Revision: v1. Released June 9, 2026

Overview

How do you measure and improve the quality of an archive? Milli Archives Foundation (MAF) is developing an open-access Archives Health Tool (AHT) for archives across India to self-evaluate along a set of parameters, and work with a benchmarking model that allows them to strengthen their work on an area of their choice. To shape and advise this work, Milli is drawing on the input of 20 member archives from across India.

Survey of Archives in India (Part 1 of 2): https://bit.ly/milli-aht-survey1

Survey of Archives in India (Part 2 of 2): https://bit.ly/milli-aht-survey2

Survey of Archives in India (for users): https://bit.ly/milli-aht-user-survey

Project Website: https://milli.link/aht

Contact email for collaboration and queries: hello@milli.link

Download the full report here

Intent and Motivation

The Milli Archives Foundation is working on the first draft of a detailed survey to assess archives. We aim to work with the Milli Member Network to refine the tool and take it for a test-drive in person and during visits to various archives. Archives are rarely ever evaluated in India, and even if they were, there are close to no metrics to do this. Should an archive measure itself based on the structure of its archival material? Perhaps it wishes to be sized by its workflows and policies. Should it look at diversity in its sourcing or uses, or both? How does it balance the rights of various constituents: creator, donor, community, archive, funder, researcher, audience? Is public engagement central to the archives as commons, as third place? How does one place increasing diversity in all measures? The Archives Health Tool will be available for every archive, big and small, to assess and improve as they see fit. We hope the public will also nudge archives toward trying the tool out to improve their favourite archive, and get us all closer to archives.

The project is the first of its kind in India, and a free tool to benefit every memory institution – whether it is a personal almirah, or a state archive.

Archive Health Tool Components

The archive health tool that has been developed by Milli has three components —- the survey linked below, a benchmarking and evaluation process (work in progress), and the creation of a roadmap (work in progress) for the concerned archive in collaboration with Milli.

Survey and Links

The survey developed is intended as a self-assessment for archives and their users. Based on this, Milli will conduct the evaluation and initiate the benchmarking process. The survey is split into three parts:

Survey of Archives in India (Part 1 of 2): https://bit.ly/milli-aht-survey1

Survey of Archives in India (Part 2 of 2): https://bit.ly/milli-aht-survey2

Survey of Archives in India (for users): https://bit.ly/milli-aht-user-survey

The first part of the survey is meant to get a basic understanding of the archive, from an archive builder’s point of view. The first section contains questions on the type of archive that is filling the survey. Sections such as “Acquisitions” and “Collections” are meant to understand more about the content of the archives and the theme of the collections. “Metadata and Catalogues”, “Physical Infrastructure” and “Storage and Physical Organisation” are intended as a way for Milli to understand the description and arrangement of the items in the archive, as well as the physical space that they are kept in. Lastly, the “Utilities” section covers basic amenities available to the staff and users.

The second part of the survey is meant to get a better understanding of the personnel involved with the archive as well as its engagement with external parties such as the general public. The section, “Staff and skills”, for instance, covers issues such as employment conditions. Sections like “Inclusion” and “Accessibility” cover populations that might sometimes be excluded from an archive.

These two surveys together take approximately two hours to fill.

While the user survey contains many of the same sections as the builder survey, there are some key differences between the two. Certain questions, especially those on funding and organization within the archive, have been removed as it is unlikely that users of an archive are aware of this information. Additionally, some questions, such as those on utilities and access, have been modified to get the impression of an outsider going through the process of accessing an archive as part of their research, rather than an employee who oversees these processes regularly. Both perspectives are required in order to make an informed assessment of an archive.

The user survey takes approximately 20-30 minutes to fill.

Benchmark and Evaluation

The second step in the measurement of archival health by Milli’s tool is an evaluation, followed by benchmarking conducted by Milli. Responses to the survey are analysed by the Milli team, following which a meeting is held with the archive in order to discuss the responses. Milli is developing a benchmarking process in order to offer baseline standards across various parameters and allow a surveyed archive to benchmark themselves among other archives in the country. We believe this will help them understand their strengths and weaknesses.

The surveys are intentionally kept anonymous. Archives that wish for Milli to get in touch with them for this purpose can include their email IDs when filling their information in the surveys.

Roadmap for Archives

The Archive Health Tool proposes a potential roadmap for surveyed archives. This will be based on the survey responses, evaluation and subsequent benchmarking, intended to provide a checklist to archives on what actions to take in order to strengthen desired areas. The intention is for the archive to follow this roadmap, following which it can circle back to taking the survey again in the future. This allows archives to have defined metrics and leads to a cycle of continuous improvement. To our knowledge, there is no precedent for this in archives in India. For comparison with other disciplines, the Commonwealth Higher Education Management Service report on higher education benchmarking practices provides measures for institutions that conduct self-evaluations in four-year cycles. And there are other evaluation measures applied for archives in other parts of the world, including the Archive Service Accreditation led by the National Archives of the UK: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-sector/archive-service-accreditation/.

A little more about who runs Milli and what we have done?

We conceptualized and maintain the country’s first and free open guidebook on archives, ethics and law: https://milli.link/ethics-law/. Over the years, our free-to-public Milli Sessions covering every aspect of archiving (https://milli.link/milli-sessions/), have had thousands of participants from across India and other countries, and 40+ partnering institutions.

The Milli Archives Foundation’s open access projects are shaped and advised by the Milli Member Network, a set of 20+ archival organizations and archivists who have come together to advise and shape free-to-public archival projects that will benefit all archives in India.

Our collective memory is at stake. Everything Milli does is for nurturing archives in the country. We help individuals, families, organizations and communities sustain our collective memory and records in the form of accessible archives. We build preservation and access guidelines. We make how-to manuals for archives and develop open access archiving tools. And we offer training in archival methods and standards. Archives in India desperately need these resources.

Please do consider supporting this movement: https://pages.razorpay.com/milli. This work simply cannot happen without your support. Your donation today makes an immediate difference. Every contribution to Milli goes directly toward bringing excellence in archiving in India.