Case Study [e-Government National Awards winner]: National Archives

Five years ago, more than 95% of the National Archives 150 million records only existed on paper. Costs of digitising all the National Archives physical collections are prohibitive (over £4bn). To meet heightened user expectations, it developed both innovative technology and creative partnerships with the commercial sector.

The results are outstanding. For every physical document accessed at The National Archives, it now delivers 100 documents online, leading The Guardian to describe us as 'an international e-publishing phenomenon'.

All achieved at minimal cost to the taxpayer, as the National Archives business model requires the commercial sector to make the investment in return for a wider market for the content.

Making historical records accessible carries significant challenges. As well as expecting fast, online access, consumers now expect access to historical material at their fingertips. Despite a paper-based collection, The National Archives have met these expectations through innovative and ambitious digitisation, carried out through affordable partnerships, which have helped create an online family history market which is adding millions to the UK economy. For researchers across the UK, it has dramatically increased access.

Customers can search and download the National Archives most popular series of original records (including the Domesday Book) and discover their family heritage or local identity. For records not pre-digitised, it has introduced a 'digitisation on demand' service, allowing customers to click on the catalogue record and order it online - and receive an e-copy within 24 hours. Over 90% of what researchers want is now available electronically wherever they are in the world. The National Archives web usage demonstrates this success.

The website was recently ranked in the top 5 central Government websites (source: Hitwise), attracting over 22 million unique visits per year. Last year the National Archives more than doubled its target for online visits and increased page views by nearly 85%.

The average visit duration is over 13 minutes, implying impressive usability and absorbing content. Access to information is no longer the preserve of the privileged few, but a right to be enjoyed by everyone. The National Archives is proud to make history accessible and meaningful through innovation, creativity and commitment. By combining in-house expertise with commercial partnerships and innovative technology, we are now delivering one document per year for every man, woman and child in the UK, at no additional cost to the taxpayer. The result is to bring history to life for everyone.

The overwhelming majority of the digitisation programme has been created and developed in-house. The National Archives has worked with a number of commercial genealogy companies to help provide its family history online resources including Ancestry.co.uk. It worked with Autonomy to help create the global search facility.

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e-Government National Awards highlights the UK's best.
The winners of the e-Government National Awards 2006 are this year's best of the best. 12 winners an 6 'highly commended' organisations were chosen from from among 89 finalists in 11 categories. The Awards recognise and praise the best strategies, achievements, teams and individuals in UK e-Government.

> The e-Government National Awards winners are listed at this link
> Minister praises vision in Government IT at National Awards

Platinum sponsor is KPMG, and also a sponsor are SunGard and O2.

The Awards are supported by the Cabinet Office e-Government Unit, the Office of Government Commerce, the Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm), and SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers).