Developing collections

We provide strategic advice on collections planning, widening the access of new and diverse communities to collections, and guidance for collection development to actively document, reflect and support these communities.

Archive Service Accreditation defines good practice and agreed standards for collections management and provides guidance on meeting the standard.

Collections development

Collections development policies describe what an archive service collects and why, when and how archives are transferred, and where there are gaps in collections. There are different approaches to collections development but all are designed to ensure that it is an active, open and ongoing process.

Deposit agreements and accessions registers

Find guidance on drawing up loan agreements between repositories and private owners, for use by archivists.

Retention and transfer

The records management process helps to ensure that historically significant records, including electronic records, are smoothly transferred to archives for permanent preservation.

Providing access to your collections

Discovery is a portal to archival collections held within the UK and to many collections held internationally relating to the UK.