Records Management for SAA
The following information is provided to assist SAA leaders and office staff in ensuring that SAA's records are administered in an appropriate fashion, and that records with continuing value to the organization or others are routinely transferred to the Archives Department of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) Libraries, which serves as home of the SAA archives.
Authorization for the Program
Records Schedules
Specific Records Schedules
General Records Schedules
Transfer Procedures
Authorization for the Program
At its May 19-22, 2005 meeting, Council passed the following motion:
That the Executive Committee be authorized to review and approve retention and disposition schedules for SAA records series. Proposed schedules will be developed by the SAA Archivist, in consultation with the records creators (staff, officers, committee chairs, et al.). Schedules will be reviewed, approved, and signed by the SAA Archivist, the Executive Director, and (on behalf of the Executive Committee) the President. General retention schedules for common administrative records of subcommittees, sections, and roundtables may be developed to reduce the need for separate schedules for each individual unit, although programmatic and policy records for such units will be developed and approved for each unit as appropriate.
Specific Records Schedules
Awards Committee
Administrative Files and Correspondence
This series consists of documentation received and produced by the Awards Committee in fulfilling its major purposes. Documentation includes correspondence from the award subcommittees to the Awards Committee announcing award recipients, as well as from the Awards Committee to SAA presidents and council. Administrative files pertain to the awards process generally, such as suggestions for new awards, awards criteria and guidelines, and recommendations to council.
This records series may include confidential material and should be restricted for a brief period of time to be mutually determined by the SAA Executive Committee, the Awards Committee chairs, and the SAA Archivist.
Retention Time Period: Retain for 1 year from date of creation and transfer to SAA archives
Awards Subcommittees
Award Nomination and Selection Files
This series consists of documentation received and produced by an awards subcommittee in the annual process of selecting award recipients. Documentation includes letters of application and nomination, supporting material (e.g., resumes, letters of recommendation, finding aids, etc.), and evaluations of submissions by subcommittee members.
Announcements of final decisions made by an awards subcommittee, and information pertaining to the decision-making process generally (i.e., but not pertaining to individual applicants) are to be retained as part of the Awards Committee administrative files and correspondence series.
This record series is confidential.
Retention Time Period: Retain for 3 years from the date of creation and destroy confidentially.
Executive Office
Publications
This series consists of all monograph and serial works (e.g., The American Archivist and Archival Outlook) published or co-published by SAA.
Retention Time Period: Transfer 1 copy to the SAA archives upon publication.
General Records Schedules
E-Mail Discussion Lists
This schedule covers all e-mail discussion lists, both public and private, hosted by SAA, with the exception of the Archives and Archivists (A&A) List. SAA’s Director of Member and Technical Services is able to set retention periods for each e-mail discussion list. Once the specified retention period has lapsed, list messages are automatically "purged" by the list software.
SAA members are encouraged to use e-mail discussion lists hosted by SAA to conduct SAA business.
Discussions
Disposition: For messages of a routine administrative nature or possessing only transitory value, there is a rolling destruction date of 2 years from date of submission.
If the message possesses enduring value for administrative, legal, or fiscal purposes, or has historical value, the chair or convener must ensure that it is printed out as a hard copy or saved as an electronic file in the SAA leader's own filing system. These records should must be transferred to the SAA Archives in accordance with the terms of the relevant records schedule, or as deemed appropriate by that person and the SAA Archivist.
Documentation
Includes items such as technical manuals, directions on how to use the list (signing on, signing off, modifying user options).
Disposition: Temporary. Destroy/delete when superseded or obsolete, or upon authorized deletion of related electronic records.
Sections and Roundtables
Administrative Files and Correspondence
This series consists of documentation received and produced by sections and roundtables in fulfilling their major purposes. Documentation includes, but is not limited to, mission statements, meeting minutes, newsletters, leadership lists, statements of particular goals and objectives, files pertaining to special projects undertaken by sections, recommendations to Council, and annual meeting program session proposals.
Retention Time Period: Retain for 3 years from date of creation and transfer to SAA archives
Transfer Procedures
SAA leaders should remove routine transmittal letters and other "house-keeping" documents following the retention period and before sending the records to the SAA archives at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) Libraries. Records scheduled for transfer should be carefully packaged and described in a transfer form. Please send records to:
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
UWM Libraries / Archives
attn. Archives Dept. Head
P.O. Box 604
Milwaukee, WI 53201-0604
Neither the SAA executive office nor the UWM Libraries is able to assist with defraying costs associated with shipping. The Archives Department will acknowledge receipt of transfers.
Individuals wishing to transfer electronic records should contact Michael Doylen, SAA Archivist and head of the UWM Libraries' Archives Department, at (414) 229-6980 or doylenm [at] uwm [dot] edu. The Archives Department can accept almost any self-contained file format. To help ensure that content remains readable and usable long into the future, however, we prefer open, standard, non-proprietary, common formats.
Records are transferred according to the terms of the original agreement between SAA and the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents on behalf of UW-Milwaukee and the UWM Libraries, which was executed in April 2001. Upon transfer, records become the property of the Board of Regents of the UW System. SAA retains copyright in all records donated. Records will be open for research except when prohibited by privacy laws or other statutes, or when formal agreement to the contrary exists between SAA and the Archives Department. The staff of the Archives Department may use its discretion to dispose of material outside the scope of its documentary goals.
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