|
The archive will be sustained and nourished through donations of varying sorts. Below are some guidelines to the types of materials we are looking for.
What you could give
Working materials
The Centre is always keen to acquire new material, but our priority is on archival material - correspondence, notebooks, diaries, unpublished manuscripts, ephemera, photographs, etc. This includes material relating to the Society's subsystems, which are often retained by their committee members. We are particularly interested in developing the pre-1970 holdings. While material related to eminent figures is obviously especially welcome, bear in mind that such things as teaching-related documents (e.g. exam papers and laboratory notebooks) are also important, and the older the better!
Psychological tests
We are not looking to acquire additions to the test collection we already hold.
Literature
Regarding book donations, we are having to be increasingly selective and will consider donations in conjunction with the Society's official library at Senate House. If you wish to donate books or pamphlets please let us have a checklist beforehand.
The books we are most likely to be interested in taking are:
- pre-1950 hardbacks (especially pre-Second World War, and, even more, pre-First World War), particularly by British and mainland European authors
- annotated association copies - i.e. books that belonged to eminent figures and have been annotated by them.
We may be able to advise you on disposing of books we do not require.
Exceptions and oddities
British journal runs are unlikely to interest us unless they are pre-1960, in which case they may be useful to fill gaps in existing runs held by Senate House Library.
An exception is Newsletters etc. issued by Society member networks, for which our earlier holdings are still quite patchy (see Subsystems Publications Project).
Pre-1960 mainland European and North American runs may be of interest, but we would need to be consulted beforehand. Senate House already holds a complete collection of Society journals on our behalf.
We cannot take equipment and apparatus. If you wish to dispose of this you should contact the Science Museum, who are keen to develop their psychology collection.
Press cuttings are only wanted if they are in the form of a systematic collection pertaining to a specific topic or individual.
We are always willing to assess offered material in person and advise on the best way of dealing with it should we not want it.
If you have anything you wish to donate please contact us first. We cannot guarantee to accept unsolicited donations.
Your rights as a donor
If you donate archival material you will be asked to sign a formal agreement with the Centre setting out the terms on which we will be holding the material. This offers donors the opportunity of specifying such things as copyright ownership, whether the material is being donated or loaned, and the period of time for which they wish material to remain closed to public access. In return we agree to curate the material and manage its availability to researchers.
Costs and expenses
If the Centre agrees to accept a donation it will bear any costs incurred in transporting it.
Bequests
Material is sometimes bequeathed to us of which we have had no prior knowledge. We are happy to accept unsolicited bequests but cannot guarantee that we will want to retain the material in its entirety. In such cases we will be pleased to consult with executors as the situation requires.
If you wish to bequeath material to us in your own will, it would be advisable to consult us in advance in order to avoid difficulties later.
|
