Acquisitions Policy

Introduction
Steeple Aston Village Archive was established to promote and encourage awareness of village history and its ongoing development, to improve and facilitate public education through access to existing local material, and to provide a resource for research and investigation into the life and times of the villages of Steeple Aston and Middle Aston. It seeks to supplement, rather than compete with, holdings at the Oxfordshire County Record Office, the Oxfordshire Local Studies Library and other local archives.

Value of material
Archive material which is financially valuable will not be sought or accepted. Data held within the archive shall be deemed to have no commercial value and its archive value will be restricted solely to the information it contains.

Geographical Area
Material will be collected only for matters affecting the parish of Steeple Aston and Middle Aston.

Reference facility
The Archive Management Group will also compile and maintain a Reference Index. This will identify the locations of material of significant local importance that is routinely held elsewhere, such as copies of the electoral roll, printouts of church registers, tithe maps, census returns, and genealogical records.

Method of Acquisition
Material will only be accepted as a donation and will become the property of the Archive Trustees in perpetuity. For the avoidance of legal issues arising from ownership, a pro-forma donation document may accompany certain acquisitions.

Personal collections of physical artifacts
Personal collections of artifacts will not normally be accepted as archive material

Ownership of Archive assets
The ownership of archive material, held by the Archive Trustees and their successors, shall be vested in Trustees at all times. In the event of the demise of the Trust, ownership of all assets, without exception, which were owned by the Trustees, shall pass wholly entirely and without further conditions or encumbrance to Steeple Aston Parish Council. 

Material offered on loan
Material may be accepted on loan only for the purposes of reproduction or copying to an electronic system.

What we collect

Historic material
The archive will collect material that, in the opinion of the Trustees, contains significant informative value or is indicative of the life and times of the village and its inhabitants.

Current material
The archive will also collect contemporary material relevant to the current life of the villages and their environment.

Acceptable items and sources

Media
Records are accepted in any form, with the following exceptions:

• Any copies of information should be on permanent paper as far as possible.
• Any photographs should be in black-and-white if possible, but colour photographs can be copied in black-and-white.
• Electronically-produced records should be in hard copy. Computer disks will not be accepted as originals.
• Records of moving images will only be accepted in video format.
• Artifacts may only be accepted at the discretion of the Trustees.

The archive will not collect originals of :

• Records which are already held in established archives.
• Records that should, by mandate, be located at the Oxfordshire Record Office.
• Records of organisations where Steeple Aston is a constituent part, such as the diocese or large landed estates, the local council or large businesses.