What is the National Digital Archive of Datasets (NDAD)?
Databases have become the record-keeping method of choice for many departments in central government, and database management systems are
used to gather, store and analyse large amounts of statistical information. This information that ultimately influences and affects policy
and legislation at the highest level. So the databases stored and preserved by NDAD are important evidence of the decision-making
processes of UK government.
The data remains in the legal custody of The National Archives, but is managed by University of London Computer Centre 
(ULCC) . NDAD preserves this important data from the ravages of time and
technology, and makes it freely available on the web.
By interrogating NDAD's datasets for yourself, you can analyse information and statistics gathered from a wide variety of departments and
subjects (health, education, housing, crime, nature). We believe we are currently unique in the UK in offering this online querying
facility for archived datasets.
Preserving digital records
The Digital Preservation Department at The National Archives
archives and preserves government electronic records. The Records Management Department at The National Archives works with Departmental Records Officers in central government departments and
other public bodies to select and transfer records to NDAD.
ULCC has more than 25 years' expertise in the management and preservation of large quantities of digital data, particularly in
hierarchical storage management systems. ULCC also operates the National Data Repository offering fast network access to extremely large amounts of data, and has considerable expertise in web services.
NDAD plays an active role in the development of new initiatives in digital preservation. NDAD staff participate in the work and conferences of many national and international groups, including the Digital Preservation Coalition , the DLM Forum , the Digital Curation Centre , ERPANET.
What you need to use NDAD
You need to be reasonably familiar with using the web. It is not necessary to be familiar with the terminology of archival or computing theory, as a glossary of archival and computing terms used can be found in the Help section. NDAD is designed to work with all modern web browsers. More on technical requirements.
How is NDAD organised?
NDAD creates Finding Aids which explain why, how and when datasets were created. These Finding Aids are arranged hierarchically, providing
more specific details appropriate to each level. The arrangement of Datasets and the elements within the descriptions are based on ISAD(G)
, the International Standard for Archival Description (General).
Datasets in NDAD are arranged in Series. For each Series you will find:
Accessing data and documentation
To start browsing the hierarchy of Finding Aids or to go straight to the data, select Browse, and choose the
department or Series that interests you from the list. You will then see a summary page containing links to explanatory Finding Aids, and
to more detailed levels of description.
Or try our search tools. These include free-text searching of the Finding Aids, a thesaurus-based subject index,
and an index of personal, corporate and place names.
Register for extra benefits
Everyone can access the online Finding Aids, data and documentation in this site. However, by registering you can
also benefit from extra features such as saving data table display settings and queries, and a more rapid ordering service. You need to
register to use any chargeable service.
Contact us
About NDAD
