Benefits and risks

Deposited collections provide several benefits, including: 

Archive services 

• Collections development: Acquiring significant collections that owners are unwilling to donate, including those that are under-represented in current collections. For example, some types of organisations, such as active businesses and charities, are often reluctant to transfer ownership. 

• Access: Providing access to collections for research and engagement, helping to increase use. 

• Reputation: Holding significant collections can help strengthen the archive service’s reputation locally and nationally or establish it as a centre of expertise for a particular theme or type of collection, which in turn can help with advocacy and fundraising. 

• Trust: Building trust and relationships with depositors can lead to future deposits, donations, shared expertise, and ethical and equitable partnerships. This is especially important for communities that are under-represented in current collections, including minoritised groups. 

• Donations: Developing good relationships means that deposits can sometimes be turned into donations or bequests, ensuring significant collections are acquired permanently. 

• Multiple owners: Some collections may have multiple owners and/or rightsholders, which may make donation difficult. 

• Funding: Potential fundraising collaborations between archive services and depositors. 

Depositors 

• Preservation: Placing collections with an archive service for safekeeping reduces the risk of loss or damage, while retaining ownership and some control. 

• Connection: Enables those who have an emotional and/or cultural connection to a collection to retain ownership and control. This can be particularly important for individuals, families and communities. 

• Support: Archive services offer facilities and expertise that depositors are usually unable to provide, including storage, access, conservation and cataloguing. 

• Access: Enables their collections to be accessible, but ensures fragile or sensitive items are only accessible under agreed terms.  

• Costs: Placing collections in an archive service reduces storage and management costs for the depositor. It can also provide new opportunities for fundraising. 

• Flexibility: Keeps future options open, including renewing the agreement, transferring ownership or (where allowed) withdrawing the collection. 

However, deposited collections do carry risks, including: 

Archive services 

• Ownership: When deposits are poorly documented, issues or disputes can arise over ownership. If the depositor passes away or an organisation ceases to exist, ownership can be difficult to trace. Unclear ownership creates challenges for collections management and providing access. 

• Liability: Damage, corruption, loss or theft of deposited collections could lead to reputational damage and legal challenge. See section 5.5 of Professor Janet Ulph’ s The Legal and Ethical Status of Museum Collections (covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland) for more information. 

• Access: Restrictions set by depositors may limit access, reducing the benefits of holding the collection in the first place. 

• Resources: Deposited collections require storage space and staff time to manage. They may also require cataloguing, conservation or digital preservation activity. Keeping in contact with depositors can also take up staff time. Unless an agreement over funding can be reached with the depositor, this can put pressure on limited resources. 

• Reputation: The archive service does not meet the depositor’s expectations about the visibility of the collection and the level of investment and use it attracts. 

• Withdrawal: There is a risk that the deposited collection will be withdrawn by the depositor, including in order to sell. 

Depositors 

• Stability: Changes at the archive service, such as budget, staffing, management or its buildings, can impact the preservation and access to the collection. 

• Cultural awareness: The archive service may not fully understand the cultural background and values of the depositor, and as a result, undertake actions that are inappropriate or harmful. 

• Access: Collections could be used in ways the depositor did not anticipate or intend, particularly if access conditions are not clearly agreed. 

• Temporary return: Retrieving or accessing items may be complicated if agreements are unclear or if the archive service faces resource constraints. 

• Permanent withdrawal: There may be a cost associated with permanently withdrawing the collection. 

However, these risks can be mitigated by following the good practice outlined in this toolkit including deposit agreements, documentation and relationship management. 

An archive service should consider these benefits and risks when deciding whether to accept deposited collections. There is no one-size-fits-all approach – every archive service is different. Examples of approaches archive services might adopt include: 

• Donations only: Accepting donations only. 

• Donations with copyright flexibility: Accepting donations only, but allowing owners, where applicable, to retain copyright and other Intellectual Property Rights.  

• Donations preferred: Encouraging donations but accepting deposits in certain circumstances. For example, when it is: 

          ◦ A collecting priority 

          ◦ A highly significant collection  

          ◦ An addition to an existing collection 

          ◦ A certain category of collection, e.g. business or community group 

          ◦ Not high-risk of withdrawal in the future, e.g. family and estate papers 

          ◦ Not from individuals, based on the assumption that heirs/owners will be harder to trace in the future than an organisation 

• Deposits with costs: Accepting deposits, but on the condition that the depositor contributes funding or assists with fundraising. For example, to cover cataloguing, digitisation and conservation costs or ongoing storage and management costs. 

• Deposits with partnership: Taking a more collaborative approach, especially for deposits from community groups, where an ethical and equitable partnership is developed and shared decision-making is encouraged. 

Whichever approach you take, you should clearly outline on what terms your archive service accepts (or does not accept) deposited collections in your Collections Development Policy. This is particularly important if you intend to charge depositors and/or issue a charge if a collection is withdrawn. The policy should also explain your approach to maintaining contact with depositors, which we explore in the Relationships management section. 

It is also important to clearly communicate your approach to potential depositors. Consider featuring a section on your website written in plain language that explains what you collect and how. Where applicable, this should clearly explain the difference between donation and deposit and include policies and agreements. See our Dundee City Archives case study for more information about this. 

The National Archives (2018). Writing a Collections Development Policy and Plan 

Derbyshire Record Office. Depositing your records with us 

University of Dundee (2021). Archive services collecting policy 

Edinburgh City Archives. Depositing records 

University of Glasgow Archives & Special Collections. Collection Development 

Professor Janet Ulph (2016).  The Legal and Ethical Status of Museum Collections (covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland) 

Richard Wiltshire, ‘Acquisition, appraisal, arrangement and description” in Alison Turton (editor) (2017), The International Business Archives Handbook. Table 7.1 outlines the benefits and limitations of different transfer terms. 

Dundee City Archives: communicating clearly with potential depositors 

Dundee City Archives preserves the documentary heritage of Dundee, holding records for the City Council, its predecessors and local businesses, societies and families. A council-wide project to refresh the corporate website provided an opportunity for the service to review their content, which amounted to a single page about the archive service. As part of this, they were keen to introduce clearer guidance for potential archive depositors. 

Why: 

• The existing single webpage did not provide enough space for full information about the archive service. 

• Deposited collections make up around 30-40% of the service’s holdings and they add value to the local authority collections through their varied range of subjects and perspectives. 

• Depositors can sometimes be reticent about coming forward with collections, often because they are not sure if they are ‘archive worthy’. 

What they did: 

• Looked at all the elements of the archive service and considered how customers interact with them, ask questions and how the service responds before designing specific web pages based on these areas. 

• Used a colleague’s experience of writing for websites in an accessible way with a previous archive service to create the content. In terms of deposits, special consideration was given to using clear, plain language about the kinds of collections taken, how the deposit process works, and clear, simplified definitions of the terminology used in the Terms of Deposit, such as ‘deposit’, ‘copyright’, ‘personal data’ and ‘transfer’. 

• Worked with the Council’s web team to make sure the content met web accessibility standards and would work with the new site’s accessibility functions. 

Outcomes: 

• A more accessible website which better reflects what the service does, including how it acquires collections by deposit. 

• A more useful way to encourage remote depositors to get in touch about collections they may have. This was especially noticeable during the Covid 19 lockdown periods. 

• A useful resource for all members of staff to use or point to, for example, for archive assistants if approached with an enquiry about depositing collections.