n.a repository that collects materials from individuals, families, and organizations other than the parent organizationHackman and Warnow-Blewett 1987, 16The archival community has no established guidelines suggesting when a records creator should create an archival program, join with other institutions to do so, or establish an ongoing relationship with a collecting repository.Wagner 1999, 121For smaller associations unable to devote adequate resources to developing and maintaining their own archives and records programs, it is still their responsibility to make provisions for managing their own records. Simply occasionally offering “historical records” to a collecting repository is not in the best interests of the organization or the repository.Greene 2002b, 44The archival paradigm uses the term “archives” to include institutional archives and collecting repositories.Boles 2005, 45Collecting repositories have no formal responsibility for documenting their own organization or those individuals served by that organization, but rather look outward and seek material from some other documentary universe.Jimerson 2007, 280These initiatives [professional responsibility and social justice] will be easier to undertake for archivists in collecting repositories, where they can more readily adapt collecting policies and goals to reflect an inclusive approach to documenting society.Davis 2008, 169Archives that acquire collections from outside donors, often called “collecting repositories,” are generally more detached from the records creation process. Lack of continuity complicates documenting how the records were created and maintained prior to transfer to the archives. Frequently archivists in collecting repositories have little control over the form in which they receive these records, or whether essential metadata accompanies them.Shenk 2010, 91A collecting repository should not be accessioning records that it will never be able to show researchers.Miller, Moon, and Voss 2011, 8Two years ago, the institution was renamed the Aletta, Institute for Women’s History. Aletta functions as an information center and collecting repository, housing about four thousand linear feet of individual women’s papers and women’s organizational records.Leventhal et al. 2021, 338As records creators change their practices and collecting repositories adjust their collecting policies, the appraisal process must be revisited and seen as a continuously developing practice.
