The Archives Hub is a gateway to descriptions of archives held in UK universities and colleges. It holds over 19,700 collection level descriptions of archives on all manner of subjects, and also has thousands of descriptions of series or of individual items within collections. The Hub has over 150 contributors - archives from universities, colleges and other institutions all over the UK[1]. Each description on the Hub provides a link to the contact details for the repository that holds the archive.
The Archives Hub provides a centre of expertise in data standards for archives, based on the use of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) for the creation of finding aids. The site provides information on the use of EAD, data creation guidelines, information on metadata and protocols for interoperability and to facilitate cross-searching.
The Archives Hub forms one part of the UK's National Archives Network. Most of the information on the Hub is held centrally, but the service is increasingly moving to a distributed model, where repositories host their own descriptions in a 'Spoke', which allows the Hub (and other systems) to access their finding aids directly[2].
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