Records Transfers

The University of Wyoming Archives preserves significant records documenting the history and activities the institution and its schools, departments, programs, and offices. Because of the vast amount of paperwork which is created at an institution of this size and the content of the information contained in that paperwork, only a small percentage of records can be preserved. Accordingly, some general guidelines have been established to ensure that records of importance are preserved, but do not cover all records.

The following types of non-current, inactive records are commonly transferred to the University Archives:

• Constitution and by-laws, minutes and proceedings, and list of officers of University Board of Trustees from their office of origin.
• Office Files: correspondence and memoranda of a school's or department's principal administrators relating to the policies, curriculum development, and operations of that unit.
• Reports, such as annual reports, accreditation reports, self-studies, planning documents, and reports on special topics.
• Proposals for new programs and facilities, and planning documents.
• Publications such as bulletins, course schedules, newsletters, programs, and promotional literature.
• Minutes of meetings with accompanying reports and documents.
• Organizational charts.
• A representative sample of photographs and audio-visual records relating to the activities of the unit and its personnel.

The following types of records can be discarded when they are no longer administratively or legally required:

• Office copies of student and personnel records, including faculty dossiers, annual evaluations, promotion and tenure files, and search committee files. NOTE: These records are convenience copies of administrators and not the official University personnel file.
• Routine financial and administrative records, such as requisitions, travel expenses vouchers, payroll time sheets, accounting reports, etc.
• Drafts of reports and correspondence (Exceptions: for major planning documents, save preliminary discussion documents, background reports which served as the basis for different sections, and drafts which contain substantive differences from the final versions.)
• Routine acknowledgments, circulars, notifications, requests, and transmittals.
• Multiple copies of a single document.
• Blank forms.
• Convenience copies of publications, reports, memos, etc., for which your office was not the originator or the office of record.
• Copies of widely circulated documents such as Trustee minutes; Faculty Senate minutes; memoranda to Deans, Directors, and Department Heads; procedure manuals, and memoranda to all faculty unless your office is the office of origin for the document.

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Procedures for Preparing and Transferring Records

1. Consult Mark Shelstad at the American Heritage Center (x2574) to ensure that your records are scheduled for transfer to the archives. In the event of a large volume of records to be transferred, its best of have the records examined before they are sent and staff may want to participate in packing them for shipment. Annual transfers of these records are preferred.

• Each office will have to provide what types of records you have for transfer (i.e. subject files, committee records, personnel files, etc.) and if a records schedule for your department has been completed.
• Each office will also have to provide how much you have to transfer (i.e. number of file drawers of records).
• The record will need to be boxed properly.  Please contact the UW Bookstore to obtain the correct boxes.  
• An inventory form (19 k) and a transfer form (26 k) wiill need to be completed as part of the transfer process.

2. Preparing records for transfer.

• Remove duplicate copies of documents; one copy is sufficient.
• Remove drafts of documents; retain only the final version unless there is none.
• Discard materials that have no informational value, such as, envelopes, route slips, phone messages, and illegible notes.
• Remove rubber bands and paper clips; use staples.
• Remove materials from ring binders and hanging folders and place in file folders; maintain the original order of the records. Transfer information from the ring binders and hanging folders to the file folders; if more than one folder is needed label as, for example, "folder 1 of 2," "folder 2 of 2," etc.

3. Box the records scheduled for transfer.

• Maintain the filing arrangement of the records (i.e. alphabetic, numeric, chronological, subject).
• Keep the records in their original file folders and ensure that the files are clearly labeled; include span dates. (Example: Space Planning, 1983-1990).
• Do not over-pack or under-pack the boxes.
• Clearly label the boxes.

Call or e-mail Mark Shelstad (x2574) to arrange pickup of your records or if you have any questions.

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