ABSTRACT
This chapter presents how volunteers in DIY institutions engage with professionals in institutions of national significance when they are faced with challenging preservation tasks which relate to deteriorating materials of popular music's past. It considers examples of DIY institutions that have, over time and due to funding issues, developed close associations with public institutions. The chapter also reveals the ways in which mainstream heritage organizations serve as important providers of advice and training to community archivists. It concludes by considering an example of how DIY institutions can develop strong relationships with each other and the benefits cooperative community archiving might offer in terms of the sustainability of independent popular music archiving. Many of the DIY institutions are benefitting from the paradigm shift in traditional approaches to archiving toward more participatory models, and it is clear that there are advantages for both the mainstream heritage sector and community archivists in forging these relationships.
