Proactive management of records is a responsibility shared by every department and unit at Catholic University, if not every entity across the Catholic world.  Can this be true, you ask? Well, see statements of both the Vatican and the American Bishops.  We understand that record keeping can appear to be an intimidating – perhaps even impossible – task, particularly when a long period has passed without any active sorting and archiving of office records.  The staff of the University Special Collections, which includes University Archives, would like campus offices to know our staff is available for consultations, including on-site visits, regarding best practices for records retention and disposition.  We can also remind each office what records they already have archived with us, and how to access such if needed. Despite the heat, summertime is generally the most convenient time to review and decide on records disposition or archiving.

CatholicU’s archives was founded in 1949 to serve as the university’s institutional memory with authority to acquire and administer records with enduring evidential, legal, informational, and intrinsic value. Holdings date back to records to the foundihttps://www.jstor.org/stable/community.38733460 first volume of the minutes of the Board of Trustees, and extend forward to include correspondence, photographs, film, and digital records detailing growth and operations well into the twenty first century. The Archives is a resource for administrators seeking important legal documents, professor researching departmental histories, public relations looking for old photographs, alumni searching for information on former students, students who want to review university publications, and all others interested in CatholicU’s past.

Proper disposition of university records is paramount. Those of permanent historical value are to be transferred to the Archives while, after consultation with Archives and General Counsel staff, others can be shredded. Records deposited in the Archives are only accessible to the people in your office unless they are more than fifty (50) years old and not legal or personnel files. Anyone else seeking access would require official permission from the head of your office directly communicated to your friendly neighborhood University Archivist. Donating office of creation retains rights of controlling access and borrowing back for office use, but such university offices may NOT destroy any records once in the custody of the Archives.

Your office is responsible for the moving and transfer of records to the Archives. Please use 12 x 15 inch record center boxes. If you do not have boxes of this size, we can provide them to you. Types of records for consideration include annual reports, meeting minutes, correspondence, student records, non-academic staff records, academic/faculty records, faculty activity reports, faculty tenure and promotion files, search committee files, requisitions/purchase orders, budget files, newspaper clippings, office publications, university publications, audio/visual records, research grants project files, and digital/electronic records. Please note that there is no currently stated official university policy for digital records, including born digital records, but we will provide the what advice we can based on best practices. For more information, please email lib-archives@cua.edu at any time.