Donating Materials to University Archives

The first step in arranging a donation is to contact the University Archives to assist you with the process:

Amy Allen

  • University Archivist
  • ala005@uark.edu
  • 479-575-6370

If you are a faculty member who is leaving the university please refer to the Guidelines for Retiring Faculty.

The University Archives is designated as the official repository for the preservation of archival content in all formats about the University. Documents designated as archival should be inactive and no longer used in the current activities of the originating office. Only documents of enduring historical value which can be made accessible to the public will be accepted. In the absence of a records management program, the University Archives must rely on the cooperation and support of administrators, deans, directors, faculty, staff, students and alumni to ensure that materials of historical value are collected and preserved.

Collection Policy

The following types of materials are collected for the University Archives:

All University

  • Annual reports and audits
  • Architectural documents, building plans, blueprints, and planning reports (current plans remain with Facilities Maintenance)
  • Art accession records, not works of art
  • Fundraising materials
  • General event materials, including promotional materials, programs, and video/audio
  • Maps
  • Oral histories, interviews, video clips
  • Organizational charts
  • Photographs, slides, negatives, digital images, and scrapbooks
  • Policy and procedure manuals
  • Press releases
  • Recruitment materials
  • Self studies and accreditation reports
  • All publications, newsletters, posters, or booklets about or distributed in the name of the institution or one of its sub-units, e.g. brochures, books, posters, magazines, catalogs, special bulletins, yearbooks, student newspapers, university directories and faculty/ staff rosters, and alumni publications

Administration

Board or Trustees, President, Chancellor, Vice Chancellors, Deans, and Directors:

  • Biographical material
  • Correspondence
  • Legal or constituting documents (charters, constitutions, by-laws)
  • Minutes
  • Mission statements
  • Reports
  • Speeches
  • Subject files
  • Substantive memoranda (not daily correspondence)

Academic and Research Units

Colleges, Schools, Departments, Institutes, Centers and other units of the University:

  • Biographical material/ Faculty vitae
  • Conference proceedings
  • Unit histories
  • Lecture series
  • Minutes
  • Reports
  • Research proposals and project reports, including grant records
  • Speeches/Presentations by faculty
  • Subject files
  • Substantive Memoranda (not daily correspondence)
  • White papers

Committees

Official Committees, Task Forces and similar bodies of the University:

  • Final reports, plans or proposals
  • Membership rosters
  • Minutes
  • Substantive Memoranda (not daily correspondence)

Organizations

Faculty, Staff, Honor, Student, and Alumni Organizations:

  • Event materials, including promotional materials, programs, and video/audio
  • Legal or constituting documents (charters, constitutions, by-laws)
  • Membership rosters
  • Minutes
  • Mission Statements
  • Photographs
  • Reports
  • Substantive Memoranda (not daily correspondence)

The following materials are NOT collected by the University Archives:

General

  • Agendas
  • Archeological artifacts, including artifacts from countries outside the U.S. and artifacts from American Indian tribes
  • Art works
  • Duplicate copies: keep only the original and heavily annotated copies
  • Forms (blank)
  • Legal case files
  • Mail and phone logs
  • Medical records
  • Non-personally addressed correspondence, such as “To: Deans and Directors” memoranda
  • Operating Manuals (equipment)
  • Published statutes, laws, regulations, etc.
  • Transitory or short-term correspondence and memoranda
  • Three-dimensional objects (works of art, trophies, and other artifacts)
  • Vouchers
  • Warranties and guarantees

Accounting

  • Daily accounting records
  • Bank and financial statements
  • Bills and receipts
  • Checks
  • Invoices
  • Budget files (working papers)
  • Cash-books, day-books and cash-journals
  • Equipment inventory
  • Payroll records
  • Purchase orders
  • Purchasing records

Personnel

  • Personnel files (active or inactive)
  • Case files
  • Confidential faculty, staff and student records
  • Conflict of interest records
  • Employment application files
  • Employment eligibility verification records
  • Grievance files (personnel)
  • Leave records; benefit records
  • Personnel evaluations
  • Promotion and tenure files

Teaching and Research

  • Books, research papers, and journal articles written by persons not associated with the U of A
  • Exams, term papers, and student projects
  • Grade books and class rolls
  • Questionnaires, if the results are recorded and preserved in a published report
  • Rejected or not-funded grant proposals and files
  • Grants fiscal records
  • Teaching evaluation records
  • Time and attendance records or reports