Receiving Archival Materials

Materials arriving from sources within the public sector should be prepared by the records centre or transferring agency in accordance with current standards.

If materials are coming from the records centre, the following preparatory work should be done on them by Record Centre staff:
-Appraisal and selection for transfer according to the disposal schedule
-Cleaning and tidying
-Removal of ferrous pins, clips, staples, treasury tags, and so on, which might rust and damage the records, and their replacement by plastic or a non-ferrous metal such as brass
-Insertion of dummies to replace materials that have been selected for transfer but are missing or have been lawfully retained by the transferring agency

Dummy: A card, sheet or other indicator placed on or near the place where an item is normally stored to denote its removal.

-Labelling items with necessary identifying information (labelling is discussed in more detail later)
-Boxing
-Listing (at least a summary list, giving the original agency file number and title and the covering dates)
-Completion of the relevant parts of the accessions form.

The records centre supervisor should send the summary list, transfer list and accessions form to the repository ahead of the records and arrange a convenient date for delivery.

-As soon as any archives arrive at the archival institution, repository staff should take the following action:
-Check the archives for signs of insect infestation or mould, and notify preservation department if they need treatment before coming into contact with other, unaffected, accessions
-Check that the archives are properly labelled
-Place the records in a secure temporary storage area set aside for new accessions
-Check the records against the accessions form, transfer list or summary list to make sure that the paperwork does refer to these materials and that all items have been included
-Open an accessions form, if one has not already been opened, and obtain a signature from a representative of the agency sending the archives
-Make an entry in the accessions register identifying the new accession
-Acknowledge receipt of the accession so that the transferring agency has a record of the transfer.