Services for owners of archives
What are archives?
Archives are the building blocks of history from which historians can interpret the past. As such they are an important and often neglected aspect of our local and national heritage. Archives can also be used for legal and administrative reasons. They are created by individuals and organisations in the course of their life and work and might record an event or transaction. Archives can take many different forms: minute books, accounts, title deeds, letters, diaries, maps and much more. As they are unique they can be vulnerable to loss or damage particularly from poor storage conditions.
Services to owners of archives
Nottinghamshire Archives can provide services to any owners of archives whether a private individual with a collection of family papers or the representative of a large organisation or business with an extensive accumulation of records.
It is our role to locate, collect and preserve the archives of the county of Nottinghamshire and the city of Nottingham and to make them available for public access where appropriate. Archives are collected within the terms of our Acquisitions Policy [PDF 70KB] 
and we have also developed an Acquisitions Strategy [PDF 49KB] to prioritise our collecting in areas where archives are felt to be at risk or under represented in our holdings. Archives may be donated to Nottinghamshire Archives or deposited on long term loan under our Terms of Agreement for the Deposit or Donation of Records [PDF 50KB] .
We collect archives from public bodies, schools, churches, businesses, community organisations, clubs, societies and private individuals.
Nottinghamshire Archives provides the following services:
- On site surveys of collections
- Advice on preservation and storage
and if deposited or donated to Nottinghamshire Archives:
- Storage in secure and environmentally controlled strongrooms, built to British Standards (BS5454) and approved by The National Archives
- Conservation of fragile and damaged documents
- A catalogue of the collection which will be made available to the public on the internet
- Facilities for supervised public access, although some archives can be closed for reasons of confidentiality
- Special events for owners of archives
- Assistance with exhibitions and displays.
If you would like to help us in preserving the county’s and city’s archival heritage and would like to discuss depositing or donating records to Nottinghamshire Archives please contact us.
