a separate case-study for this tool-kit.
- Collections: Advocacy of Stewardship
on the Web
which reviews the effectiveness of collections care and stewardship web-based resources;
Benchmarks in Collection Care,
is a self-assessment checklist;
an Overview of Collections Information and Advice in the Museums, Archives and Library Domains providing
information to support the sector. MLA manages the
Portable Antiquities Scheme the largest programme of its kind to
encourage voluntary recording of archaeological finds.
- E-Society: including such initiatives as the
People's Network which has placed ICT centres in every
public library in England and trained library staff in their use and the
People's Network Service which develops the
capacity of this resource for the future; it also includes supporting the development of digital content
and widening participation in e-Government. Strategically MLA is working on the
Knowledge Web which will
enhance the existing investment in digital content, and, for users, shorten the journey between their question
and the answer.
- Leadership and Advocacy: including initiatives such as establishing a strong regional infrastructure;
positively influence Government policy towards the sector; delivering a modernising agenda through
Renaissance in the Regions, Framework for the Future and Listening to the Past, Speaking to the Future;
and the international programme
which advises Government and the sector on international issues.
- Research and Development:
which examines social change; demographic changes; service use and impact and evidence of success.
- Standards: MLA carried out an exercise in 2003 to
map standards and guidelines
relevant to museums, archives and libraries; MLA manages both the
Accreditation scheme
for museums and the Designation scheme
for museums, archives and libraries.
- Workforce Development: MLA has recently published its workforce development strategy
Learning for Change.
Impact
- Important impact of programmes such as Renaissance in the Regions, Framework for the Future, the People's Network and the Portable Antiquities Scheme on the quality and availability of services available to users, and the national and regional strategic partnerships developed for the sector;
- Improving capacity and competencies within the sectors;
- Innovative methods of delivery being developed;
- Shift in understanding in the sector of the importance and relevance of learning - both formal and life-long;
- Increased and improved accessibility to knowledge and cultural content;
Dissemination of lessons learned
MLA staff at all levels regularly present MLA's work to colleagues in England and other countries.
MLA is involved in national and international networks such as the International Council of Museums
ICOM, the International Federation of Library Associations
IFLA and International Council on Archives
ICA.
Informal discussions with:
Director's museum network
Domains involved
Museums, archives and libraries
Geographical coverage
England in close co-operation with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Standards/Guidelines used
In establishing MLA the Government established a Design Committee which looked at a range
of national and international standards and guidelines for museums, archives and libraries.
Partnership
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Regional agencies for mlas
Local government organisations
All mla professional organisations
International organisations and networks
Funding sources
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Just over 53 million Euros (2004-2005)
Lifespan of project
Permanent institution
Status of project
MLA was established in 2000 and as it reaches its fifth anniversary it is working on a
major Organisational Development Programme, reviewing business priorities and organisational
structure. This is to ensure that MLA remains fully effective for the future, delivering value
for money and bringing real, tangible benefits to the sector and its users.
Relates to
http://www.mla.gov.uk
Host Organisation
The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
Organisation type
The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council is a Non-Departmental Public Body sponsored by England's
culture ministry the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
MLA is lead by a Board consisting of sixteen members appointed by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
The Department also appoints a Chair, a position currently held by Mark Wood. The Chief Executive and senior
staff attend Board meetings.
MLA has approximately 75 employees, working in six teams all lead by a Director: Chief Executives Unit;
Library and Information Society Team; Learning, Access, Renaissance, Regions and International Team;
Collections, Archives, Workforce Development and Standards Team; Communications; and Corporate Services.
MLA's Chief Executive has overall responsibility for the organisation and, in conjunction with the six Team
Directors, makes up the Executive Board.
MLA's mission statement: 'Museums, libraries and archives connect people to knowledge and information,
creativity and inspiration. MLA is leading the drive to unlock this wealth, for everyone'.
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In this Case study
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