How long will it take for my donated materials to become available to the public? Will the NBCA keep my donated materials forever? In the future, can I add to the records that I previously donated to NBCA? Can I access my records after I donate them? What do the terms fonds and collection mean?

Will my donated materials be digitized and available online? Can the archives make reproductions of my materials for me to keep? What about my copyright? Does NBCA acquire electronic records? Can I get a tax receipt? How are donors recognized?

This depends on the extent, format, and condition of the materials. All archives have an extensive backlog of donated materials that need to be processed (rehoused, arranged, described, and in some cases digitized). Providing a monetary donation with your material donation will help the archives hire extra staff to process your materials more quickly.

We cannot always keep everything that is donated. If Northern BC Archives determines that some of the donated material will not be selected for permanent retention, we will first try to return the items to the donor. If the donor does not want the materials back, we may decide to offer the unselected material to another archival institution that is a more appropriate fit for those select items.

Yes, we will accept records at a later date if you want to add to the records you originally donated to Northern BC Archives. This is called a records accrual.

Yes, you can always access your records after you donate them to Northern BC Archives. You may do so by visiting our Reference Room. Once records are donated to Northern BC Archives, we do not allow them to circulate outside our premises in order to protect their authenticity. Restricting access to our Reference Room helps to ensure records are not inadvertently or maliciously altered after their deposit with us.

Our ability to offer free copying or research services to donors is limited due to constrained resources.

The terms fonds and collection refer to two different types of archival record accumulations acquired by Northern BC Archives.

A fonds is a body of records that was made and received by a person, family, or organization, public or private, in the conduct of their everyday affairs. These records were accumulated over time and kept for their enduring value as a future reference resource and/or as evidence of the functions and responsibilities of their creator. The key characteristics of a fonds are provenance (records are created by one individual or organization) and original order (the way the records were originally ordered by their creators can be significant in interpreting their meaning).

In contrast, a collection is a body of records assembled by a person, organization or repository from a variety of sources (i.e. multi-provenancial) usually on the basis of some subject or theme and arranged in such a way as to make the records easily accessible for their purely informational value.

If you are the copyright holder and have given us permission to digitize your materials and make them fully available online, then we may make some or all of the material available online (depending on extent and format). The digitization process can be slow and depend on our existing backlog. Providing a monetary donation with your material donation will help the archives hire extra staff to digitize your materials more quickly.

Yes, if you wish, we will make reproductions of any part of your donated material for you. However, digitization is a time-consuming and expensive process, so depending on your exact request further discussion may be required at the time of your donation and large digitization requests may not be feasible. Providing a monetary donation with your material donation will help the archives hire extra staff to digitize your materials.

Copyright is an essential consideration for archives when making archival material publicly available online. When the archives digitizes an archival record (a photograph, a report, an oral history, etc.) and uploads it online, the archives makes it publicly available--conceivably "publishing" it. In order to have the right to do that, the archives needs to either 1) hold copyright for the archival record, 2) have a license to distribute it, or 3) determine that the copyright for the item is expired (public domain).

You have several options regarding copyright when you donate to us:

• GRANT COPYRIGHT - You can transfer any copyright you control in the donated materials by assigning it to the University of Northern British Columbia. This option is our preferred choice for simplicity and accessibility.
• GRANT DISTRIBUTION LICENSE - You can retain your copyright, but give licence to the University of Northern British Columbia to make digital copies of the material publicly available online. You can place limitations on your copyright conveyance if required. This option is most likely to appeal to donors who wish to make a profit from their copyright in the future.
• GRANT RESEARCH COPYING ONLY - You can choose not to transfer or grant license to the copyright for the material you donate to us. This limits how we are able to use the donated material; in some cases, it will impact our decision to accept your donation. At minimum, we do require permission to make copies of the material for research and private study. If you opt for this choice, we can only digitize for preservation or access purposes. We cannot make reproductions publicly available online.

As part of the donation process, Northern BC Archives will request you complete our Copyright Form. We've created a flowchart (provided at left) to help you with decision-making regarding copyright for your archival donation. If you have any copyright questions regarding your donation, please contact us. If you have copyright concerns, we recommend contacting a lawyer.

Yes, Northern BC Archives acquires electronic records and strives to provide ongoing digital preservation for any electronic records selected for permanent retention.

Electronic records include email, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PDFs, digital photographs, websites, and much more. They may be stored on floppies, CDs, DVDs, USB flash drives, hard drives, zip disks, and other digital storage media. Electronic records pose serious challenges to long-term preservation because of the rapid obsolescence of software and hardware and the inherent fragility of digital storage devices. However, individuals and organizations are increasingly documenting their activities only by electronic means and tomorrow's archives will be digital.

When proposing a donation, consider including your electronic records as well as your paper ones and consult with NBCA staff regarding current technical capacity to preserve different types of electronic records. It is important to capture as complete a picture as possible of the life and career of an individual or the history and operations of an organization. Omitting electronic records from your donation might mean significant gaps in the historical record.

Some donations to the Northern BC Archives & Special Collections may be eligible for a charitable tax receipt from UNBC. If an income tax receipt is requested, this should be indicated at the beginning of the donation process. Only items retained by the Archives will be evaluated for eligibility.

An official valuation of the property is required in order for donations to be eligible for a charitable tax receipt. Canada Revenue Agency requires external appraisals from a qualified appraiser for items or collections deemed to be worth more than $1000.

Where there is a cost for this valuation, the donor may be required to assume responsibility for this expense. For more information, see the Monetary Appraisal section of the Archives & Special Collections Development Guidelines document.

The Office of University Advancement is responsible for receipting of donations and for donor recognition.