Services for Depositors
Services to the University of Melbourne
All official records of Central Administration, University Faculties, Schools and Departments come to UMA once they have been appraised and processed under the policies and procedures established by the University’s Records Services. Refer to relevant policies here: http://www.unimelb.edu.au/records/.
UMA acquires the records of academic staff, alumni, clubs and societies in accordance with the procedures for organisations and individuals, below.
Services to Depositors beyond the University
Many businesses, organisations and individuals have deposited their records with UMA to enable research and for preservation
Benefits to Depositors include:
- records are safely stored in UMA’s repository which is equipped with state-of-the-art climate control, security, monitoring, and fire systems;
- records are repackaged as appropriate into acid free materials to aid long term preservation;
- authorised representatives of the depositor may have access to records on twenty-four hours notice;
- where records are on long-term loan from businesses and organisations, small numbers of records may be removed on the expectation that the records will return to UMA when their use is completed (courier costs must be covered by the owner);
- at our discretion collections may be gifted to the University under the Cultural Gifts Program of the Commonwealth Government.
Conditions of deposit and access
Before records can be transferred to UMA, they need to be considered against UMA collection policy, appraised and accepted at our discretion.
The Collection Policy describes the types of records collected by UMA. People interested in depositing records at UMA are asked to read this policy before contacting a UMA archivist to discuss the types of records, ownership, approximate quantity of records, formats, and so on. To contact an archivist, please email the University Archivist, Dr Katrina Dean at kjdean@unimelb.edu.au or phone (03) 9035 4184. Depositors should note that some formats may only be accepted if supported by a donation towards the costs associated the long term care of the material.
It is preferable that records are gifted to the University without access restrictions. Conditions of deposit and access also need to be negotiated either under a Certificate of Transfer or the Cultural Gifts Program.
In the past UMA has accepted deposits on long-term loan with access restrictions set by the Depositor. Both long term-loans and access restrictions are still possible if there are compelling reasons such as privacy, however any restrictions must be negotiated with senior UMA staff. Where collections are held on long-term loan, Depositors are required to contribute annually to UMA costs.
Access to collections:
- access by depositors is described under ‘benefits to depositors’ above;
- researcher access to each collection is managed in accordance with conditions mutually agreed with depositors as recorded in Certificate of Transfer;
- researchers may only access records under our secure and supervised conditions;
- requests to reproduce material will be assessed with regard to appropriate privacy legislation and copyright conditions;
- copying is not permitted if it would be detrimental to the long term preservation of the material.
Guide for Transferring Records
Following agreement that records will be deposited at UMA, depositors must refer to the Guide for Transferring Records for further information.