• 1. Rationale. Authors’ literary papers are precious to cultural heritage and to scholarship, and many have wider popular appeal. They inform literary and biographical studies, textual studies, cognitive studies, and many areas of research. Above all, they are precious because of the information they provide about the creative process and what influences this, recording successive versions, drafts and variations. The preservation of these papers in public institutions will be welcomed by a wide range of users, in various fields of education, lifelong learning, biographical and cultural research and the creative arts, and the wider public. Authors are encouraged to think in terms of each literary work as passing through several archival stages of development and to seek to preserve each stage. When this guidance refers to “papers” this means all of the materials relating to an author's working life, in whatever format— paper or digital, or audiovisual.

• 2. What to keep. Authors may often be tempted to destroy early plans and discarded drafts. These should be kept wherever possible. Libraries and archives are interested in collecting early drafts, notebooks, handwritten and typescript versions, working notes, study notes, and research material in any format. In addition, there is an interest which extends beyond literary research:

• in correspondence: both incoming mail and drafts and copies of outgoing mail; both personal and professional correspondence;

• in emails, audio-visual materials (literary and personal), diaries, journals, and commonplace books;

• in disks, memory-sticks, and computer drives;

• authors’ personal libraries are also of great interest, especially where books and journals are annotated.

All kinds of materials and correspondence relating to literary festivals, reading tours, conferences, seminars and literary organizations should be regarded as an integral part of any author's archive. In determining what to keep, authors should bear in mind that, in addition to illustrating the creative literary process, their papers are likely to have a wider cultural and historical interest. If the literary work has been influenced by visual arts, music, or other forms of expressive culture then the author's information on these, programmes of concerts, exhibitions, and events would also constitute a vital part of a full “author's archive.” In short, all the raw material relating to a writer's life and work is likely to be of interest to an archive service and to researchers.