FAQS 

Transfer of Title  

What conditions must be met when donating items to the Museum collection? 

 We ask that:

‘the owner (or a person authorised to act on behalf of the owner), confirms they have undisputed title to the object(s) listed and their copyright with full power to dispose of the items and transfer such title and copyright to the Museum of Croydon.’ [from transfer of title form] 

If the Museum accepts any object into its permanent collection, whether by way of purchase or gift:

 ‘it will be assumed by all parties that the original owner shall have transferred absolute ownership including copyright and reproduction privileges of the object(s).’ [from transfer of title form] 

 ‘The Museum is very grateful for your generous gift, which it can only accept without conditions. This means that your gift will become the Museum’s property and will not be able to be claimed back. In addition, you will not be consulted about any use the Museum makes of your gift. This includes how it is displayed and whether it is lent to other museums and/or institutions.’ [from transfer of title form] 

For Oral Histories, the interviewee can place restrictions to the ways in which the Museum of Croydon can use your interview. Please record how interviewee would like to restrict the oral history. For example: it could be spoken information on a sensitive subject you would like closed for [set] period of years. 

 ‘Would you like to restrict the ways in which the Museum of Croydon can use your interview?’ [example question from permissions form] 

Do I still need to complete a transfer form if it is a Croydon Council run project? 

Yes, all projects should include a complete transfer of title form. This can be edited to include internal transfers between departments. This form captures the provenance of each Museum item, this is required by the Museum to be in line with Museum Accreditation / SPECTRUM standards.  

  

Donations not accepted 

Why would you not accept all offers of donations? 

Donations may not be accepted into the collection for the following reasons.  

  • does not fit in with the Museum’s collections policy. 

  • no copyright / consent forms for interviewees. 

  • the person donating does not have full ownership or is being authorised by the owner. 

  • no project overview (if required) 

  • duplication (this can also include duplication of stories)  

  • poor condition 

  • unusable format  

  • irrelevant (e.g., not related to Croydon)  

  • Restrictions that would prevent access to a considerable amount. 

Access 

How do you give access of to the public? 

Currently we give access to oral histories that are digitised and accessioned only, this access is given via SoundCloud. This access is for researchers and for education purposes. We additionally use oral histories on our website for digital exhibitions, trails and learning packs. Oral histories have also been made accessible in museum exhibitions on site; using full clips, edited clips or content in written interpretation.  

All oral histories that are on cassette only are non-accessible due to condition of cassettes. The Museum is pursuing funding to get these digitised.  When we have transcriptions for oral histories, but not digitised files – we can also give access to these. 

 Will you give full access to my donation? 

 We cannot guarantee full access to any of our collections when in storage. This is due to a number of reasons which may include condition of oral history, resource of staff or if the project included funding to assist with storage/preservation. 

 

Other 

Do you offer valuations on objects, including oral histories? 

No, Museum staff are not authorised to give valuations.