Vision
The importance of having a vision
A vision statement makes it clear what your organisation’s intentions are for your archive or collections. These intentions can be modest (e.g. make documents with evidential value easily findable) or very ambitious (e.g. organise the archive as a source for research and artistic reuse). Whatever you want to achieve with your archive or collections, it’s important that you take the time to consider your vision and write it down.
Your archive or collection consists of administrative and business documents (contracts, grant applications, invoices...), creative documents and items (sketches, models, photos...) and subcollections (books, magazines, costumes...) that are produced as you carry out your work activities. Good archival management starts with the intention to keep your archives and collections in a good, well-organised and accessible condition. This way, your documents do not lose their reliability and usability.
As a person or organisation under private law, with the exception of a number of legal obligations that need to be taken into account, you can largely determine the composition and value of your archive or collection yourself. Organisations that are structurally funded within the Arts Act must be responsible for their archive. It is of course in everyone’s interest to be as well-informed as possible when managing their own archive or collection. The structure of your organisation becomes more transparent, you can find documents and objects more easily and show external parties what you have.
You can then use your written-down vision as a basis for setting your objectives and determining what you need to do to achieve them. These goals and actions are included in the policy and action plans. You can then work on these actions if you’ve allocated a small amount to archive and collection care in your annual budget.
The most important thing to do is to make concrete agreements with your employees and co-workers. THis way, it becomes clear for everyone what the intentions for the archive and collection are, where people can find the necessary documents and objects, and how they can manage them correctly. Allocating responsibilities also helps with good archive and collection care.
Author:CEMPER
Engaging volunteers in managing your archive
Engaging volunteers, interns or student workers in managing your archive can bring many benefits, but it does require some preparation. In this article, you’ll learn the following: How can you in...
Read moreArchive and collection management objectives
have a specific goal in mind. Determining objectives for your archive and collection management means you can take more targeted actions. In this article, you’ll learn: Why is it important to formul...
Read moreSafeguarding knowledge
It often happens that an employee can leave your organisation. To prevent all the knowledge that this person has built up from being lost, it’s important to ensure good knowledge retention. In this ...
Read moreOvercoming obstacles
There are various stumbling blocks that can prevent your organisation from setting up good archive or collection management. In this article, you’ll learn the following: What obstacles can there be...
Read moreResponsibilities and agreements
Good archive and collection management requires clear agreements and designated managers – while also treating it as a shared responsibility. In this article, you’ll learn: What is the importance o...
Read more
