Resources

Here you can find the best available online advice and guidance for community archives. 

In response to a survey of our members, we collated all the community archive related training materials from many sources around the country into one easily accessible central online resource. You can browse these below.

All the resources are grouped by topic and there is also a list of featured resources.

Resources grouped by topic

  • Your organisation: objectives, people and buildings

    Topics in this section will help you start up a community archive and decide what it is you wish to do. You'll also find guidance on managing volunteers, premises and finance.

  • Help with finding funding

    Guidance on organisations that provide funding and on raising money for projects

  • Managing your collections

    What you need to know on how to best manage what you collect, how to create catalogues, plus technical guidance on how to preserve and display your collection.

  • Making your collections accessible

    Helping you think about who your audiences are or ought to be and how you can attract new ones, how you tell people about your group and its resources, how you publicise your collections and how you can measure how successful your activities have been.

  • Resource lists

    Here are some of the resource pages put together by other organisations, including local and national bodies.

  • Cataloguing guidelines for community archives

    Second Edition (2017) of the Guidelines produced by the Community Archives and Heritage Group (CAHG). We have tried to make the guidance straightforward and user-friendly.

  • Getting Your Collections Online

    How do you get your collections online? This webinar covers the use of various open-source solutions as well as proprietary software. The website is by Jack Latimer of CommunitySites.

  • Putting your community archive on the digital map

    Whilst the country is in Lockdown people can’t visit their local museums and archives, however that shouldn’t stop people’s content from being seen and shared.

  • Digital preservation for community archives

    The Community Archives and Heritage Group (CAHG) has developed these guidelines for community archives. The aim is to provide a practical introduction to digital preservation.

  • Community archives and GDPR

    On 25 May 2018, new data protection legislation will come into force that will affect all organisations, including community archives. Read our guidance.

  • Film and videotape and the community archive

    These guidelines are designed to encourage you to look for moving image materials, and to look after those you already have.
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