The Ballast Trust is supported in its work by all of its partner organisations. We have built good relationships with these organisations and when processing collections we do our upmost to do so in accordance with the guidelines and systems of the custodial repository.
We have strong links with the University of Glasgow Archives and Special Collections in particular and the Archivist and Surveying Officer both work from there one day a week to maintain links with the wider archive community.
Collections are brought for processing to our offices in Johnstone and prioritised for action by the Archivist. The collection will be processed by staff or volunteers (depending on who has the most appropriate knowledge) and will be catalogued to the owning repository’s standard. Once the collection is finished it will be returned and added to the owning repository’s catalogue.
At present staff and volunteers are working on different collections and we have a sizable backlog of material to process in the future.
Understanding technical records and shipbuilding core plans – these are guidance documents that we have produced to outline our method of approach to technical records. We have always been pleased to offer advice to colleagues who are dealing with collections of technical records as well as our processing service if appropriate. With more than 30 years experience of working with technical records we decided to publish this guidance to share the knowledge and working practices that we have developed with a wider audience. This guidance represents an outline of our experience and working practices and we would welcome comments and suggestions from colleagues in the sector.