ABSTRACT
In the first decade of the 21st century, archives and the archival profession in the UK face challenges and changes unmatched in any other period. In recent years, new ways of thinking and writing about archives have emerged. These have coincided, on the one hand, with huge technological developments which have brought profound social, political and epistemological changes in their wake and, on the other, with a significant shift in the role of archives in cultural and heritage contexts. Archives are composed of records. Historical manuscripts are composed of records, and they constitute archives. Manuscript curators are responsible for records and archives. Although this reflects practice embedded in the American public archives tradition and historical manuscripts tradition, similar views have been held in the UK, if in a less extreme way. The British Library has always been the traditional repository for the papers of notable individuals, as has the National Library of Scotland.
