Collecting policies are an integral part of good practice in managing and caring for archive collections.  They address important strategic and practical issues, including the aims and objectives of the institution, availability of staff and storage resources. 

Collecting policies also form part of the overall policy framework of an archive service, which can encompass all aspects of preservation, access, customer care and quality management.

Drawing up or revising a collecting policy is also an opportunity to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a repository. It can enable future collecting activities to be more representative of culturally diverse communities and particular local or regional strengths.  Consideration of collecting policies can encourage engagement with records from new or non-traditional sources and re-direct use and interpretation of existing collections.

Our use of collecting policies

Collecting policies play a major part in the work of Archives Sector Development:

• Submission of a collecting policy statement forms part of the process of subscription to The National Archives' Standard for Record Repositories 
• Collecting policies inform our advice on appropriate repositories to private owners who wish to deposit records 
• They support our decision-making in fulfilling The National Archives' statutory and other functions, including transfer and preservation of public records and the allocation of manuscripts accepted in lieu of tax 
• Collecting policies also guide the archive sales catalogue monitoring service in notifying relevant repositories of manuscripts passing through auction sales rooms

Checklist

We have produced a checklist for creating or revising collecting policies statements:

Archive collection policy statements: checklist of suggested contents  (PDF, 0.04Mb)

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The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 4DU. Tel: +44 (0) 20 8876 3444. Contact us