The sections below list key advice and guidance to help you preserve your business archives and make them accessible. You can find further advice in our wider Advice and guidance section.
Getting started
The National Archives – Archive principles and practice: An introduction to archives for non-archivists (PDF, 0.29MB)
Managing Business Archives – Key records
Business Archives Surveying Officer for Scotland – Records for permanent preservation (PDF, 527 KB)
Employing an archivist
The National Archives – Writing a job description
Archives and Records Association – Freelance consultant directory
Archives and Records Association – Salary and freelance pay guidelines
Managing your current records
Organisations produce records every day in many different formats – it’s vital to manage the current records you use ahead of time, before they become your archives:
The National Archives – Caring for archives
The National Archives – What to keep and why (PDF, 112 KB)
Managing Business Archives – Records Managment: safeguarding your future archives
Preserving your digital records
Digital records (born-digital and digitised records) need the same level of care and management as paper, though they offer their own particular challenges. The following are some key resources to help you to manage and preserve your digital records.
The National Archives
- Preserving digital collections
- Novice to Know How digital preservation training
- Digital preservation workflow guidance
- Developing a digital preservation strategy and policy
- Identifying file formats: DROID
- Parsimonious (cheap) digital preservation (PDF, 362 KB)
Archives and Records Council Wales – Digital preservation for small businesses
Managing Business Archives – Digital Everyday: looking after digital records
Digital Preservation Coalition – Digital Preservation Handbook
Digital Preservation Coalition – Implement Digital Preservation guide, including resources such as a digital asset register toolkit, business case toolkit, procurement toolkit, and Electronic Document and Records Management Systems (EDRMS) preservation toolkit
National Digital Stewardship Alliance – Levels of Digital Preservation
Digital Preservation Coalition – DPC Rapid Assessment Model
Digitisation
Digitisation is the process of creating a digital copy of a physical item and its associated information. Judicious digitisation can be employed to improve or increase access, and/or to ensure fragile records do not need to be handled as often, safeguarding their preservation.
The National Archives – Digitisation at The National Archives (PDF, 649 KB)
The Peel Archives – ‘Why don’t archivists digitise everything?’
The Baring Archive – Digitisation selection model (PDF, 151 KB)
Cataloguing collections
Cataloguing is an important aspect of documenting collections. It gives you greater intellectual control over collections by creating accurate descriptions. It also allows you to identify preservation/conservation needs, widens access to collections, and enables you to contribute your collections information to online databases such as Discovery, The National Archives’ platform.
Discovery provides a single point of online access to catalogue and organisational data from across the archive sector.
The National Archives
- Cataloguing Archive Collections
- Manage your Collections in Discovery
- Developing a Collections Information Policy (PDF, 449 KB)
The Peel Archives – ‘How do archivists organise collections?’
Archive Service Accreditation
Archive Service Accreditation is the UK standard for archive services. The standard and its accompanying guidance set out best practice for archive services and can be used freely by any organisation with archives as a framework for safeguarding and developing their archives.
Business archives that fulfil the scheme’s eligibility criteria are encouraged to consider a formal application to the scheme and can be supported through the process by The National Archives, please contact us.
Moving archives
Moving your archives from one location to another can be a complicated task – these resources offer some advice on how to go about this.
The National Archives
- Planning a new repository
- Managing split-site archive services
- Capital developments
- Major Archives Project Learning Exchange (MAPLE)
- Environmental sustainability
British Library Preservation Advisory Centre – Moving Collections
Birmingham Museums – Risk Awareness Profiling Tool
The National Archives can also offer advice and guidance on planning a collections move, please contact us.
Partnerships
Business Archives Council – Facilitating Academic-Archivist collaborations in business guidance (PDF, 250 KB). The guidance has an accompanying set of YouTube videos.
University of Essex – ‘How John Lewis helped us prove the business value of archives’
Greater Manchester Archives and Local Studies Partnership: Made in Manchester cataloguing project – an example of local authority archive services working together to make business archives from across their region more accessible.
Further resources and organisations
The following resources and organisations (including networks) may be helpful to businesses, business archivists, and researchers:
- The National Archives Companies and Businesses Research Guide
- The National Archives Company and Business Records Held By Other Archives Research Guide
- The National Archives People in Business and Trade Research Guide
Architecture, Building, and Construction Records Survey 2011-2013 (PDF, 239 KB): conducted in partnership between the Business Archives Council and The National Archives to establish the nature and location of collections of records produced by architectural practices and construction firms in England and Wales which had not been deposited with archive services.
Archives and Records Association Section for Business Records: part of the Archives and Records Association, the professional body for archivists and records managers in the UK and Ireland, this group represents the interests of business records within the ARA for all archivists and records managers working with business archives.
Business Archives Council: a charity founded to promote the preservation of business records of historical importance, supply advice and information on the administration and management of both archives and modern records, and to encourage interest in the history of business in Britain. The BAC functions on a membership model and holds an annual conference for all those interested in business archives. It also offers webinars for members and wider audiences throughout the year, discussing a variety of business archives-related topics.
Crisis Management Team for Business Archives: a cross-sector team that works to safeguard business archives at risk, working with businesses, archive services, and insolvency practitioners. The CMT welcomes businesses and insolvency practitioners getting in touch to discuss any archives at risk.
International Records Management Society: a membership organisation with the aims of championing the status of information and records management through representation, external liaison and promotion, supporting professional development through sharing knowledge and expertise, and promoting all aspects of good information and records management practice.
Managing Business Archives: a standalone website for detailed advice and guidance about business archives, co-created by the Business Archives Council and The National Archives and maintained by the Business Archives Council.
Land Transport Archives Network: a mutual support and information network for custodians and users of archives relating to any aspect of any form of land transport. LTAN has produced guidance and resources for custodians and aims to carry out survey work in the future.
The Aviation and Aerospace Archives Initiative: an initiative formed by archivists and representatives from relevant businesses, museums, heritage groups and individuals interested in the preservation of the records of aviation and aerospace, providing best practice advice, talks, and carrying out survey work, including a guide to the archives of UK aircraft manufacturing.