The Archives Hub is a distributed digital archive system based in the UK that allows various archives and repositories to share their collection descriptions. It uses open standards to enable interoperability between systems. The Hub currently has over 23,000 collection descriptions from 170 contributing institutions. It provides a centralized search interface as well as machine-to-machine access through protocols like Z39.50, SRU, and OAI-PMH to allow flexible searching and access to descriptions. Individual archives can also participate as "Spokes" by hosting their own indexed descriptions that are exposed through the Hub's interfaces and protocols.