There are two options available to companies and organisations who have identified records that are historically significant and wish to transfer them to the archive for the benefit of research. Details of these, including financial and time requirements, are given below.
Option A: Fund a Documentation Project
- Capturing the Energy will give the company or organisation a costed proposal for the project. For larger sets of records, this will typically involve hiring a project archivist
- once the company or organisation has given the project the go-ahead and the project archivist has been appointed, the archivist will carry out additional surveying work and talk to staff to ensure all historcially significant records are selected
- the selected records will be transferred the archive, rehoused in archival packaging by the archivist and securely stored in the University's climate controlled storage facilities
- the project archivist will catalogue the records in line with international archival cataloguing standards and add the descriptions to the University's archive catalogue to ensure that the records is accessible to researchers
- the University will provide for the records' ongoing storage and provide an access service to allow researchers to use the material.
Option B: Self Service Submission
- the company or organisation will compile an Archive Handover Pack containing a cover paper on the history of the field, a list of record series being submitted to Capturing the Energy, a register of metadata about records being submitted and a deposit agreement. This must meet Capturing the Energy's specifications
- the company or organisation then submits the handover pack and associated records to Capturing the Energy
- Capturing the Energy will complete quality control checks on the pack to ensure it meets with our cataloguing standards, and upload the descriptions to the University's archive catalogue, returning to the company or organisation with any questions that arise
- Capturing the Energy will also repackage and label the material
- the University will provide for the records' ongoing storage and provide an access service to allow researchers to use the material.
Please note that in both cases an agreement, transferring ownership of the records to the University, must be completed.
Costs
The cost of supporting a documentation project, Option A, varies according to the volume of records and the quality of data available in the company or organisation's document management systems. In most cases it will include the costs of hiring a qualified archivist to work on the project. Please get in touch to discuss the costs for your asset, company or organisation.
Option B will be charged on a per record basis, which covers the time spent carrying out quality checks, uploading the descriptions, repackaging material and a contribution towards the ongoing storage costs associated with the records. This option requires more involvement from staff within the company, which is an important factor to consider when choosing which option to pursue.
