The archive follows a structured process for handling and storing the source material that is donated by expatriates from around the world.
We begin by obtaining the depositor’s approval, then selecting the material that will be stored in the archive and removing non-relevant material. The material is sorted by location and date and is finally read, processed and registered in the archival system.
Archival Working Process
Key Definitions
- Expat
An expat is anyone who lives and/or works temporarily in a country other than his/her home country.
The Archive looks for stories from individuals and families just before, during and after their stay abroad. We are also interested in stories relating to the expatriation by family and friends who stay in the home country. A new group is the group of grown-up ex-expat kids and how they look back on their expatriate childhood and what effect it has on their lives today. Hide... - Archiving the information
By collecting the social history of expatriate life a research facility is established into this constantly changing lifestyle of so many.
In doing so the Archive validates the lives of those who live and have lived as expatriates. The collection is of interest to historians and social scientists as well as individuals looking into the expatriate life of their own families.
The collection shows the different - and changing - aspects of what life as an expat over time means e.g. on the one hand having a big house, domestic staff, high standard of living, lots of travelling, a busy social life (parties, sports) but on the other hand trying to adjust to new cultures (homesickness), third world living conditions (cockroaches, snakes, food shortages, poor medical conditions), the heartache of leaving family behind (children, parents, siblings), raising children without ‘roots’, dealing with natural disasters (earthquakes, flooding, hurricanes), political unrest (riots, curfews, discrimination), repatriation, etc. Hide... - Researchers
Researchers are anyone who is interested in:
- the social and/or emotional impact of expat life,
- the cultural or political changes of specific places or countries over the years,
- genealogy
- Donations
By sending or bringing in any item related to your expat life i.e. personal correspondence, (news)letters, postcards, official documents (bureaucracy), diaries, invitations, (boarding)school related items, children’s drawings, short stories, photo(albums) with text; in fact anything that gives an impression of your life abroad and the way you have coped and settled. Language is not an issue. Every non-English document will be translated into English.Hide...
- Privacy
The Wet Persoonsregistratie (Data Protection Act) also applies to archival data collections. Your privacy and that of third persons named in your contributions is one of our highest priorities and biggest concerns. As a donor you will be asked to sign a Depositor’s Declaration. Although copyright of the donated material will be given to the Archive, the contributor decides when (maximum 50 years after donation) and how contributions will be made public for research.
In line with the Wet Persoonsregistratie and the Archiefwet researchers have to sign a research agreement when researching the collection. All staff and volunteers sign a confidentiality agreement.
Upon receipt and after the Depositor’s Declaration has been signed, all contributions are registered in CALM, a British archival registration system. This system is backed up every week, so in case of an emergency we will only lose one week of data. The donated material will then be stored in special boxes in our climate controlled archive space. All donations will be scanned to enable online research of the Archive’s collection in future. On request it is also possible to retain the originals and have these scanned for insertion into the digital archive collection. A substantial part of the Archive’s collection is only stored digitally. " Hide...