Suffolk's Libraries and Heritage Department is creating a departmental
disaster plan with the result that the Record Office has to list its 'high
risk assets'. These are defined as 'any special collections, catalogues and
indexes, any unique material and the most valuable stock (if appropriate)'.
Most of our stock is unique, all our collections are special to a greater or
lesser extent and financial value is not a criterion we normally apply in
our collections management policies: we are therefore in something of a
quandary as to how to proceed. Do we consider known usage? Do we attach
greatest significance to the records of our own authority? Are collections
of national significance more worth saving than those that are purely local
in content?
And having sorted the wheat from the chaff, what do we do with the wheat?
Put it all in one part of the strongroom (and hard luck if that's where the
fire breaks out?). Or merely label the boxes prominently so that they can
be removed first and sent quickly for treatment?
If any Record Offices - particularly local authority ones - have had to deal
with this issue we would be interested to know how they approached it.
Gwyn Thomas
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Gwyn Thomas, Senior Archivist
Libraries and Heritage, Suffolk County Council
Suffolk Record Office
77 Raingate St
BURY ST EDMUNDS
IP33 2AR
Tel.: 01284 352352; Fax: 01284 352355; Web site:
http://www.suffolkcc.gov.uk/libraries_and_heritage/
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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