Fort Lewis College Archives Policy
as approved November 28,
1995; changes to section 6 were approved January 21, 1999;
deletion of one sentence of section 6 was approved by
the Southwest Center Deaccessions/Accessions Committee on Oct. 18,
2000.
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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
-end of policy statement--
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Page last modified: December 12, 2001