Archiving the Covid-19 pandemic

Hopefully your appeal or call to action will lead to offers of suitable donations according to your collecting statement. However, sometimes you may be offered items you don't want or can't take.

When you are offered items, consider the following questions before you decide to take them.

Do the items you are being offered fit your Covid collecting statement?

If not, you have two options:

• Decline to take them in, and refer the donor to your collecting statement
• Consider rewriting your collecting statement so that these and similar items offered in the future fit your policy. The document does not have to be set in stone, and it's possible that you made a mistake

Do you have the resources to look after them?

If you do not have the resources to take in and manage any items that are offered, you may need to turn them down. This might be because:

• You do not have the right equipment to make use of them
• You do not have the physical or digital space to store them
• They contain sensitive information, and you are not confident that you will be able keep them secure and confidential
• They require special storage and/or handling

Should they be offered to another collecting body?

If you choose to decline items, you may be able to direct them towards another organisation. This might be your local record office, museum or another community archive. This might be the best option if:

• The items form part of a larger collection held elsewhere
• They are official records which should go to a specified repository, eg, school records should go to a local authority archive
• They reference the pandemic on a regional, national or international level, rather than a local one