We want your activities, advice and initiatives to be as wide-ranging, relevant and helpful as possible to those caring for arts archives.
Surveys
We gathered knowledge of arts archives through targeted surveys to archives, arts organisations, artists, funders and strategic bodies. The responses we received enabled us to add descriptions for well over 200 collections to the National Register of Archives, which is now available on the Discovery platform.
Advice and guidance
A large part of our work focused on advising those who look after arts archives on their care and management. This ranged from guidance on the best places to find funding for a particular project, practical advice on storage and access, to help with negotiations around the deposit of a collection in an established archive service.
We have gathered a range of useful resources together to help you look after records and archives of the arts. If you think there is something missing, need further advice or have information on archives of the arts of creative re-use of archives that you would like to share, please email us.
Getting started
A selection of basic guides for looking after arts records and archives:
- Association of Performing Arts Collections (APAC) Starting Out Guide for Theatres and Theatre Companies
- Sustained Theatre Introduction and Archive toolkit
- Joan Mitchell Foundation: Creating a Living Legacy Programme for Visual Artists
- The National Archives –Archive principles and practice: An introduction to archives for non-archivists (PDF, 0.29MB)
Moving archives
Moving your archives from one location can be a complicated task – these resources offer some advice on how to go about this:
British Library Preservation Advisory Centre: Moving Collections
Institute of Conservation (ICON) guidance on the care of various categories of material including, oil paintings, archive documents and digital formats.
Managing your current records
Organisations produce records every day in many different formats – it’s vital to manage the current records you use long before they become your archives:
Information and Records Management Society resources
The National Archives – How to manage your information
The National Archives – What to keep and Why (PDF, 0.11MB)
The National Archives – Managing electronic records (PDF, 0.66MB)
Digitisation
The National Archives – Digitisation at The National Archives
Hampshire County Council – Go Live! Digitising your archives
National Preservation Office: Managing the Digitisation of Library, Archive and Museum collections
Examples of digitised archive collections:
- Battersea Arts Centre Digital Archive
- The Full English Digital Archive
- The Birmingham Rep 100
- Linen Hall Digital Theatre Archive
- R Crompton Rhodes Fashion Plates Collection – Library of Birmingham
- Transforming Tate Britain: Archives & Access
Digital records
Digital records need the same level of care and management as paper, though they offer their own particular challenges. We’ve put together some key resources to give guidance on how to manage your digital records.
The National Archives:
- Basic digital preservation guidance
- Identifying file formats: DROID
- Preserving digital collections
- Parsimonious (cheap) digital preservation
Association of Performing Arts Collections – Preserving born-digital material
OCLC Research: You’ve Got to Walk Before You Can Run: First Steps for Managing Born-Digital Content Received on Physical Media
Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR): Born digital: Guidance for Donors, Dealers and Archival Repositories
University of London Computer Centre (ULCC): Digital Preservation Training Programme (DPTP)
Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC):
- Digital preservation planning case study, Ed May, 2013
- Our digital memory accessible tomorrow
- Digital preservation handbook
- Digital preservation handbook – decision tree
Library of Congress (LOC): Personal Archiving: preserving your digital memories
PrestoSpace: working to improve and standardise practice for audio-visual material, Preservation Guide
Copyright
Copyright user – specifically for the creative community; offers easy-to-understand and practical help
Own-it – Intellectual Property know-how for the creative sector from the University of the Arts London
BBC Filmnet – for filmmakers but also of general use
Intellectual Property Office: copyright notice for photographs, images and the Internet
Design and Artists’ Copyright Society: Licensing artworks
Case studies
Here are links to a number of case studies on our website of examples of innovative work in the archives sector relating to the arts:
- Battersea Arts Centre
- Central Saint Martin’s Archives and the student learning experience
- Chichester Festival Theatre Archive Pass it on project
- Derbyshire Record Office: working with an artist in residence
- Dorset History Centre: developing the collection
- Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies Threads of Time project
- Hudd Music Hall Archive
- Irish Traditional Music Archive– providing online access to onsite collections
- National Fairground Archive – The Sheffield Jungle
- Peterborough Archives Service – ‘Forty Years On’ project
- Rambert Archive
- Sandwell Community History and Archives Service – ‘How d’you know that?’
- Shakespeare Birthplace Trust: Bytesize
- Shakespeare Birthplace Trust: Shakespeare Week
- Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre – Story Box: using archives to inspire the artist
For archivists with arts archives
Detailed resources for preservation, management, review and access to records and archives:
Collections Link (MLA) Benchmarks for Collections Care 2.0
Collections Trust and Renaissance East Midlands Reviewing Significance Framework
Museum of London e-learning tools on collection care
Screen Heritage UK Screen Heritage UK handbook
The National Archives Art and artists research guide
The National Archives Film, television and the performing arts research guide
West Yorkshire Archive Service Community Archive Accreditation Scheme
The National Archives – Collection Development Tools and Guidance (PDF, 0.45MB)
