Acquisition and retransmission of private records policy

1. Introduction

2. Background

Over the last century or so the National Archives of Scotland has acquired a very large quantity of private records, at first those of major and minor landed families, more recently those of industrial undertakings of greater or lesser size. This accumulation of private records was a conscious policy.

The enormous power of the principal Scottish landowners before 1914, and their influence on politics and on the social and economic condition of large parts of the Scottish people had long been obvious to Scottish historians. Consequently their papers were regarded as of national importance (footnote 3) and it was thought fitting that they should rest in the national archive repository alongside the public records. Indeed, with their control of Scottish central and local government, many of these family archives supplement the sometimes sparse public records, revealing the ‘wheels within wheels’, the mindset and private thoughts absent from the official record. The Breadalbane papers, acquired as early as the 1920s, are a case in point.

On the World stage, it is from the private collections that we can best see the nation’s participation in what historians now call ‘The Scottish Empire’. The wholehearted participation of Scottish soldiers, administrators, travellers and settlers in the history and development of Africa, India, Australia and the Americas is fully illustrated in the private archives held in NAS. The Dalhousie, Dundonald, Seaforth, Loch and Melville Castle papers all provide examples of this.

The records of major industrial concerns with significant regional economic power are also seen as of national importance. An obvious example is the records of Upper Clyde Shipbuilders, purchased (with Glasgow Corporation and Clydebank Burgh Council) in the 1970s.

In some cases, however, the accretion of this private material, particularly family and other material of very local interest, simply reflected the lack of any other appropriate home in Scotland.

3. Criteria for the acquisition of private records by NAS.

3.1. General Principles

3.1.1 The difference between NAS policy and that of local archives is one of scope, national as opposed to local. Other archives may have specialised interests which do not impinge on those of the NAS. There is the danger of overlap but also the possibility of co-operation.

3.1.2 As part of our general collecting policy, the NAS will liaise with other repositories, whether national, university, local or other. We shall take into account, where appropriate, their known collecting policies in all cases where interests appear to overlap. We shall try to avoid competing claims and to achieve if possible a united voice on any recommendations to owners about places of deposit.

3.1.3 It is worth noting some differences between the collecting policies of NAS and the NLS. In general the NLS has a focus on the papers of individuals (e.g. writers, politicians, historians, musicians, artists) and on the records of associations, groups of individuals and corporate bodies (e.g. businesses, estates, political and trade union organisations, cultural associations, learned societies), while the NAS tends to be more focused on institutions, broadly interpreted. The latest NLS collecting policy identifies fifteen subject areas of records that they currently collect in (footnote 4). While there are some topics that have little overlap with NAS (e.g. music, foreign missions, sport), the two organisations had acted independently for many years and there had inevitably developed areas where they had crossed over each other’s paths. This is now most obvious in the acquisition of family and estate archives, some of which contain bodies of papers on subjects that would not necessarily have fallen within the NAS remit had they stood on their own (footnote 5). For this reason the two organisations have established the National Archives of Scotland/National Library of Scotland Private Records Group. This meets quarterly to ensure good communications, together with co-operation in the operation of their respective acquisition policies.

3.2 Criteria for Future Acquisition of Private Records

Records and manuscripts originating with or held by private individuals or bodies may be acquired by NAS by legal right, gift, bequest, purchase, donation in lieu of tax, or deposit on indefinite loan, in the following categories:

1. Public records in private hands and as such identified as extra commercium.
   
   
2. Papers of national (Scottish or UK) or international importance, especially those which supplement the public records. These would include papers of families whose members have held significant political, administrative or judicial offices and in consequence can be seen as surrogate public records. Acquisition of these is particularly important to NAS where the existing public records are known to be deficient.
   
   
3. Records of landowners (especially pre-1914), and of commercial, technical, or industrial enterprises of national or regional historical significance.
   
   
4. Records of private bodies of national standing whose activities are aimed at improving the social or economic wellbeing of one or all of the communities that make up the people of Scotland. (e.g. SSPCK; Children 1st; Outright Scotland; Carnegie Trust)
   
   
5. Papers which it is judged would significantly contribute to the family history services offered by the NAS, (e.g. individual estate rentals; artificial compilations of names of public officials or employees of particular bodies; privately created indexes to record series).
   
   
6. Papers which would constitute appropriate additions to collections already in the NAS.
   
   
7. Collections of mainly local or regional interest only where the records are judged of significant historical interest, and where there is no suitable local repository. There would be a reserved right to transfer to a local repository when one is established.
   
   
8. Any other series of records not falling into the above broad categories, but which it is felt to be in the national interest to add to the holdings of the NAS and which could not be more appropriately taken by another institution. This would be gauged by the importance of the personalities or organisations involved, or the events or activities that they cover.

3.3 Conditions for accepting Private Records

3.3.1. Where it is appropriate, and where the funding is available, we shall purchase private records. We welcome gifts of records that fall within the above criteria. Any gift should, where possible, assign the donor’s copyright as well as ownership and, where known, indicate any other copyright holders for material in the collections.

3.3.2 We now accept deposited (loaned) collections only with reluctance. In such cases, the material would have to conform to the acquisitions criteria, and there will be strong contractual obligations agreed before deposit. These will particularly cover notice periods for withdrawal of the collection and compensation for any significant preservation work carried out. We shall expect a general permission to make images of deposited documents for access, security and preservation purposes and we would retain copyright over these images. In the event of an owner subsequently deciding to sell their papers, we would expect to be offered first refusal and we would also expect some reduction in the price as a consideration for the costs of storage, cataloguing and conservation.

3.3.3 In certain cases we shall require owners to give additional undertakings before accepting a deposit. In particular we may reserve the right to expect payment for any cataloguing work should the papers be withdrawn before a certain agreed time has elapsed. This will most likely be arranged on a sliding scale. Again, in some cases we will expect payment of an agreed percentage of the price of any records deposited in, listed and arranged by, NAS and subsequently sold to a third party. This will be reckoned to cover part at least of the public money expended on cataloguing, storage and conservation work.

3.3.4 Some or all of these points, as appropriate, will be set out in separate, bespoke contracts agreed with each depositor.

3.4 Criteria for re-transmission of private records of local interest to local custody.

Because the NAS will now only accept local material in very restricted circumstances, it is clear that a case may be made for retransmitting to local archives some material that it already holds. Although any final decision will rest entirely with the Keeper, formal applications for such transmissions will be considered on the following principles:

1. Any transfer of records belonging to NAS will be made only to archives that meet access and storage standards to be prescribed from time to time by the Keeper. The Keeper will retain rights in, and obligations to, the collection in accordance with the agreement made with the receiving archive.
   
   
2. The collection must be local, that is it will relate to one geographical area. Many of the private collections in NAS, certainly the major ones, relate to several counties, and good archival practice demands that they be kept whole and entire. NAS will not consider any part-transmission or other division of a collection.
   
   
3. The collection must be one which, if offered to NAS today, would not be accepted under our acquisitions criteria (3.2 above), or would be accepted only in accordance with point 6 of those criteria.
   
   
4. The organisation of a retransmission, including the checking, conservation and any necessary copying, is time-consuming. Any transfers will be carried out on a time-scale which will not disrupt the normal operations of the NAS, and will take into account similar requests from other repositories. Where records requiring conservation treatment are transferred, it will be on condition that they will not be available for public or other consultation until such treatment is completed.
   
5. NAS must be satisfied that it is likely that a collection will be consulted more frequently or by more people, or both, in its new home than it was when held in NAS. It is also the case that NAS will reserve its right to retain local collections that have been in regular use and which the research community and reading public consequently know and expect to be here.
   
   
6. In the case of gifted collections, any transfer should take account of the stated wishes of the donors or any undertakings NAS may have given to them.
   
   
7. If the collection has hitherto been on loan to NAS, then the owner must be fully in agreement with the proposed transfer. Once such a transfer is agreed, loaned collections will not be transmitted on charge and superintendence terms but will instead be held on the terms agreed between the owner and the receiving archive.
   
   
8. Where the Keeper agrees to transmit a partially or wholly uncatalogued collection to another archive, this will be done on the basis that the receiving archive undertakes to produce a catalogue of these records to agreed standards within an agreed time period.

References

(2) The papers of the Viscounts Melville were partly sold in the 1920s. Some were bought by the National Library of Scotland and the Society of Writers to the Signet, but much interesting Scottish material went abroad, some to institutions, others to private hands. Parts of the papers of John, 4th Earl of Loudoun were sold to the Huntington Library, San Marino, California in 1923-26. The American papers of Alexander Wedderburn, Lord Loughborough were sold to the William L Clements Library, Michigan in 1930.

(3) The subjective expression ‘National importance’ is easily understood but difficult to define. The DCMS notice UK Export Licensing for Cultural Goods Issue 5 (revised), 28 Feb. 2003, p. 5 recites the relevant ‘Waverley’ criterion of 1950 for opposing the export abroad of such items as are ‘so closely connected with our history or national life that [their] departure would be a misfortune.’ This was originally intended to catch objects such as the Alfred Jewel or the manuscript of Gray’s Elegy but it is now interpreted in a somewhat wider context to include items which are of major importance for local history, or which are part of collections which are of the greatest historical significance, or which are associated with significant historical events. In accepting manuscripts in lieu of tax, MLA as successor to DCMS uses a concept of ‘pre-eminence’ which is based on the Waverley criteria and similarly recognises that this can include material of a local or regional character (MLA, ‘Acceptance in Lieu Report 2005/06’, pp. 8-9). The Scottish Museums Council report, ‘A Collective Insight: Scotland’s National Audit: Full Findings Report’ (July 2002) did include several archives in its coverage and defined (appendix 2) five levels of significance - International, UK-wide, National (i.e. Scottish), Regional and Local. The ‘National’ significance of a collection can arise from one or more of five attributes: 1) quality, rarity or uniqueness; 2) outstanding cultural, spiritual or social value to Scotland; 3) they have a significant quality which relates to national developments in science, technology, agriculture or industry; 4) they are an outstanding example, or examples, of a form or style of a national artistic/aesthetic period; 5) they have special associations with the life and works of a Scottish citizen or group, or with an event of national importance.

(4) 1. Medieval manuscripts; 2. Scottish literary, cultural, religious and artistic material, 1500-1900; 3. Exploration, emigration and travel abroad; 4. Foreign missions; 5. Military and war studies; 6. Political and diplomatic papers; 7. Medicine, science and engineering; 8. Estate papers; 9. Maps and related material; 10. Music; 11. Business, labour and trade union history; 12. Sport; 13. 20th century Scottish culture; 14. 20th century and contemporary Scottish authors; 15. Modern political party papers.

(5) This recognises the general archival principle of respect des fonds, the professional ethic that requires archivists to maintain the integrity of a collection of records, even if its various sections relate to different geographical or subject areas.