The Borthwick Institute
The Borthwick Institute was established in 1953 in St Anthony's Hall in York. Following an award of £4.415 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund, it moved to purpose-built premises on the University campus in 2005. The Borthwick Institute is one of the largest and most important archive repositories in the North of England. The Borthwick is a public archive repository, providing public access to archives from the 11th to 21st centuries. We have a wide-ranging and demanding clientele, with equally wide- ranging research demands. We are the busiest archive in the higher education sector.
Within the University we:
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serve academic departments as a repository for primary research materials, including the University’s archive;
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guide students, researchers and staff in the use of those materials;
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provide records management services across the University;
Borthwick staff play a role in the wider archive, records management and historical sectors through membership of a range of professional bodies, from editorial positions in record-publishing societies, to advisory roles in national strategic organisations.
Role
All organisations produce digital records, but the methodology for retaining them in the long term is often neglected. In the context of the University and its Records Management Policy, the long-term or permanent accessibility and viability of its digital research records, as well as records produced by management and administration, are needs that particularly need to be addressed. The preservation of digital assets - and in particular the preservation of websites and online resources - are critical issues we need to address.
The long-term preservation of digital archives presented to the University, and the preservation of archives in analogue format that can only be retained in digital format (such as recorded sound), are also pressing needs in a University with an active archive collecting policy. In addition, the digital cataloguing of digital and non-digital archives, the digitisation of non-digital objects (such as paper and parchment records and chapters or images in published books), and preservation of and access to these resources, all require critical digital expertise.