Archives are the records of a government or institution.  Since they
consist of records of various units of a government, the collection is
called "archives" plural as it may contain the archive (collection) of
many units.     Archives is also used as the name of the building that
houses the collection (like a Library has a library).

You have to define the function of what you want your archives to hold.
If it is the permanent records that show the history, development of
policy, and contributions of an organization, then yes, things like
vital statistics, minutes, reports, etc. will be part of the archives of
your organization.   In short, they should be those materials of
permanent and enduring value or which are historically important.    For
example, we are often called upon to provide enrollment statistics for
any given year as long as the University has been in operation;
certainly those are statistics that some organizations would not retain
but we do because it is the kind of historical information that is
needed to show the growth and history of our institution.

There is no such thing as a record automatically becoming an archive.
You have to define the purpose and collection, goals and mission of your
archives if you are saving them.    I've been trying to work with our
school board to make them understand that yearbooks, newspapers of
various schools are historically important even though the board does
not see them as board records, for example.

Dean

Dean DeBolt
University Librarian, Special Collections
John C. Pace Library, University of West Florida
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL  32514-5750
850-474-2213
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-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Leclair, Brianne
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 3:11 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [RM] Archives in school Boards

I work for a public school Board, I'm currently updating our Archives
regulation.

If a record is of legal or operational value to the Board or contains
vital statistical information, does it automatically make it an Archive?


I can understand that some legal and operational records have long term
value, but does it make it an Archive? And as far as I know the
Governments are suppose to keep the Vital Statistics information.  So
why would we want to have those records in our Archives?  

Not sure if what I'm asking makes sense, if it does any feedback would
be helpful.

Thanks,
Brianne Scott (formerly Leclair)
Assistant Records Analyst
Calgary Board of Education



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