The Vikings will operate an electronic and physical archive to capture the history and activities of the Society for future members and/or researchers to reference as part of the story of re-enactment.
Any material which is relevant to the activities of The Vikings will be considered for inclusion in the archives, including but not limited to:
Photos and videos of Society events and activities, including behind the scenes material covering social activities including parties, weddings, training, etc.
Newspaper and other media coverage of Society activities
Society publications, including Runestaff and Broadsheet editions, policies, manuals, forms, reports, meeting minutes, and other documents both in paper and electronic format which show the development and operation of the Society
Group publications, including newsletters, group constitutions, meeting minutes, and other material which may be relevant to the wider Society
Event-based material including event programmes, publicity material including posters and leaflets, tickets and so on
Physical items including merchandise, clothing, weapons, armour, etc which have been submitted by members for safe keeping by the Society
Any other items deemed to be relevant to retain in the archive
Wherever possible, material submitted will be catalogued to record who contributed the item, what it relates to, and any restrictions or permissions around our use of the material. In particular, care will be taken to ensure that copyright material is not used by the Society or others unless permission has been granted for such use.
Some material may present issues of confidentiality, data protection, etc such as event contracts which reveal fees or specific contract terms, or may be deemed to present a reputational risk to the Society due to e.g. depicting historic events which may be viewed differently by modern eyes, or e.g. where the subjects of images may subsequently have been convicted of criminal offences of a serious nature. Such material will be included in the archive where possible, but will not be publicly visible and access to such material may where appropriate be restricted to authorised people only. Where possible, redaction of key details will be used to retain as much as possible of the original data for public viewing. Redacted material, or non-public material, may be made public 10 years from the initial date of redaction, unless further periods of redaction are approved for listed items by the High Council.
Privacy is a key consideration for the archive, as many of the items may depict individuals who are no longer members of the Society, or who are not comfortable with their image being displayed on a Society website. Where such concerns are known, tags or other data which identifies these individuals will be removed. The archive system will also provide a process for anyone to object to the inclusion of their image or other details, which will result in their personal data (primarily their name) being removed from public view. However, in line with common practice, there is no right to object to someone taking a photo of you while at a public Society event, and photos submitted by photographers may be included in the public content even if they include a member or ex-member who does not wish to be identified. In effect, any tags or comments which identify individuals will be removed on request, but the image will remain as a matter of public record.
No identification will be made via tagging or in comments of those who are under 18 at the time of viewing. For older images which show children at the time the photograph was taken but who are now adults, tagging to identify members is considered appropriate within the existing opt-out scheme.
No use will be made of watermarks or other copyright notices on any images or documents, as the intention is to make available the original images and documents at all times. A clear statement of copyright will be made on the website, and restrictions on download of images will be imposed to ensure that the contents cannot be scraped for commercial use. Full resolution images will be made available to registered users, who must agree to the site Terms of Use which will explicitly state that no commercial use may be made of any material on the site without permission from The Vikings.
All material in the archive will be presented “as is”, subject to the redaction policy above. This may include contributor-submitted material which features the use of adult or offensive language and descriptions of activities which are intended for an adult audience. A statement to this effect will be made on the webpage. At this time, blocking access by those under the age of 18 is not considered appropriate, and presents technical difficulties. The quantity of content under this category is expected to be low, and will not be readily found accidentally by children.
