Page 303 - Manual for Activities directed at the Underwater Cultural Heritage

or otherwise inaccessible. Despite the wide spread of technological possibilities that allow for safe storage and back-up of digital materials, it is nonetheless recommended to make paper and digital copies of the entire documentation and store them in separate locations.
Professional and public
access
Upon completion, project archives must be made available for research and public access to a feasible extent. Wide dissemination and publication of the research results constitutes the main purpose of the research process. To facilitate access, the project archives should be deposited at recognized archive repositories. Recognition or authorization of the repository by the competent authorities that are responsible for underwater cultural heritage is in this regard preferable. Any such recognition or authorization of a repository that accepts an archaeological archive must take into account its suitability for providing both long-term care and public access. Examples of repositories include accredited museums, local record offices and national monument archives. Specialized centres or institutes can also be accredited as such.
Regulations for access
A central reason for archiving the project archives with an appropriate repository is to make them available for professional and public access. As a consequence, the management or governing body should organize the best way to provide this service. Access to the documentary parts should conform to the official requirements that exist for public archive repositories. This equally applies to the material archive. Access to some items may be more cumbersome than to others, especially if their storage is away from the archival institution, or needs special preparation and overseeing by staff. Nevertheless, access needs to be organized and regulations should govern decisions relating to the following issues:
302
Curation of project archives