n.a legal agreement that serves as the formal expression of the terms of a gift to a repository, including the terms of the transfer of ownership of records and/or intellectual property rightsHam 1984, 17One thing is clear: donor agreements cannot become the dead hand of the past; they must contain some option for reappraisal and deaccessioning.Quinn, J., 1993, 3A guide to the Baker papers should be complete by the fall of 1993 and the collection open to the publc in 1997 as per the donor agreement.Hefner 1996, 87Archivists and manuscript curators will need to work cooperatively to construct donor agreements with appropriate restrictions, and converse about the arrangement and description of the records.Behrnd-Klodt 2008, 42The written agreement serves as a formal expression of the terms of the gift and its acceptance and transfer of ownership of records and copyright to the archives. Donor agreements, deeds or certificates of gift, wills, and contracts are examples of typical written agreements that formalize such transfers.Behrnd-Klodt 2008, 45In addition to being legally competent, a donor needs to be able to comprehend the nature of the transaction and its consequences and understand the terms of the donor agreement.Behrnd-Klodt 2008, 53Typically, the archives prepares the written donor agreement, deed of gift, certificate of gift, or a similarly named document, based on a template or form that can be used for most uncomplicated donations.Dryden 2014a, 56Unless a repository selects only public domain items or those in which it owns copyright, the TOUs [terms of use] may differ across (and within) DRs [digital resources], depending on copyright status, donor agreement, or media type.Leventhal et al. 2021, 329Designers may concede that portable document format (PDF) images of the final design are sufficient to express their design intent and critical information about the design or project. If not, archival professionals can also ask donors to provide software licenses, which can then be written into donor agreements.
Notes
Donor agreements may specify use restrictions, relevant policies and procedures to be used in the management of the records, or other terms on which the donor and the repository agree.
