Designed for community archives

Local history societies, parish record groups, and volunteer-run heritage organisations — The Archiver was built with you in mind. No IT department. No technical knowledge. Just your collection, properly catalogued.

We know what you're up against

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No IT department

Most community archives don't have dedicated technical staff. You need tools that work without configuration, servers, or specialist knowledge.

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Volunteer workforce

Turnover is inevitable. Every new volunteer needs to get up to speed quickly, and the quality of cataloguing can't depend on one person's expertise.

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Donations arriving faster than you can describe them

Collections grow unpredictably. Boxes arrive, digitisation projects complete, and the backlog builds — often faster than volunteer hours can clear it.

Simple, accessible, and aligned with heritage funding expectations

  • No technical setup. Works in any web browser. Nothing to install, configure, or maintain.
  • 20 items free every month. Start with your most important items — no credit card, no commitment.
  • Exports for NLHF-style reporting. EAD3 and BagIt outputs designed to support NLHF digitisation workflows and reporting conversations with other grant programmes.
  • Simple upload workflow. Drag and drop documents, photos, audio, and video. The AI does the heavy lifting.
  • Human review at every step. The AI suggests; you approve. No black box, no mystery classifications.
  • Consistent quality across volunteers. Every cataloguer follows the same process. Quality doesn't depend on who's in that day.
  • Full-text search across your whole collection. Researchers and volunteers can find anything in seconds.

Simple enough for any volunteer

Upload your documents and photographs. The Archiver reads each item and generates a full catalogue record — title, date, description, people, places, and subjects. Review the AI's suggestions, make any corrections, and approve.

No training manual needed. New volunteers can start cataloguing on their first session.

The Archiver's review interface showing AI-generated classifications ready for volunteer review and approval

What community archives use most

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Most community archive formats

Parish registers, photographs, audio recordings, local maps and more — Archivers.ai processes most common community archive material. See the export formats page for detail.

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Automatic descriptions

AI generates title, description, date, people, and places from each item. Edit as needed — or approve as-is.

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Grant-ready export

EAD3 and BagIt outputs designed to support NLHF-style digitisation workflows and reporting conversations with other grant programmes. Demonstrate impact with a standards-aligned catalogue.

FAQ

Do I need technical knowledge to use The Archiver?

No. If you can use a web browser, you can use The Archiver. There's nothing to install, no configuration required, and no specialist knowledge needed. Our help centre covers everything step by step.

What does "20 items free" actually mean?

You can upload, classify, and export up to 20 items every month at no cost — no credit card, no time limit. Your allowance refreshes on the 1st of each month. It's a genuine free tier, not a trial. When you're ready to catalogue more, paid plans start at affordable rates.

Can I export for grant reporting?

Yes. Archivers.ai produces EAD3 and BagIt with PREMIS exports, designed to support NLHF-style digitisation workflows and reporting conversations with other grant programmes. Formal acceptance by any specific programme depends on the programme’s own requirements — we help you produce the evidence, the programme decides whether it meets their bar.

What file types can I upload?

Documents (PDF, Word, scanned images), photographs (JPEG, PNG, TIFF including multi-page), audio (MP3, WAV), and video. Most common formats are supported.

Is our data safe?

Yes. Customer collection data is not used to train foundation AI models — we follow the no-training commitments of our AI model providers. You retain ownership of your archive and can export or delete your data at any time. See the Trust page for full detail.

Helpful guides for community archives

Updates from The Archiver