Archives Card

The Archives Card is a scheme run by a subsidiary company of the Archives and Records Association, starting on 1 April 2020.

This is a nationwide scheme which certain local authority archive facilities may opt in to, and povides a single membership card for all facilities that have signed up.

It appears to be a replacement for the previous CARN ticket, but not all archives that previously accepted CARN tickets seem to accept Archives Cards; and some that didn't accept CARN tickets now accept Archives Cards. It's a mess.

Joining

You can obtain an Archives Card at any participating archive facility, though it's better if you apply online first, at which point you have three months to actually go to a participating archive to collect your card.

There's a list of identity documents that you need to provide to get one on their website (one from each list), but it's important to note that if a document appears in both lists, it only counts once.

Participating archives

The list of participating archives can be found on their website.