Museums Libraries & Archives (MLA)

Museums Libraries & Archives (MLA) looks to lead strategically, promoting best practice in museums, libraries and archives, and inspiring innovative, integrated and sustainable services. They see their purpose in enabling museums, libraries and archives to provide more and more people in England with high quality experiences that enrich their lives.

MLA prioritise assisting the funders of museums, libraries and archives to oversee constant improvement and increased responsiveness to local needs, as well as enabling museums, libraries and archives to increase contributions to learning and skills in order that individuals have improved life and employment opportunities. 

Their vision is to enable museums, libraries and archives to make an increasing contribution to their local economies and communities, and being as effective an organisation as possible in providing clear leadership and strong advocacy for this sector, to be respected and valued.

They work to deliver their vision in accordance with stated values, including a determination to make a difference by driving improvement and working collectively towards a shared purpose. There is a priority to nurture innovation by challenging themselves and others to find new ideas and solutions, and being answerable to others as well as themselves.

The MLA was one of 14 organisations with a direct stake in effective scholarly communications to endorse Research and the Scholarly communications process: Towards strategic goals for public policy, the statement of principles document RIN published in 2007, which the Policy Centre is supporting.