Web Content Display About the Archives
(For Hours and Directions please click here.) The University Archives/Ethnic Studies Center supports Inman E. Page Library’s mission to enhance and support the curriculum of Lincoln University of Missouri by preserving historical material and promoting cultural awareness. To meet this end, the Archives:
The University Archives/Ethnic Studies Center aspires to be a leading institution in African/Black American research, specifically in the area of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). The Archives enhances the University’s reputation for ethnic studies by improving the cognitive and effective development of its students, faculty/staff and surrounding community, and by enabling the University to coordinate a wide range of activities aimed at fostering multicultural and multiracial experiences. In order to fulfill the goals set forth in the Mission Statement, the Archives performs the following functions:
The University Archives/Ethnic Studies Center was established by the University’s Administration and Faculty in 1978 under a grant from the Advanced Institutions Development Program (AIDP) of the United States Office of Education. The University, with over one hundred years of service as an HBCU and present-day diverse student and faculty population, planned this department to foster multi-cultural and multi-racial experiences. Its main challenge was to effectively bridge the cultural and subcultural chasms that often separate various ethnic groups. In 1997, the department’s function expanded to serve as the official repository of the University. Archival StaffMark Schleer, Archivist Ithaca Bryant, Assistant Librarian Procedural InformationPolicy #1: Donation of Materials, Existence of Archives, Accepting Outside Donations or Donations from retired Faculty, Staff and/or Administrators The University Archives is the official depository for all documents possessing enduring historical value generated by or about Lincoln University of Missouri and its subsidiaries. The University Archives serves as the depository for those University-generated materials declared permanent by the State of The University Archives is the only depository for official University-generated materials. To meet this end, the University Archives seeks to collect and preserve the following:
An official Deed to Donation (Appendix A) or Transfer of Records (Appendix B) must be completed and agreed upon by both the donating party and the University Archivist or designee before the transfer of property to the University Archives. Purpose The University Archives collects and preserves the official records and those determined to possess enduring historical value to chronicle the University’s history and maintain the University’s accountability as a state-supported, public institution. Scope This policy applies to all University academic or administrative departments and employees, including the Extension offices. Responsibilities A) The University Archives is responsible for securing and preserving the materials placed in its care. B) The University Archives is responsible for providing access to the collections as appropriate (restrictions may be placed by the donor, University policy or governmental laws). C) The University Archives shall actively seek and otherwise encourage the donation of professional and personal papers from administrative officers, faculty, staff, Alumni and academic/social organizations. D) The University Archivist or Archival staff is responsible for reevaluating and reappraising the University Archives holdings at any time determined by the University Archivist. E) The Ethnic Studies Committee, appointed by the University President, is responsible for assisting the University Archivist in creating and/or collection management policies and procedures. The Ethnic Studies Committee is also responsible for approving said policies. F) Major policy changes, such as the creation of a collection management plan or changes in the accessioning/de-accessioning policies (not procedures) must be approved by the University President. G) All other policy changes may be approved by the Ethnic Studies Committee. Procedural changes are at the discretion of the University Archivist. Procedures A) The receiving University Archives staff will complete a “Deed to Donation” form with the donor. The donor and University Archivist will sign the form at time of donation. If the University Archivist or designee is not available, a signed copy of the form will be mailed to the donor (an unsigned copy may be supplied at the time of donation). i. All donor access and use restrictions must be specified in the Deed to Donation. All literary rights are conveyed to Lincoln University (MO), unless otherwise restricted by copyright law or by the donor and agreed to by the University Archivist at the time of donation. ii. The donor agreement will specify all rights and responsibilities of the University Archives toward the donated materials. B) Once the materials are officially transferred to the University Archives, the staff will send a thank you letter to the donor on behalf of the University Archives. C) The University Archives staff will occasionally reappraise the historical value of its holdings. If any item in its collection is chosen for deaccessioning, the collection will be offered to the original donor or their next of kin if requested at the time of donation. If the original donor does not want to reclaim the materials, the University Archives reserves the right to offer the items to another depository or discard them. D) Collections should not be broken into smaller collections or parts integrated into existing collections except in predetermined cases, such as yearbooks, Board of Curator Minutes, University President Annual reports and university bulletins and only when this addition is non-existent in the existing collection. The University Archivist must approve the breaking of any collection prior to it being broken. Policy #2: Transfer of Departmental Records What should each department do and what should they transfer? The University Archives seeks and accepts the transfer of all inactive departmental/office records of the University and its constituents with enduring historical value. All departmental reports and correspondences must be transferred in a physical format. The posting of Websites does not constitute the transfer of these records to the University Archives. Digital formats will be accepted on a case-by-case basis and generally only for the express purpose of obtaining digital-born materials, such as film and photographs. To transfer records to the University Archives, an employee must first contact an archival staff member to discuss the records’ enduring historical value. This may result in an office visit by the University Archivist to the department wishing to make the transfer. The University Archives’ function is not replacing or assuming the role of the University’s Records Manager, which is currently located in the Purchasing Office. The University Archives may not accept items restricted from public viewing by Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the Privacy Act of 1974. Therefore, we may not accept medical records, grades or disciplinary action reports (employee or student) unless donated directly by the person affected. This individual must sign a waiver in order for the items to be accessible to the public. We do accept Board of Curator Minutes, with the understanding that entries containing protected information will be restricted. Purpose Departmental/office documents, photographs and other ephemera are essential aids for documenting University organization and history. The accessioning of these transfers is necessary to maintain a record of provenance. This process also records the transfer of legal and physical custody to the University Archives. Scope This policy applies to all University academic or administrative departments and employees, including the Extension offices. Responsibilities A) The University Archivist is responsible for creating and maintaining transfer and accessioning policies. B) The University Archives staff will be responsible for aiding the departments/offices in the transfer process. For larger donations (over two boxes) the transferring department must complete a work order with University maintenance to transfer the records and/or items. C) The University Archives staff is responsible for assessing the records and for determining the enduring historical value. D) The University Archives staff and student workers (under the direction of staff) will provide the safe storage and re-housing of all accessioned records. E) The University Archives staff and student workers (under the direction of staff) are responsible for following the accessioning guidelines listed below for each transfer. F) The University Archivist is responsible for periodically photocopying the Accession Register for a security copy. G) The University Archives staff and student workers (under the direction of staff) will provide record-level finding aids or update current finding aids for each transfer. H) A Page Library staff member approached by a department representative wishing to transfer material is responsible for referring this individual to the University Archives. The Page Library staff member should not accept donations directly unless prior arrangements have been made. In this special case, the Page Library staff member is responsible for following the accessing guidelines and procedures—most importantly, completing a Transfer of Records (Appendix B) form. Procedures A) Departments/offices desiring to transfer records to the University Archives should contact the archival staff for assistance in selecting items with enduring historical value. At this time, an archival staff member will send the Record of Transfer form via email to the departmental/office contact. B) The University Archives staff will work with the Purchasing Office to determine which records in the latter office’s care have enduring historical value. These records will be transferred to the University Archives from the Purchasing Office. C) Transferred records may be sent from the originating office either via campus mail or through the maintenance department (work order). D) Upon receipt of new records, the archival staff should confirm that the records received are correctly reflected on the Record of Transfer form. Then the archival staff should assign an Accession Number to all boxes involved in the transfer (See Classification of Records). E) An archival staff member will move the collection into Room 316 for furthering processing. F) If a small number of items are transferred to the University Archives from another office, it is unnecessary to complete a Record of Transfer form. Complete the accession process as you would with a larger collection. G) “In-box” donations will be filed in the Lincoln University Vertical Files folders according to their subject. An archival staff member must approve any new subjects being added to the vertical files listing, and this addition must be reflected on the master copy of the Vertical File List. Policy #3: Reference Services and Procedures The University Archives staff, including temporary and student workers, will provide users with professional and courteous service. Reference assistance is available to all students, alumni, employees and the general public. All researchers Purpose The purpose of this policy is to minimize loss or damage of archival holdings. Scope This policy applies to all University Archives staff, temporary staff and student workers. Responsibilities Currently all email requests are directed to the University Archivist. S/he may redistribute the duties of fulfilling these requests at her/his discretion. Procedures for how each service is accomplished Duplication Services Duplication services, either photocopying or scanning, may be restricted due to material condition, type or content; copyright restrictions; donor restrictions; or state/federal restrictions. All duplication processes must be performed by a Page Library staff member or student worker who has been properly trained in handling said material (copying/scanning images is different from paper documents). Oversized items will not be scanned/photocopied due to equipment restrictions. The University Archives also houses motion picture film and videotape. These items are available for viewing at Page Library. Duplications of these items can be made through the Page Library Media Center. For more information on costs, please contact the Media Center staff at (573) 681-5260. A University Archives staff or student worker must transfer of original items to and from the Media Center. Digital reproductions are available in TIFF, JPEG or PDF formats, and can be scanned in resolutions ranging from 72-300 dpi. Scanned items may be emailed up to 1 MB. Requests totaling more than 1MB must be delivered via a CD. A user may purchase a CD or may supply a new CD. In order to protect our computer equipment, used CDs and flash drives will not be accepted. Duplications may be made for personal or publication use. Copyright restrictions do apply and permission to broadcast, publish or exhibit may be obtained by completing the correct form (Appendix C). Some items in our collection are in the public domain or have unknown origins; however, the user must still obtain permission from Lincoln University for use of the image. The user is ultimately responsible for obtaining all necessary copyrights for broadcasting, exhibiting and/or publication.
If we are unable to perform a duplication service due to equipment restrictions, then that service may be outsourced at the researcher’s expense. A Page Library staff member must transport items to and from the outsource agency. Purpose The purpose of this policy is to minimize loss or damage of archival holdings. Proper duplication guidelines and procedures will ensure duplication quality and protection of holdings. Scope This policy applies to all University Archives staff, temporary staff and student workers. Responsibilities A) The University Librarian will grant permission to publish, broadcast or exhibit. The University Archives staff will approve the duplication of archival records not to be used in a publication. B) The University Archives staff and student workers will assist users with completing the proper forms to request duplications. C) The Page Library Media Center staff is responsible for duplicating film or videotapes. Procedures A) For duplicating documents: a. The user writes the page number or document title on a Copy Slip (Appendix D) and then places the slip back inside the folder where the requested items are located. b. The user should use special care that the original order of the documents is not disrupted during this process. c. A University Archives staff or student worker will take items, one folder at a time, to the copy (Room 315). d. The University Archives staff or student worker is responsible for completing a Copy Slip for recording the cost. Copies are $.10 per page. e. Note: The automatic feeder should not be used to copy original or fragile documents. B) For duplicating images: a. The user completes a Request for Copies form (Appendix E). b. The user can indicate on the form if they want a photocopy or a scanned copy of the image. If requesting a scanned copy, the user must complete Permission to Publish, Broadcast or Exhibit form, and they will not receive their digital duplicate until the form is signed by the University Librarian. c. Images are noted by the item number written on the back of each image. d. Once the item number is written on the correct form, the image is placed back in its originating folder. C) Charge Out Procedures A Charge Out is when an individual is granted permission to remove a collection (in whole or in parts) from the archives for business/reference use. Only originating departments/offices are allowed to charge out records from the University Archives. All other researchers must view the collection in the University Archives (PL 314).
Purpose The purpose of this policy is to minimize loss or damage of archival holdings. Scope This policy applies to all University Archives staff, temporary staff and student workers.
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