Special Collections + Archives Collection Development Policy

Sections of this policy include Special Collections Goals, University Archives, Area Research Center, Local History Book Collection, Rare Book Collection, and Records Management Program.

Special Collections Goals

The goals of Special Collections are to:

1. Preserve and organize all collections according to current archival and library standards.
2. Continually improve intellectual control over and access to the collections, including integrating Special Collections holdings into the information systems of the library and university and developing new information services.
3. Enhance all collections through supplementing the university's archives with related historical materials, assisting the Wisconsin Historical Society in acquiring additional historical records related to the Chippewa Valley, and further developing the Rare Book Collection.
4. Provide curricular services and other academic support to the university; create a heightened awareness of the Area Research Center as a laboratory for faculty/student collaborative research in the humanities and social sciences.
5. Provide outreach services to local historical and genealogical societies, museums, libraries, archives, and schools; develop a firm working relationship with local historical societies in the ARC region so that the ARC can serve as a catalyst for sound local history research; publicize holdings.
6. Collaborate with the University of Wisconsin Records Officers Council to develop and implement UW System General Records Schedules on the UW-Eau Claire campus.
7. Collection development is aimed at meeting the needs of a variety of constituencies: university administrators, students and faculty, and the general public of the Chippewa Valley.

University Archives

The specific mission of the University Archives is to:

1. Appraise, collect, organize, describe, interpret, and preserve the university's official permanent records as well as related historical papers.
2. Provide access to these records.
3. Provide information and academic support services to the administration, faculty, students, and others interested in the institution's history.

For the University Archives, collection development seeks to document the activities and functions of the university community, including administration, staff, students, and faculty. The four major areas of interest are:

1. administration of the university,
2. intellectual life on campus,
3. student life and activities, and
4. university/community relations.

Documenting the campus environment and "culture" is particularly difficult; efforts are ongoing to capture it through personal manuscript collections, oral and video history, photographs, and video recordings of presentations. Preservation of electronic records is an important function of the University Archives.

Area Research Center

The specific mission of the Area Research Center is to:

1. House and maintain the six-county regional collections belonging to the Wisconsin Historical Society, that document the social, business, economic, demographic, political, governmental, and administrative history of the Chippewa Valley. The Eau Claire Area Research Center is responsible for collection from a geographic region consisting of the Wisconsin Counties of Eau Claire, Chippewa, Clark, Taylor, Rusk, and Buffalo.
2. Make these collections available to the university community and the public.
3. Provide access to the Wisconsin Historical Society's collections through the Area Research Center Network.

Development of Area Research Center collections involves documenting the history of the six counties of the Chippewa Valley through public records, private papers and manuscripts, oral history, photographs, and maps. Collecting is a joint responsibility of Special Collections and the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Three levels of collecting activity have been identified for the state's Area Research Centers:

1. actively soliciting collections by developing and pursuing leads,
2. accepting unsolicited offers of materials, and
3. referring leads for materials inappropriate for our collections to other repositories.

Among topic areas of interest are the arts; agriculture; communications; industry, business, manufacturing, and the professions; labor; the military; natural resources; politics and government; populations; religion; recreation and leisure; settlement; social organization and activity; and transportation. A collaborative collecting agreement exists between the Area Research Center, the Chippewa Valley Museum, and the L. E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, signed on 30 October 1989.

Local History Book Collection

The Local History Collection consists of local histories, church and organizational histories, city directories, genealogical reference works, commemorative booklets, regional materials published privately or in small quantities and which are difficult to replace, and other resources useful for conducting research in Special Collections. Such materials will be housed in the Area Research Center if they pertain to the Center's geographic region. Works are added to the collection through donations or limited purchase of appropriate materials.

Rare Book Collection

The specific mission for the Rare Book Collection is to:

1. Provide access to, security for, and preservation of McIntyre Library's Rare Book Collection.
2. Collaborate with Rare Books collection development.

Rare Book acquisitions are a low priority for the department. We rely, primarily, on unsolicited donations. Our focus is British and American first editions of literature from about 1850 to 1950.

Records Management Program

The specific mission of the Records Management Program is to:

1. Schedule all university records in accordance with the University of Wisconsin General Records Schedules.
2. Supervise destruction and recycling of temporary records that have reached the end of their life cycle.
3. Develop and implement records management procedures.

Reviewed and updated on May 31, 2017.