Assessing potential sites

When assessing how best to meet their storage needs, services should consult:

The risks identified will not apply to each site or service design under consideration. The following sections consider how to assess the options and consider the risks for each option under consideration.

Assessing the options

When assessing the site options for archive services, there are usually several possible approaches and storage sites which could be used to meet the desired objectives. Consider these options thoroughly so that the final decision represents good value for money and the best outcome for the archive collection and the service as a whole. The following options appraisal process is designed particularly for those considering split-site services. It would also be suitable for considering a site for all archive services. The process is based upon an analysis of multiple criteria. A cost-benefit analysis alone is insufficient as the risks to the archive collection need to be considered.

Options appraisal

Options appraisal is a decision-making tool which can aid the process of considering options by:

  • identifying clear objectives
  • identifying a range of options for achieving the objectives
  • gathering information about each option
  • evaluating all the factors before making a decision

Identifying objectives should include an examination of the needs of your community, users and stakeholders. This will help you to consider the shape of the service you want to achieve. It will also ensure that the shape of the service influences the choice of site, rather than the site influencing the design of the service.

The Archive Service Accreditation standard can help you to understand how to define your users and stakeholders, and an effective options appraisal will help to answer three important questions around planning a project to develop a split-site service:

  • Have all the relevant factors been considered in deciding what the project should be?
  • Should the project go ahead?
  • What is the best way to carry out a project?

The scale and nature of a project will influence the level of detail that needs to be built into the appraisal, but there are several steps which are essential:

Identify clear objectives – what are you hoping to achieve?

This enables you to decide on the different options available. Your objectives should be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-dependent. A short, focused list of objectives will become the evaluation criteria for each option, and prioritising your list will help you to decide on weightings if necessary.

Identify a range of options for achieving the objectives

Consider the different ways in which you can achieve the objectives. Start with a wide range of options. These could include a range of potential sites for your own new-build or converted store, commercial providers, and other archive services with spare capacity. You may be able to achieve economies of scale by sharing a site with other services such as museums or records management.

Some of these options can be ruled out early in the process to create a shortlist. You should also include a baseline for comparison – usually an option based on doing nothing. This is useful in providing evidence that the project should run. You could also include a single site option for comparison.

Gather information about each option

Projects of differing sizes and scopes require varying levels of information to enable you to reach a decision. For most split-site archive projects the information for each option will include:

  • how far the option achieves the objectives of your project
  • how closely the option aligns with the standards for storing collections, or how easily these could be achieved – see BS 4971:2017 and BS EN 16893:2018 in particular
  • sufficient space for your projected needs, and potential for future expansion
  • what are the timescales for implementing the various options and how urgent is your need? Using existing commercial storage or another archive could be speedier than building or converting premises of your own
  • capital expenditure to establish the site for archive storage
  • whole-life capital and revenue costs and any projected income such as renting out spare capacity
  • ongoing revenue costs of using commercial storage or space at another archive, including any retrieval and transport costs, and any costs arising from ending the contract
  • risk and associated costs of unexpectedly losing rented space if a commercial provider changes their business model, or if your partner archive service requires the space you use for their own purposes
  • the staffing requirements/staff time requirements and costs. Lone working may not be appropriate
  • availability of space for associated activities such as cataloguing, cleaning and conservation work, and staff welfare facilities
  • how you will manage the facility
  • environmental impacts (positive and negative), including estimated carbon footprint and increased use of transport
  • an assessment of the risks to the archive collection, including flood risk, pollution, site security, and the activities of neighbouring businesses
  • ease of access for staff (public transport, parking), and suitable spaces for loading and unloading vehicles
  • an assessment of the impact on access to the archive collections, considering Data Protection and Freedom of Information legislation where applicable
  • the impact of running the facility on the archive service and its efficiency, for both staff and users. Staff retrieving items off-site will not be available for on-site public services

Be sure to gather enough information on each option to reach a robust decision. To gain a complete view of the costs of a split-site archive service, include the whole-life costing, factoring in costs in both time and money of running a document retrieval service and the ongoing maintenance costs of the site, or revenue costs of commercial storage. For more information about whole-life costing for archives see BS EN 16983 (3.25, 4.1).

Evaluate all the factors before making a decision

The table below can be used to evaluate each of the shortlisted options against the project objectives. To do this, list the options in a matrix and score how far each option meets each objective. Assign each objective a weighting factor, based upon its relative priority to the assessment. This helps to ensure that the most important objectives have the most impact on the result of the appraisal. Multiply the weighting factor against the score for each objective. Your matrix may look something like this:

Option 1 Option 2 Option 3
Weighting factor Score Weighted score Score Weighted score Score Weighted score
Obj. 1: Storage meets
BS EN 16893		 5 8 40 3 15 10 50
Obj. 2: Provide additional storage for 25 years expansion 2 5 10 10 20 7 14
Obj. 3: Reduce rental
costs		 2 5 10 3 6 4 8
Totals 18 60 16 41 21 72

[Adapted from the table in: Finding the Right Solution A guide to option appraisal (Department for Education and Skills, May 2002)]

Combined with the information gathered about the options, the weighted scores will provide the information necessary to compare each option against the project objectives and each other.