The National Archives' Chief Executive stands down

As The National Archives' Chief Executive announces she is to step down, Alan Crosby sets out his hopes for the institution's future

Wednesday 10 February 2010
Alan Crosby, editor of The Local Historian
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LAST MONTH came the news that Natalie Ceeney, Chief Executive of The National Archives and Keeper of the Public Records, will take over as Chief Financial Ombudsman in March. Her tenure at Kew has been troubled, marred by controversies of which the furore over major cutbacks (announced in 2009 and now being implemented) was perhaps the most significant.

Despite a stream of upbeat press releases, the past few years have seen a worrying amount of scepticism and cynicism from some quarters about how TNA works. Important questions have been asked about the wisdom of the unremitting drive towards digitisation, the enmeshing of TNA in commercial link-ups, and the long-term future of the institution itself. These issues are thrown into sharp profile by the departure of Ms Ceeney, and by the realisation that her successor at TNA, whoever he or she might be, will have a very full in-tray from Day One. 

Ideally, the new incumbent will have real diplomatic skills and be able to rebuild the bridges which have been broken. I’d like to see a healer and a calming influence, rather than a confrontationist or someone who resorts to management-speak which means little in terms of substance. Over-reliance on the press and publicity department has served TNA badly. We need someone who can stand up and fight vigorously and loudly for archives and record offices (not just for TNA, but for the whole range and diversity of archive provision in England and Wales).

Over the past two decades disappointment within the archive sector about TNA's performance has grown. Among many archivists of my acquaintance there is a sense that TNA has failed to provide the dynamic and committed leadership which in principle it should be able to give. 

Is it also too much to hope that the new CEO will personally sympathise and empathise with archive users, and with archive professionals – somebody who has an emotional commitment to archives and history, and doesn’t simply regard TNA as another business to be run, another group of staff to be managed and controlled, another set of buildings to oversee? We need somebody who is prepared to be a crusader for archives and the precious heritage which they represent.

TNA requires a leader who is outspoken in campaigning for protection and enhancement of the archival heritage, who is dedicated to free access, who can champion the cause not just of today’s family, local and every other category of historian, but of our descendants, whose inheritance this will be, generation after generation. It's probably too much to hope for, but my heart will lift, as will many other hearts, if an archivist is appointed, rather than someone who 'had previously led strategic consultancy projects across a range of industries’.