Guidelines on Making an Archival or Library Deposit

The Alfred Gillett Trust is responsible for the care of its library, archive, shoe and other heritage collections, administered by professional specialist staff under the supervision of the Board of Trustees.

General

When item(s) are left in the Trust’s heritage collection for whatever reason, a copy of the Archive and Library Deposit Agreement Form will be given to the depositor as a receipt. This must be presented when the item(s) are returned to the owner or their representative. Both it and the Trust’s part of the form will be signed by the person receiving the items to acknowledge their receipt in a satisfactory condition. The owner (or the owner’s representative) and the Trust will retain their respective parts of the form.

Types of Archival Deposit

The Trust collects manuscripts and other materials in conjunction with the Trust’s mission statement and the Trust’s Collecting Policy. Where falling within the areas of collecting specialisation of the Trust, the Trust welcomes all enquiries from potential depositors of archive collections who are interested in depositing archival materials. The following types of deposit are used:

  1. Outright gift: where ownership passes to the Trust
  2. Purchase: where ownership passes to the Trust
  3. Deposit/Loan: where ownership remains with the depositor, but where the archive collection can typically be accessed via the Trust

The Trust’s preference is for Option 1. Options 2 and 3 are pursued only as a last resort in order to safeguard the preservation of a collection.

Main Terms of Deposit

No deposits are accepted on ‘permanent loan’. Deposits (as in 3. above) are accepted in accordance with our Collections Policy. It is understood that the completion and signature of the Deposit Agreement Form constitutes an official agreement to the Main Terms of Deposit: these terms are as follows:

  1. All deposits will be for a minimum length of 15 years, at which point the loan will be either renewed or will come to an end.
  2. Subject to Trust regulations, the deposited materials will be made available for use by the staff of C & J Clark Ltd and other bona fide researchers (i.e. within the normal opening hours and in accordance with the Reading Room regulations).
  3. In the event that the deposit (or parts of it) needs conservation work before it can be made available to researchers, it is understood that the depositor will reimburse the Trust with any such costs if/when the deposit is withdrawn from the custody of Trust.
  4. The Trust will appraise all materials at the time of deposit by examining the collection for evidence of duplicate items or for items felt to be unsuitable for permanent deposit. The Trust will then dispose of the material or return it to the depositor, as indicated in the Deposit Agreement Form.
  5. It is the depositor’s responsibility to collect item(s) described overleaf and left for identification within 4 weeks of the date of the form. In the event of the item(s) not being collected within that period, the Trust reserves the right to dispose of the item(s) as it thinks fit after a period of 4 months from the date of the form.

Special Terms of Deposit

In some individual cases, the Main Terms of Deposit may not be suitable or acceptable to either the Trust or to the depositor. Here, the Trust will endeavour to agree on suitable terms of deposit with the depositor, and will draw up an individual Agreement to reflect this. Otherwise, it is understood that completion and signing of the Deposit Agreement Form constitutes agreement to the main terms of deposit.

Copyright

Any copies or reproductions taken from the deposit will be undertaken in strict compliance with current UK copyright legislation. It is recognised that custody of the deposit does not constitute ownership of copyright, and that, when necessary, permission for will be negotiated according to usual Trust custom. There is a preference for copyright to be assigned where possible as part of the deposit.

Storage

The deposit will be stored in secure accommodation within the Trust’s premises, where all reasonable steps are taken to preserve the deposit by protecting it from fire, flood and theft.

Cataloguing and promotion

Cataloguing of the deposit at collection-level will take place as soon as practically possible. More detailed catalogues and indexes will be compiled subsequently under the supervision of an Archivist, and weeding of the collection may occur at this point. Copies of finding aids will be made available to the depositor on request. The content of the collection will be publicised and promoted as deemed appropriate by the Trust, including online.

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