What Are Archives?

Archives are collections (of anything) that have permanent or enduring importance because of their value as evidence or as a source for historical or other research. They provide evidence of activities and they tell stories. They are created by the activities of people and organisations.

Archive collections are unique and therefore need to be protected and preserved for future use.

Archives are important because they have value to nations, organisations, communities and individual people. Evidence of current changes in society must be preserved for future generations for use in research, exhibitions and learning.

Archival collections are made up of material of different formats:

Physical:

Leaflets

Event materials (posters, flyers, etc)

Polling cards

Merchandise (stickers, clothing, badges, etc)

Newspaper articles and advertisements (especially local papers)

Photographs

Digital:

Internal organising documents*

Emails*

Online articles (news sources, websites, blog posts)

Social media (difficult to archive though screenshots can be taken and personal/identifying information removed)

Photographs

Oral histories/sound files

*If these documents contain personal information they are subject to GDPR
Note: these lists are not exhaustive but give an idea of items commonly found in records.

What should I know about GDPR?

Everything containing personal information is subject to GDPR. This doesn’t mean you can’t collect and keep it, but it limits how long you can keep different types of personal information for.

Personal information can be redacted from materials where the rest of the content is in the public interest to exhibit.

In theory there is archival exemption to GDPR, but it is as yet untested, so to be safe due diligence should be applied.