Tameside Local Studies & Archives Centre - Collection Policy

1 Introduction

1. The function of this policy statement is to specify the archives to be collected by Tameside Archive Service, the operational area, and detail the standards under which the policy will be implemented.

2 Context

1. Tameside Archive Service serves the Metropolitan Borough Council of Tameside as defined in 1974 and administered by Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council. 
    
2. The Tameside Archive Service has its office at the Local Studies and Archives Centre, Central Library, Old Street, Ashton under Lyne. 
    
3. This policy seeks to be comprehensive. However action outside the terms of this statement may be necessary in very exceptional circumstances. This would only occur after proper consideration and consultation, with regard where appropriate, to the interests of other archive services.

3 Service Purpose

1. To identify, collect and preserve the documentary heritage of Tameside and to make it freely available for use both now and in the future; to encourage public awareness of the significance of archives.

4 Statutory Obligations

1. Tameside Archive Service will follow all current relevant legislation, including:
    
   1. Local Government Act 1972, which obliges Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council ‘to make proper arrangements with respect to any documents which belong to or are in the custody of the Council or any of its officers’. This applies both to records which are still in active use, and to those which are now inactive. Tameside fulfils this obligation through its public service point, its record management and council archive service. 
       
   2. Local Government (Records) Act 1962, as amended by the Local Government 1985, which empowers authorities to incur expenditure on facilities for the preservation, promotion of use, and public access to records of general or local interest, acquired by purchase, gift or deposit.
       
   3. Local Governments (Records) Act 1962 and the Local Government Act 1972 which appoints Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council through its archive service as the archive authority for all local government districts within the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside and is responsible for ensuring the proper care of their records.

5 Standards and Guidance

1. The archive service will seek to conform to the best standards in the provision of an archive service and to this end has adopted, or is aiming to adopt where possible, the following non-statutory standards: 
    
   1. British Standards Institute: BS 5454: Recommendations for the storage and exhibition of archival documents, (revised 1989)
       
   2. A Standard for Record Repositories issued by the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, 1990 
       
   3. Beyond the PRO: Public Records in Places of Deposit. 1994 
       
   4. Guidance on the Care, Preservation and Management of Records – Department of National Heritage, 1995.

6 Collection Policy

1. This policy will cover the area administered by Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council.
    
2. Tameside Archive Service will acquire material worthy of permanent preservation in the following categories subject to the exclusions noted in Section 7: 
    
   1. Records of Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council and those of its predecessors.
       
   2. Records of other local authorities and statutory bodies operating within Tameside. 
       
   3. Public records offered to the archive service under the terms of the Public Records Acts. 
       
   4. Records of the Manchester Regiment.
   5. Records of organisations, businesses, churches and chapels, individuals and families, societies, public and private institutions, and other activities germane to the history and life of the area administered by Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council. 
       
3. The Tameside Archive Service will acquire records, and published and printed material, by gift (including bequest); purchase; deposit on indefinite loan; statutory deposit; official transfer. All acquisitions will be acknowledged on receipt. Deposited material will be subject to the terms laid out in Tameside Archive Service Archive Deposit Agreement Form. 
    
4. Material will only be accepted by the Tameside Archive Service provided it will be open for public access either after processing by the Archive Service (including listing and any essential conservation work) or after a fixed period of time, agreed in consultation with the depositor.

7 Exclusions

1. The Archive Service will not collect material which is not archival in nature. Artefacts will be directed to the appropriate museum on the advice of the Tameside Museums Officer. Collections of relevant printed non-archive material will be directed to the Local Studies Library. Similarly the Museums Officer and Local Studies Librarian will transfer archive material to the Archive Service. 
    
2. The Archive Service will not hold archives in formats for which it does not provide appropriate specialist storage and consultation facilities. Film archives will normally be directed to the North West Film Archive. 
    
3. The Archive Service will not collect archive material with no connection with the present Metropolitan Borough of Tameside or the area covered by it historically. Should such material be offered to Tameside Archive Service it will be directed to the appropriate repository. 
    
4. The Archive Service is not a diocesan record office and therefore cannot hold original Church registers.

8 Disposal

1. The Tameside Archive Service will abide by the usual principles of archive administration, including that of archival integrity, but may, if it is considered appropriate, split collections of archives (with the owners permission) and transfer material to other repositories. 
    
2. Material not considered worthy of permanent preservation at any stage of processing by Tameside Archive Service will either be returned to the owner or will be disposed of with the owner’s consent. 
   
   March 2006 - to be reviewed 2008.