Market overview
The market for archive and museum systems is not as well developed as that for library management systems. In general, compared to libraries, UK archives spend far less on their systems and this has not made it an attractive market for large, international vendors. This has therefore prevented the investment and development resources required to develop software systems
The overall (inc. beyond HE) UK market for archive solutions is fragmented and served by a number of mostly small vendors that have developed solutions to serve small organisations rather than national, state or major HE institutions. The weakness of the commercial market means that open-source systems have been developed which are supported by archive (often membership) communities with commercial companies providing implementation, development and support services.
The Jisc Archives Hub service aggregates archives collections in the UK . It “brings together descriptions of thousands of the UK’s archive collections. Representing over 350 institutions across the country, the Archives Hub is an effective way to discover unique and often little-known sources to support research”
The main archive systems used in UK HE are Axiell Calm (migrating to Axiell Collections) and open source ArchiveSpace and AtoM.
ArchivesSpace
ArchivesSpace is supported by the community membership organisation Lyrasis “Lyrasis an active participant in the governance, community and sustainability of ArchivesSpace and remains the organisational home for the ArchivesSpace program”. The commercial provider Atlas also provides support for ArchivesSpace.
AtoM
AtoM (Access to Memory) was initially developed by Artefactual along with the digital preservation system Archivematica and provides hosting support and development services. The AtoM Foundation is a non-profit organisation established in 2018 to oversee and support the development, sustainability and adoption of AtoM. In August 2025 Open Fifth (formerly PTFS Europe), a UK provider of open source library solutions, announced it will provide support services for AtoM.
Axiell
In terms of commercial proprietary solutions, Axiell is the primary vendor with hundreds of customers covering museums, galleries and archives. Its primary archive offering has been CALM. This is a functional solution but is dated, especially in technology terms. Axiell has a programme to migrate CALM customers to their new ‘Collections’ solution.
Section updated August 2025