Collection Policy
The Archives Hub is a Jisc service, based in Manchester, providing online access to descriptions of archive collections held across the UK. The service aims to build and enhance content in order to represent archives of value to UK researchers and seeks to align content development to identifiable user demand.
Please see our Data Policy for more information on the Archives Hub's responsibilities for data processing.
Scope
- In order to be included on the Archives Hub the collection should be deemed to be of value to the UK education and research communities.
- Collections may range from individual items, such as diaries and account books, to large company archives and extensive research collections. They may include descriptions of audio and visual materials and digital collections as well as more traditional paper-based archives.
- The Archives Hub welcomes the submission of collection-level descriptions or multi-level descriptions.
- Descriptions can include an embedded thumbnail image and links to further digital surrogates, either images or other digital objects.
Format of Descriptions
- Records must be in EAD, an XML markup language for archive descriptions. They may be converted to this from other formats (e.g. from collections management systems).
- Records should meet the ISAD(G) standard and the Archives Hub guidelines, including the mandatory fields specified by the Archives Hub.
- We have validation processes and we are introducing an administration interface for contributors to be able to upload, validate and submit descriptions.
- An EAD Editor is available on the Archives Hub website for the creation of EAD records (use of this is optional).
- Training in the creation of descriptions can be provided by the Archives Hub service team.
Ownership and Control
- By submitting descriptions to the Hub, institutions agree to make them openly available using an open licence. We do not put any restrictions on use of the metadata.
- Institutions should be aware that the Archives Hub has APIs to enable the data to be provided in a machine-to-machine way.
- Institutions are responsible for ensuring that their descriptions are accurate and are kept up-to-date.
Contact
If you would like to contribute or would like more information, please contact the Archives Hub: archiveshub@jisc.ac.uk
.