Inputs

We provide input forms here for you to send us information.
Alternatively, consider using one of the Facebook Groups that we monitor - see here for details.

Please use these forms to submit information to the Archive - the available inputs are:

  • Organisation - information about the role your organisation has played/plays in the sport
  • Collection - description of the type(s) of information you hold
  • Catalogue - item by item descriptions of information you hold
  • Personal Recollections - to communicate your own experiences, knowledge, understanding of events, developments in the sport, etc. by submitting a document (anecdote, essay, pamphlet, etc.), or by joining our oral history pogramme with an interview or a witmess seminar
  • At Risk - notify us of collections, material or boats at risk of being lost or destroyed

You will need to be registered before using them (NB: now live).
Full details on how to use these forms may be downloaded here (pdf format).

Any information submitted will be reviewed and added to our database, and only then published to the web. Contact details must be provided but will only be published with permission and eMail addresses will be published in a secure form to prevent spam crawlers from harvesting them.

Information may be added to the archive through the input forms here, although if catalogues are already prepared please contact us with a view to either importing the data or linking to your on-line resource.

Each organisation or individual should provide an organisational profile describing the general nature of the organisation and the type of material held by the organisation. Unless permission is given to do so, owners of private collections will not be identified and contact by users will need to be made via BNYA.

A collection is defined as the holdings of an organisation or individual. An organisation may have several collections - a core collection that contains the general holdings and named collections, which contain a set of related items from a common source, such as drawings and documents from a design office, another collection donated to your organisation or to catalogue separately natural groupings such as a library, model collection or cups. Items not in a named collection will be assigned to the core collection of the organisation. When entering the profile of your organisation, please also submit a profile for any named collections that you own. Should you wish to include additional information about your organisation such as advice on research, publications available, etc. create a named collection called "General Information" and add the items to that.

A catalogue entry can be created for each collection to describe each item within the collection. When you are entering data about items in a collection to build a catalogue, use the ID of the relevant, core or named, collection and we'll cross-link it to the collection of which it is a part - this will enable us to re-allocate a named collection if it subsequently becomes part of a collection of a different organisation. Please consider the granularity of the data - it may not be necessary to catalogue every single item (e.g. every sheet in a file or each issue of a magazine collection) if they can be satisfactorily described as a group and are not likely to be separated. If the item is available on-line, add the URL so that users can link directly to it.

Ultimately, we want to be able to build a directory structure that enables information about specific boats or classes of boat or other specific subjects to be easily found. When entering data into the catalogue about an item in a collection, it would be helpful to include some classification data to facilitate this. We have added a classification structure based on immediately recognisable needs. However, it is appreciated that this will expand and some post-classification may be required - we will add to the classification structure as common subjects are entered as 'other'. In the meantime, a search may find what you need. It is also recognised that when entering data into the catalogue, the relevant subject headings may not be known - for instance, it is just not possible to read every document as it is entered. Once an item has been entered, it will have a unique ID which will be included in the published entry - to add classification data later, or indeed to make any amendment, enter this ID, then only changed data need be entered.

Once you have entered your profiles, they will be published in the directory. Included in the entry will be a unique ID for your organisation with a description, and IDs and descriptions for the core collection plus any named collections you own and IDs and descriptions for catalogue items - if you wish to amend your entry, please re-submit, flagging the information as an amendment and including that ID - then you need only enter any changed information. We may have already allocated an ID to your organisation - check to see if it is included in the directory before submitting your profile or we may have notified you by email.

Books and magazines will be treated slightly differently in that many organisations may hold a copy of a book. The book catalogue will identify a book and all the organisations that hold a copy. If books are being entered, check the catalogue to see if it has already been entered and use the ID associated with the entry.