Publicly funded archive services have a vital role within the communities they serve to contribute to local democracy, strong and cohesive communities, social policy, education, research, history and culture. This document sets out the strategic vision for the sustainable development of a vigorous, publicly funded archive sector across England and Wales. It replaces the "Government policy on archives" that was issued by the Lord Chancellor in 1999 (Cm. 4516, ISBN 9780101451628)and focuses on actions for publicly funded archives while acknowledging that private archives remain vital to the archival health of the nation. Section 1 outlines how the landscape in which archive services operate has changed: large organisations now keep most, if not all, of their information in electronic form. Section 2 provides a vision of the true potential of publicly funded archives. Section 3 outlines the challenges facing archive services in the delivery of their core task of preserving authentic information and helping people to access and understand the past. Section 4 sets out five key recommendations: develop bigger and better services in partnership; strengthened leadership and a responsive, skilled workforce; co-ordinated response to the growing challenge of managing digital information; comprehensive online access for archive discovery through catalogues and to digitised archive content by citizens at a time and place that suits them; active participation in cultural and learning partnerships promoting a sense of identity and place within the community. Section 5 highlights the need for concerted action by all parties connected with the archive sector to ensure a sustainable future.

This book studies identity formation and transformation in twentieth-century China by focusing on women's autobiographical writing.

Opening a new window into Chinese intellectual discourse, this unique book is a critical engagement with the issues, problems, and meanings of contemporary Chinese intellectual thought. As key participants in these debates who have exercised a significant influence on the development of contemporary Chinese thought, the volume's contributors explore concerns over the role of the intellectual and the outcomes of knowledge production in the humanities. Masterfully translated, these essays provide a wide range of conflicting perspectives on contemporary Chinese intellectuality, yet they share in common the belief held by many Chinese intellectuals in the power of intellectual labor to shape and change social life. By showing how Western social and cultural theory as well as the May Fourth and pre-modern Confucian traditions are being adapted for contemporary Chinese intellectual use, the book highlights how Chinese academics have affirmed an independent critical role for themselves in post-Mao China and the scope of the knowledge industry that they have created and developed since 1979.