FBHVC partner with heritage digitisation specialists Genus to transform archives within the historic vehicle community

Published: 16/02/2022

The FBHVC has announced a new partnership with heritage digitisation company, Genus – a market leader in the digitisation of historical archives. 
Over the past couple of years, guidance around managing, preserving and future proofing archives and records within the historic vehicle community has become an increasingly important area that the Federation has worked on in support of member clubs, museums and heritage organisations. 

The work began with the publication of the Federation’s ‘Essential Guide to Archiving’ booklet that can be downloaded from www.fbhvc.co.uk which has empowered a number of clubs to take control of their archiving by building effective inventories and catalogues of material that they hold. This process has also helped organisations to understand areas where they have duplications or omissions. 

The next step for many vehicle clubs has been to consider the digitisation of that content, both for reasons of preservation and security but also, if they wish, to derive maximum value from artefacts by making them more widely accessible as a benefit of club membership. This is where the new partnership between the FBHVC and Genus creates an invaluable offering for the historic vehicle community. 

Andy Bye, Archives Director for the FBHVC explains, 
“Digitisation can take many forms and is a complex subject. Therefore, the last thing any club wants to do is commit time, money, and resource into doing the wrong thing only to find they need to redo it in years to come. We have formed a commercial partnership with Genus, allowing clubs to have an immediate dialogue with digitisation experts who can advise and guide them on the best next steps for their club thereby avoiding expensive mistakes.”

Genus is a 47-year-old private family-owned company based in Nuneaton with three digitisation studios, specifically designed for the capture of both heritage and modern material. All digitisation and storage take place in humidity and temperature-controlled environments to ensure the best possible handling and capture of material. 

Genus are already well established in the historic vehicle community, having worked on digitisation projects for British Racing Motors, the Rootes Archive Centre Trust, Riley Cars Archive Heritage Trust, British Motor Industry Heritage Trust and the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust. Clients such as these and hundreds more from the wider heritage sector, have enabled Genus to develop a robust methodology. This is supported by ISO 27001 Information Security and ISO9001 Quality Management System certifications, which allows Genus to focus on the conservation of material through to the final digital output.

Genus also sells a complete range of book, photo, document and film negative scanning equipment, fully supported by their team of engineers. This allows Genus to help clubs set up their own digitisation facilities, enabling volunteers to contribute to digitisation projects if so desired. 

Paul Negus, Managing Director at Genus says, 
“We can either digitise your unique content for you at our Nuneaton studios, or we can sell or rent you the necessary equipment for you and your volunteers to conduct the digitisation at your own premises. For either option you would have our consultation, help and advice free-of-charge as a Federation member.” 

In 2022 Genus will be hosting a number of free of charge workshops at their Nuneaton headquarters to both educate and demonstrate their digitisation processes and equipment including a tour of their studios. All members of the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs are warmly welcome. 

More information can be found by visiting https://www.fbhvc.co.uk/genus or www.genusit.com or by emailing info@genusit.com or by calling 024 7625 4955.