Information for owners and depositors
The records held at the Dorset History Centre have survived because the owners and custodians of those archives have taken care of them. They are available for consultation by the public at the Dorset History Centre because of the generosity of these owners and depositors in passing their archives to us.
Deposit or donation
Owners may pass their archives to us in one of two ways:
They may gift their archives as a donation to the Dorset History Centre, making them accessible to the public for all time
They may deposit their archives, enabling us to make them accessible to the public while retaining legal ownership. For our standard terms of deposit please use the link on the right of this page.
All archives in our care, whether gifted or deposited, are looked after in the same way. All records in the custody of the Dorset History Centre will be:
Stored in temperature and humidity controlled strong rooms
Protected by fire and intruder alarms
Listed as appropriate
Made available to the public as appropriate (normally all records would be made available to the public unless specifically exempted under the terms of the Data Protection Act). Particularly fragile, rare or valuable documents may be made available as a copy, on microfilm or under close supervision
Conserved as appropriate within the overall conservation programme (please use the link on the right of this page to see our preservation policy)
Collection policy
In general it is our policy to collect both published and unpublished material that relates principally to the history of Dorset, is unique and of long term historical value. We shall collect:
Published works in which at least 25 per cent of the content relates directly to the history of Dorset or some aspect of life within Dorset
One copy of a published work and perhaps also a spare copy for very popular works
Unpublished material including such items as letters, photographs, minute books, diaries that is unique, relates to the history of Dorset and is likely to be of long term historical value. As part of this assessment we would ask: will these documents be of use to local, family or house historians in one hundred years time?
If you think that you have, or you know of, any records that would be of interest to us, please contact the Collections Officer.
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Archive Service Officer (Collections)
Name: Mark Forrest
Email: M.P.Forrest@dorsetcc.gov.uk
Tel: 01305 250550
Full details for Mark Forrest
