Wellcome Library FAQ for staff on of dealing with donated digital archival material

Q: Has the Library stopped collecting paper archives?

A: No. Organisations and individuals are increasingly creating their records in digital form. Often this is the same material the Library has always collected, only now the Library will take material in digital form.

Q: Does the Library accept digital transfers?

A: Yes. Although the process is different to that for physical material.

Q: Does the Library accept digital in preference to physical material?

A: No. At the moment we prefer material in both digital and physical formats if possible. If the only format is digital then we'll accept that. If there is no other format than physical then we'll equally accept that.

Q: Does the Library accept digital material by email?

A: No. We prefer to have material on CD-Rom, DVD or on disk.

Q: What should staff do if they are offered digital material?

A: Treat digital material the same as physical and as if it were another accession. Digital material still has to go through the accession process. You should contact the Digital Curator and involve them as soon as digital material is offered.

Q: Does digital material need an accession number?

A: Yes.

Q: So what is different with digital material, why involve the Digital Curator?

A: The Digital Curator needs to be sure that we are able to work with the formats and media on offer, to check the material for virus' as soon as it arrives in the Library, to manage the initial quarantine process, verify and validate the material before archivist begin to work with material.

Q: What is the division of responsibilities between archivists and the Digital Curator?

A: Archival staff remain responsible for selection and appraisal, for managing the process of working with donor/creators, drawing up donor/loan agreements and for arrangement and description. The Digital Curator works in conjunction with the Archivists and provides technical support for the management of digital material.

Q: Do we still use donor/loan agreements for digital material?

A: Yes. Archival staff will be responsible for negotiating and drawing up donor/loan agreements. A new form of the donor/loan agreement has been created specifically for use with digital material.

Q: How do I know if the Library will accept particular digital material?

A: The basic rules of acquisition and collection policy apply. The stated collection policy criteria remain equally applicable to physical as well as digital material.

Q: Is there information about working with digital material that I can give to donor/creators?

A: Yes. We have a series of FAQ about working with digital material on the Wellcome Library website at - http://library.wellcome.ac.uk/node288.html

Q: What should staff do if they receive a CD, DVD or floppy disks etc in the post?

A: Any digital media or material that is received should immediately be passed to the Digital Curator. Staff must not load disks or try to read any material. The Digital Curator will be responsible for virus checking and for making working copies of the material available for archivists.

Q: Is there any digital material that we don't accept?

A: Yes. We can't accept material in copyright, eg journal articles or news stories from newspaper web sites. We also would want to discuss any large databases or datasets with the donor/creator before we accepted them, there may be more appropriate homes for such material.

Q: Do we accept digital material even if it's old?

A: Maybe. But we'd like to discuss what sort of 'old' computer files the donor is talking about. We need to understand the resource implications of any obsolete file formats before we accept them.

Q: Do we acquire websites?

A: Yes. Any offer of web based material should be discussed with the Digital Curator.

Q: Where can I get further information?

A: The Library has produced a series of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about working with digital material. We will be happy to send you copies of these. Alternately you are welcome to contact Library staff.

Q: Is there someone in the Library I can talk to?

A: Yes. There are two contacts at the Wellcome Library who are available to answer your questions:
Natalie Walters, Archivist - n.walters@wellcome.ac.uk
Dave Thompson, Digital Curator - d.thompson@wellcome.ac.uk
Phone +44 (0)20 7611 8888

FAQ 7 June 2009