If you are interested in donating materials to a repository, you should look for one that will be well suited to your collection. Here are some things to consider:
- Mission and commitment: Collecting family history materials should be consistent with the organization’s mission, and the organization should be committed to collecting these materials and to promoting their existence and use.
- Institutional stability: The organization should be well established and supported, and unlikely to go out of business or cut back on its support for archival or object collections.
- Location: Ideally, the repository should be relatively accessible to you and your community.
- Facility: The storage and public access areas of the repository should have appropriate environmental controls (cleanliness, temperature, humidity, light exposure levels) to ensure that the items in your collection will remain in good condition as long as possible.
- Adequate resources: There should be sufficient storage space, public access, and staff, some with archival or museum training.
- Existing relationship: Is there a library, historical society, museum or other such organization with which you have an affiliation? If the organization meets some of the other criteria, it might be a good choice.
