Preservation Essentials

Need to Know: Common Carrier Shipping, Insurance, and Customs for Your Collections

---

Abstract

Let’s examine this hypothetical scenario: a busy archivist needs to ship out unique collections materials. A patron has requested copies of material on 1-inch open reel video from a manuscript collection. Of course this means selecting a digitization vendor who can handle open reel video. A vendor located in Canada is chosen on the basis of good cost, good reputation, and relative proximity to your archives, given your location in the upper Midwest. The archivist packs up the open reel videos for expedited shipping via a common carrier (e.g., FedEx) and pencils in a total declared value of $500 for the video collection on the shipping label. Given the complexity of putting a monetary appraisal value on unique archival materials, the archivist’s main intent in exceeding the $100 standard declared value limit for the shipping carrier is to prompt the carrier to handle the package extra carefully. Many weeks later, instead of having the digital copies and the originals back in your collection, the package is under lock and key in the care of Canadian customs agents. So… what went wrong in this scenario?

How to Cite:

Mullen, K. D., (2016) “Need to Know: Common Carrier Shipping, Insurance, and Customs for Your Collections”, MAC Newsletter 43(3), 28-30.