Records at Risk
In February 2021, Archives and Records Council Wales (ARCW) was awarded a grant from the National Archives Covid-19 Archives Fund to carry out the Records at Risk Project. This project was set up to both identify records at risk during the Covid-19 pandemic, and to facilitate a longer-term strategy to support the rescue of records in the future.
The project objectives comprised:
- A survey of the record-keeping landscape in Wales which identified records at risk;
- Identification of a process to facilitate the rescue of records; and
- Development of a framework to support this activity in the longer term.
Companies entering insolvency proceedings in Wales were monitored, and details of companies of interest passed on to the relevant archive service. A remote survey of records-keeping within businesses and charities was undertaken, to learn about their records-keeping practices. The project also provided guidance and support to these organisations on the preservation of their historical records which included guidance on archival preservation and storage, mould management and pest control, digital preservation, and disaster planning.
An online toolkit was developed and published, to house resources and guidance about records surveying and risk monitoring. This will enable the knowledge and experience gained throughout the project to be built upon by archive services in the future.
In addition, the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) were commissioned to develop an introductory guide on digital preservation for small businesses.
We would like to acknowledge the additional support from Welsh Government, the Crisis Management Team, the Business Archives Council of Scotland, and those external archivists and records professionals whom all contributed to the design and methodology of the toolkit, and the project as a whole.
