FORT LEWIS COLLEGE ARCHIVES POLICY STATEMENT
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CENTER OF SOUTHWEST STUDIES
1000 RIM DR., DURANGO, CO 81301
TELEPHONE 970/247-7456
1. Legal Authority
The mission of the Fort
Lewis College Special Collections as regards the College Archives is to
identify, acquire, organize, preserve and make available materials pertaining
to the College that have sufficient historical, ethnographic, legal, fiscal or
administrative significance to warrant their long term preservation.
Special Collections is, in part, the corporate memory of the College and of the
community; it especially serves as an information resource for all persons
interested in the history and development of Fort Lewis College. (See the
Center's Mission
Statement, form SW-36.)
a.
Research and administrative reference: As regards the College
Archives, Special Collections resources support (in descending order of
priority) the work of the departments and individuals who created and/or compiled
the records, undergraduate research work, faculty research, and research by
those beyond the College.
b.
Records Management: The Center is the hub for effective management of records
and information generated, processed or received by the faculty, staff and
students. The Center assists administrative, academic and student offices
by relieving them of the cost and inefficiencies of retaining in their offices
non-current, but historically valuable, records. Records management is
seen as essential to fulfilling the College's mission, assuring economy and
efficiency in the creation, organization, maintenance, use and retrieval of
administrative records, assuring the protection of records that are vital to
the College and ensuring the preservation of historically important records.
c.
Preservation: The Center recognizes that research, exhibition, loans, handling and
storage of its materials must be consonant with sound preservation
practices. These activities must not damage or compromise the integrity
of the materials.
As regards the College
Archives, the Archivist is authorized, on behalf of the College and the Center
of Southwest Studies, to solicit, acquire, accession, appraise, arrange,
describe, deaccession and make available the Archives materials. The
Archivist shall have the right of reasonable access to and examination of all
current College records. Any record-creating or record-compiling office
or department of the College is directed to release to the College Archives for
preservation, administration and access such records legally in that office's
custody that no longer are needed for the transaction of the current business
of that office, whenever the Archivist is willing and able to receive and take
possession of them.
The records of any College
office or department shall, prior to or upon the termination of the existence
and functions of that office or department, be transferred to the custody of
the College Archives for appraisal and disposal, unless otherwise directed by
the Archivist.
Since all
records--including machine readable records--created by an employee of the
College in the performance of his or her duties legally are the property of the
College, upon termination of employment all individuals shall transfer to the
College Archives those records no longer needed for the current operations of their
respective offices or departments. In no case shall anyone remove such
records from the College, or destroy same, without the prior permission of the
Archivist.
The Archivist is
responsible for accessioning, appraising, arranging, describing, deaccessioning
and making available the non-artifact materials of the Center and for assisting
with College records management functions through the creation and
implementation of records schedules and transfer of historically significant
College records to the College Archives.
Fort Lewis College
specializes in teaching and learning in an undergraduate liberal arts
setting. The Center of Southwest Studies strives to document the history
of this basic function as well as to support the Southwest curriculum of the
College. Thus, the College Archives' records shall include all
historically significant and permanently valuable records received or created
by college officials, staff, faculty and students in the course of their Fort
Lewis College duties, regardless of the physical form of the records, whether
on paper, film, magnetic tape or other material, including machine readable
records as well as other types.
The Center solicits
historical materials from College administrators, faculty, students, alumni,
and any person or institution with materials that meet the Center's collecting
policy, resources permitting. Materials offered to the Center that do not
fall within its collecting policy or which are duplicates may be referred first
to an appropriate Fort Lewis College office and then to some other appropriate
repository.
The Center of Southwest
Studies serves as an information resource for persons researching the history
and development of--among other topics--Fort Lewis College. Its primary
users are College administrators, faculty, students, alumni, and other
immediate members of the College community. Its secondary users are
members of the general public.
Effective management of
records and information generated, processed or received by the faculty, staff
and students is essential to fulfilling the College's mission. An effective
records management program assures economy and efficiency in the creation,
organization, maintenance, use and retrieval of administrative records, assures
the protection of records that are vital to the College and ensures the
preservation of historically important records. Such a program requires the
cooperation of all concerned.
Richard
N. Ellis, Director, Center of Southwest Studies
William
C. Langworthy, Vice President for Academic Affairs
Joel
M. Jones, President, Fort Lewis College
form SW-3A
To
the Center of Southwest Studies main page
Page last
modified: Aug. 20, 2001