Prepare a concise, non-confidential brief. Include the archive's subject, modality, date range, languages, update frequency, format, approximate eligible volume and known exclusions. State whether the proposed use is training, fine-tuning, retrieval, evaluation or a still-unresolved combination.
Then name the sponsor, legal reviewer, data owner and finance reviewer. In a small business one person may cover several roles, but the responsibilities should remain explicit.
Checklist:
- One decision and decision date, including who can approve it.
- A bounded archive inventory; distinguish total holdings from the proposed eligible subset.
- Existing subscriptions, APIs, syndication, exclusivity and contributor arrangements identified.
- A list of questions that could change the decision.
- Permission for any material shared outside the organisation.
- A budget ceiling for this stage and the next approval gate.
The Datasheets for Datasets research provides a useful precedent for documenting composition, collection and intended uses. Here, add commercial rights and decision ownership to create an archive brief; this adaptation is the desk's recommendation.