Conditions of use and guidelines for the Charles Bean Research Centre
What may be brought into the Reading Room
All bags must be presented for checking by Memorial Security at the entrance to the Research Centre.
Please bring your research notes and pencils only to your desk. All other items should be placed in the lockers provided.
Retrieval
Requests for items to be retrieved must be submitted by completing a Request items form.
We require three weeks’ notice to facilitate the retrieval of collection items. You will be notified once items are retrieved. Retrieved items will be held for two weeks.
There may be delays or restrictions on items requiring examination, conservation, or stored offsite, or affected by development works. Staff will notify you if your request is affected.
Items will be held for collection at the Collection Delivery Window. You will be issued only one wallet of private records containing loose papers or five official records files at a time. Please return items to staff at the window.
Handling of material
To protect the collection when handling items gloves must be worn and will be provided as:
- oils and acids are produced by your skin all the time. Handling items without gloves will transfer these harmful substances to the original records.
- archival material may have been stored in a range of places. Sometimes it contains dirt, mould, animal droppings and residue from previous preservation treatments that may affect your health.
- Always dispose of worn gloves in the recycle box provided.
We ask that you take great care with items. Do not:
- use archival material as a support for your note-taking paper
- use pens
- wet your fingers to turn pages
- remove pages or disturb the original order of the pages
- interfere with archival material or any sealed packages contained in them
- leave archival material unattended on your desk
- eat or drink in the reading room
- remove any collection item from the Reading Room
Quietness
In consideration for other readers, please turn off your mobile phone and refrain from conversation in the reading room.
Obtaining copies of archival material
Readers must not photocopy or photograph any archival material without approval from Research Centre staff.
Where permission to copy records in the Reading Room is given by Research Centre staff, clients may photograph items using a hand held camera from above. The use of flash or a tripod is prohibited.
Request for whole items to be digitised must be submitted by completing a Request for copy cost estimate form.