9108 Options Appraisal of Costing Models for the Transfer of Archaeological Archives

Tender description

The aim of this project is to investigate potential costing models for the transfer/deposition of archaeological archives with collecting museums/repositories. At present, most repositories charge on the basis of the number of storage units being delivered. That includes boxes of documents, sheets of drawings and boxes of material archive (finds). A recent survey of charging policies (Vincent 2017) shows that there is a good deal of variability in how much is charged per unit however, from around £20 to £300, while some museums still do not charge at all. Plans are now being made for a national archaeological archive store and resource centre, which will have to sustain itself on income from archive transfers and it is therefore important that a robust costing model is put in place. This project will investigate alternatives to charging for individual archive units (for instance charging a percentage of the overall project cost) and also determine the optimum charge that should be made for an individual archive unit, were that model to be adopted. The main product will be a report that summarises the range of possible charging models, describes their strengths and weaknesses and makes recommendations accordingly.