Guardian: National Archives squares the data circle

There's an interesting article National Archives squares the data circle in today's Guardian. Some excerpts: "Burgeoning demand for public sector information has prompted controversial cost-cutting measures . . . Some six million people visited the archives electronically last year . . . Meanwhile, through a series of innovative licensing deals, the organisation is taking an unusual approach to the task of digitising even obscure archives: it's encouraging private firms to foot the bill for doing so, in return for a certain amount of exclusivity - often time-limited - on the use of data . . . Britain's online genealogy sites are 'probably better than any other country' . . . [TNA] wants a thriving rivalry of healthy companies that can each raise enough funding to bid for the digitisation projects . . ."