Introduction
- Archives have special needs which are different in many respects from those of museum objects, but their
proper care and management are just as important as the care of the museum's objects. This information
sheet provides some brief guidance on the factors which museums should consider when drawing up their
policy on archives, and also gives further sources of advice.
- Archives are "original documents in any medium created and/or accumulated by an individual, a family,
a corporate body or institution in the course of its daily life and work...."
1
- Archives in museums may include:
a) the records of the museum's own history and administration
b) documents directly associated with the museum's collections, for example original receipts, excavation records or natural history field notebooks;
c) whole archives of other institutions relevant to the subjects covered by the
museum, for example the archive of a local business;
d) collections of material relating to particular subjects assembled by the museum or by a
previous collector, for example theatre bills, film posters, or railway tickets;
e) miscellaneous documents, for example printed ephemera with local associations
f) newspaper cuttings
g) photographs
h) audio-visual material or computer discs
- Collections brought together for a specific purpose (e.g. 'd' above) are 'artificial' rather than
natural archives, as the original provenance (or order in which the archives were created) of
the material has been lost. This factor should be noted in lists or catalogues (see Information Sheet
2) but otherwise the general approach to care and management should be the same as for natural archives.
A Policy On Archives
- Every museum should include a statement of its policy towards archives as part of its general
collections management policy. Such a policy should refer to other institutions collecting in the
area, such as local record offices, and to public access to the collection.
- Museums should recognise that holding archives implies provision for their permanent preservation
and for making them available for consultation and study by members of the public in suitable
conditions2.
- If a museum is unable to provide the conditions necessary for the care and administration of its
archives, then it should consider transferring them to an appropriate record office, and it should
decide against acquiring any further archives. Names and addresses of publicly funded record offices can be found in the online ARCHON Directory, which is maintained by The National Archives.
Legal and Ethical Considerations
- Certain categories of archives are controlled by legislation, in particular by the Public Records
Acts, the Manorial and Tithe Documents Rules and the Parochial Registers and Records Measure. These
archives must not be acquired or held by a museum without first consulting
The National ARchives or, in Scotland, the National Archives
of Scotland. In Northern Ireland the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland is exclusively responsible
for public records and should be consulted on any matter relating to them.
- If the intention is to acquire certain categories of archives, museums should make every effort to
avoid conflict with the collecting policy of other institutions, whether record offices or
museums3.
This can best be avoided by liaison with the appropriate record office at either national or local
level. The local record office may be able to advise on appropriate national repositories to consult.
- An archive should not be broken up, nor should separate items be abstracted from it, because this
would destroy its intellectual and evidential value. When an archive is very large, rather than
selecting certain items, a museum should seek advice from the appropriate record office.
Practical Consideration
- Museums planning to acquire substantial collections of archives will need to employ professional
staff qualified in archive management and in archive conservation.
- Museums must aim to provide archive storage which is secure and environmentally controlled, broadly
in accordance with the conditions set out in the current edition of British Standard 5454,
Recommendations for the storage and exhibition of archival documents. Guidance on storage is also
given in Information Sheet 3 in this series.
- In order to make archives available to the public they must first be sorted and listed. This requires
different procedures from those usually adopted in cataloguing museum objects. Information Sheet 2 in
this series gives some basic guidance. Where museums are planning to arrange and list substantial
archives they are strongly recommended to seek advice from the appropriate Record Office.
- Archive lists should be made available for public consultation and should be disseminated as widely
as possible. A museum can do this by sending copies of all archive lists to The National Archives for inclusion in
the National Register of Archives or, in Scotland, to the National Register of Archives (Scotland) at
the National Archives of Scotland. Copies of lists should also be sent to the appropriate national or
local record office.
- Access to archives by members of the public should be in a designated study area under constant
supervision. Full details of the conditions for public access are listed in the Standard
(see 12 above) and further guidance is also available in Information Sheets 3 and 4 in this series.
- Many archives are fragile or may be easily damaged by handling. Their conservation differs from the
conservation of museum objects both in principle and technique and a museum should consider how it will
meet its needs for archival conservation, probably by using an external provider (but see 11 above)
Sources of Help
This information sheet can give only brief information. More detail can be found in the other
Information Sheets in this series and the publications listed below.
SCAM Information Sheet 2: Archival Listing and Arrangement (1999, minor revisions 2006)
SCAM Information Sheet 3: Archive Preservation and Conservation (1999, minor revisions 2006)
SCAM Information Sheet 4: Access to Archives (1999, minor revisions 2006)
SCAM Information Sheet 5: Managing a Museum's Administrative Records (2002)
The Code of Practice on Archives for Museums and Galleries in the
United Kingdom, which was first published by the Museums and Galleries Commission in 1990, and revised in 1996 and 2002.
Standard for Record Repositories (2004 edition) published by The National Archives.
Advice on archive matters in any part of the UK is available from:
National Advisory Services, The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU. Tel. 020 8876 3444; fax 020 8878 8905;
email: nas@nationalarchives.gov.uk ; website: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
or, in Scotland, from:
The National Archives of Scotland, HM General Register House, Edinburgh EH1 3YY. Tel. 0131 535 1314; fax 0131 535 1360;
email: enquiries@nas.gov.uk ; website: http://www.nas.gov.uk
or, in Wales, from:
The Convenor, Archives and Records Council Wales/Cyngor Archifau a Chofnodion Cymru. Details of the current contact can be obtained from the local record office or from The National Archives
or, in Northern Ireland, from :
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, 66 Balmoral Avenue, Belfast BT9 6NT. Tel. 028 9025 5905; fax 028 9025 5999.
email: proni@dcalni.gov.uk ; website: http://www.proni.gov.uk
Advice is also available locally from the appropriate local authority record office or from the regional agencies of the
Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (listed at: http://www.mla.gov.uk ). They will be able to give guidance on other museums in the region which have developed appropriate archive policies, or tackled particular problems.
1 A Code of Practice on Archives for Museums and Galleries in the UK SCAM. Revised ed. 2002
2 The institution's own archives may be confidential and access to them will be at the discretion of the museum. This would apply whether these archives are held by the museum itself or have been transferred to a record office
3 See Ethical Guidelines: Acquisitions 1996, paragraph 2B and 'Code of Conduct for People who work in Museums' 1997, paragraph A.6.3, both published by the Museums Association
