Mission Statement
The mission of the University Archives to collect, preserve, and provide equal access to University organizational records of enduring administrative, fiscal, legal, and historical value for use by students, professors, staff and the general public in support of administrative service, instruction, and research. The University Archives strives to strengthen this effort in order to better promote knowledge and understanding of the evolving history, impact and goals of the University.
Collection Focus
The University Archives (UA) program is engaged in collecting official institutional records. A University record is any information, regardless of physical form or characteristics, which serves to document the organization, functions, policies, or other activities of the institution. Any record produced or received by any University school, department, agency or employee in the transaction of organizational business becomes an official record. The personal papers and other documents of affiliated individuals, such as professors, staff and students, are not official records and are not actively collected by the University Archives at this time.
Collection strengths of the University Archives include significant material related to the offices of the President, Provost, Vice-President for Administration and Finance, and University Relations and Institutional Research. The UA also contains an important set of historic Governance Records, documentation of Eastern College (one of the University’s predecessor institutions), major runs of University and student publications, significant Law School records and a photograph collection.
The UA collections reflect a legacy focus on documenting major University-wide offices. Much less well documented are the College of Public Affairs, the Merrick School of Business, Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences, the University centers and institutes and the libraries. Beyond official paper records, there have been small projects involving University oral histories and electronic records management.
Given limited resources and other major priorities, it is anticipated that the University Archives will continue to accept new historical records transferred by various offices, particularly those less documented, but will not engage in a comprehensive collecting program.
Function and Users
The University Archives supports several programmatic functions, including administrative service and research. The primary role of the UA is to provide research and content to meet various University administrative, public relations, and alumni needs. The UA also supports faculty, students, and the general public interested in conducting research on the history of the University.