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Guidelines for College and University Archives
II. Administrative Relationships
A. Mission
The archives takes its mission from the mission of the institution, to educate:
- by supporting the administration which provides and maintains the overall
structure;
- by determining what evidence is essential, ensuring that the institution
creates such evidence, and making that evidence accessible to users regardless
of location or format;
- by preserving essential evidence of the institution;
- by providing information that promotes the mission of the institution
internally and to the extended community;
- by supporting teaching and enhancing the curriculum as appropriate;
- by supporting the research of faculty, students, and other scholars through
access to information;
- by promoting further understanding through discovery and dissemination
of knowledge.
B. Goals
The basic goal of academic archives is to aid the institution in its survival
and growth by supporting the institution's education mission. To fulfill
the responsibilities of that role, archives share the following goals:
- To acquire or identify records of long-term historical,
evidential, legal, fiscal, and administrative value to the institution
and to preserve and provide access to them so that the archives
is visible as a resource that:
—promotes knowledge and efficient operation of the institution which it
serves,
—supports and nourishes teaching and learning at that institution and in
the wider intellectual community.
C. Implementation
Academic archives will fulfill their mission and goals by focusing both
the tangible and service components of the program on meeting these responsibilities.
This means that:
- Acquisition decisions will be based on professional appraisal standards.
- Arrangement and description of materials will employ responsible professional
practices and adapt them appropriately to the needs and culture of the
institution.
- Facilities for storage, use, and service will provide a physical environment
that protects the full range of the archives' record materials, and assures
security from misuse and theft.
- The archives' preservation, arrangement, and individual conservation
procedures will employ current professional standards.
- Staff will facilitate access to materials and provide information that
will ensure teaching and learning to support the institution's operation.
- Staff and records will constitute a resource which
—promotes knowledge and understanding of the institution's origins, mission,
and goals,
—contributes to its ongoing development through a range of services and
by fostering and facilitating records management and information resource programs.
- Archives will publicize their resources to encourage their use by members
of the institution and by the intellectual community beyond it to
—support the curriculum,
—stimulate teaching,
—serve research, scholarship and intellectual exploration.
- Archival programs will
—remain flexible in adapting to the rapidly changing institutional environment,
—maintain a technologically current environment.
D. Administrative Authorization
A document authorizing the archives' existence and conferring the authority
to accomplish its mission should define the archives program. The authorizing
document should have the official approval of the highest appropriate governing
official, such as the president or chancellor, and governing body, such as
the board of trustees, administrators, or regents of the institution. This
authorizing document provides the rationale, focus, authority, and continuity
for the archives program.
While administrative placement, structure, and governance will reflect
institutional differences and cultures, the status of the archives program
should reflect the following considerations:
- This authorizing document should define institutional records, establish
them as institutional property, and designate a single, central archives
as their long-term repository or access point whether the institution occupies
one or a number of campuses;
- The authorizing document should establish the archivist's authority to
undertake all activities necessary to serve the program's mission according
to current professional standards. The document should provide the authority
to survey records, including those considered confidential, and determine
their appropriate transfer from offices and departments;
- The administrative structure should provide the resources to maintain
adequate personnel, facilities, equipment, and security levels to enable
the archives to fulfill its current responsibilities to the institution
and to keep pace with evolving technology and other changes;
- The administrative location and status of the archives should be unambiguous
to permit effective interaction and cooperation with other units within
the institution;
- The administrative structure should facilitate service to the archives'
diverse constituents.
E. Personnel
Academic archives require appropriate professional and support personnel
to manage a viable archival program. There should be a flexible administrative
structure which allows fiscal and personnel adjustments to meet growth and
changes of archival functions. Personnel should have the authority to accomplish
the range of responsibilities and services that meet the archival program's
established goals. Position descriptions, educational requirements, and scholarly
credentials should reflect current professional standards.
1. Professional staff.
Professional staff should include a full-time, permanent director
who is a professional archivist with strong professional credentials, such
as certification. The director should have strong management skills for
effective interaction with administrators, faculty, students, alumni, and
the public. Because of their broad responsibilities, directors should have
an administrative rank that provides authority to carry out the program's
mission.
Additional professional staff may include other archivists, professionals
with advanced degrees in related fields (e.g., preservation, library science,
records management, or relevant academic disciplines), and consultants
with credentials and experience in any of these areas.
2. Support staff.
Support staff should include paraprofessionals or nonacademic staff
to provide reference, technical, and administrative assistance. These staff
members must be able to handle minimal reference and supervisory duties
when the archivist is absent, as well as having demonstrated technological
and organizational skills.
Active archival programs in both the large and small institutions
will need additional full-time and part-time personnel. Institutional factors
and preferences will determine specific functions and position descriptions,
but may include some of the following:
- Professional staff, employed as assistant or associate archivists,
who are specialists in an archival field and can act for the director
when the latter is absent and handle appraisal, public service (reference),
arrangement and description, preservation, and outreach responsibilities;
- Processing/technical support staff assigned to prepare archival acquisitions
and access tools for administrative and reference use may also handle
public services that do not involve policy making, as well as plan and
prepare exhibits;
- Reading room attendants, if the volume of activity requires, should
have the requisite interpersonal skills for public service. Processors
or full-time administrative personnel may assume reading room duties
and supervision on a rotating basis;
- Administrative staff will have primary responsibility for operational
activities, including office management, correspondence, archives' administrative
files, and other duties facilitated by technical proficiency including
word processing and database management;
- Student workers, working under adequate supervision, will fill varied
roles, depending on the practices of the archives program. Students may
retrieve, file, and reshelve materials, or process non-sensitive materials.
Students can also perform duplication duties and support access to materials
through new technologies;
- With adequate supervision, volunteers may serve flexibly in many capacities,
including performing receptionist duties, serving as processing assistants,
providing clerical support, and directing outreach activities such as
exhibits;
- Interns being trained in professional school programs can be useful
in the archives to perform archival, clerical, and public service duties.
Because of the necessity for adequate coordination of program guidelines
and supervision, use of student interns will depend on the commitment
of the program director and professional staff.
F. Justification for Expanding Archival Programs
Academic archives may be called upon to justify their existence, promote
their programs, and work toward expanding them. One way to evaluate program
needs and areas for improvement and growth is to regularly gather data such
as the:
- Public service activities including the number and complexity of inquiries;
- Number of reference requests and/or daily registrations;
- Volume and nature of additions to the collection;
- Frequency and complexity of records management responsibilities including
records inventories and analysis, and scheduling;
- Volume and complexity of inaccessible records and those which do not
need professional standards;
- Expanding outreach activities, including institutional celebrations,
and fundraising activities;
- Impact of technological changes on demands for archival services and
the program's ability to meet those needs.
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