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The National Archives holds records that 
the public can access

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for their research interests.

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This often includes family history and academic 
research.

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Records arrive at The National Archives, 
prepared and packaged

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by the government department transferring 
them.

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We assign the records a temporary storage 
location.

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The record listings and conditions of the 
records are checked.

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Records are then processed

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and moved into our environmentally controlled 
repositories,

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where they are given a permanent storage 
location.

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Our online catalogue, Discovery, is updated

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using information from our cataloguing template,

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which is prepared by the government department.

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Each record has a unique catalogue reference.

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This helps our staff to locate the record

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when it is requested by a researcher in our 
reading rooms.

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That’s why we ask that records are catalogued 
in a specific way.

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Records can be requested by the public, our 
staff,

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and other government departments.

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They can be searched by organisation, date 
range, key words or former reference number.

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When a record is ordered by a researcher,

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the request is processed and the record begins 
its journey to our reading rooms.

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This is where researchers view the records 
that we hold.

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The researcher can then collect their record 
in the reading rooms.

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Researchers will interact with records in 
different ways.

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Some will simply read the record, while others 
will take notes on a laptop or notebook

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and some will also photograph or make copies 
of the record.

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This is why we ask for records to be physically 
prepared in a certain way,

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to ensure ongoing accessibility

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and to allow the public to use the records 
without causing damage.

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Researchers can also order copies of records;

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these are scanned by our Record Copying team.

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Records are also used as education resources 
by school, college and university students.

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The records we store have a wide variety 
of format types and different users.

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These users sometimes come across issues 
using records

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because of incorrect physical preparation.

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Some issues are minor; others are more serious.

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Some records are held together by tags which 
are too short.

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This causes the tag hole to tear over time

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which can result in pages becoming separated 
from the parent record and possibly lost.

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Other records can become unreadable due to 
poor physical preparation.

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This can prevent people from accessing the 
record.

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For instance, the ink on thermal paper can 
fade and disappear.

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We ask for thermal paper to be photocopied, 
so that information is not lost.

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Incorrect preparation can lead to the records 
not being accessible to the public

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because of the increased chance of damage.

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Staff at the reading room counters and in 
Collection Care,

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are available to assist when records aren’t 
easily accessible.

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Once the researcher has finished with the 
records,

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they are sent from the reading rooms back 
to our repositories.

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They are put back in the same location, ready 
to be ordered again.

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Physically preparing and cataloguing records 
to The National Archives’ standard

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ensures that records are readily accessible 
and safely stored.