The archival operation in Europe between the countries is far away from each other in the structure of work. But with the technological developments and digital medias that have become more popular to use have archives in Europe begun converging. This essay will examine the similarities and differences between Swedish and British legislation on the accessibility of archival documents. Both how the analog and the digital documents will be accessibility according to the legislation will be studied. A version of eurocentrism will be used for the theory in this study to really get de European perspective on this area of research. The laws that will be used in this study is Freedom of Information Act, Public Record Act, Dara Protection Act, Tryckfrihetsförordningen, Offentlighets- och sekretesslagen and Arkivlagen. With these law as the foundation of the study it will continue as a literary study.

With an overview the British and the Swedish law look quite similar to each other with how archives shall make their collections accessible. It is in the details that the laws differentiate between the countries. In the question of how to make the digital documents accessible the legislation in Great Britain they have no answer. There seems to be an interest in making digital documents accessible to the public because there is some initiative and programmes that worksto come up with some solution like the E-ARK and OIA.