Student Club and Organization Records Toolkit

The College Archive is Haverford College's institutional memory and the official repository for records created by the Haverford College community. As such, the College Archive collects, preserves, and makes accessible the records generated by all segments of the Haverford College community. 

Students are the heart of the College community, but while the College Archive has records from administrative and academic offices, the history of students clubs and organizations are sorely underrepresented. To ensure that the history of student life is adequately documented, student clubs and organizations could help fill in the gaps by donating their inactive records to the College Archive. 

If your club or organization is interested in maintaining and preserving your historical records, but is unsure about donating its records to the College Archive, that is OK. The College Archive is an option that is available to your organization for the long-term storage and preservation of your records, but is by no means mandatory. The primary concern of this guide is to advise students on the best means of documenting your time at Haverford for future generations

The Haverford College Archive collects inactive organization/club records- that is, documents and other materials that you consult once a year or less. Archiving is the process of collecting, preserving, and storing inactive records permanently in a safe place, 

By archiving your organization's/club's inactive records at the College Archive, you'll ensure that future group members have a place to consult when they:

• Have questions about projects and events
• Want to reach-out to alumni for reunions or projects
• Find historical information or photograph to promote the organization/club

When records are donated to the College Archives, they are arranged and stored in acid-free folders and boxes and kept in appropriate environmental conditions to ensure the long-term preservation of the documents. Once the collection of records is ready, the archivist will prepare an online finding aid that provides a brief description of the organization and an inventory of the records found in the archives. An example of such a guide can be seen regarding the records of Haverford College Logainian Society records.

The Quaker & Special Collections staff will provide you with reference assistance when you need to access your organization/club's records after the transfer. You will need to come into Quaker and Special Collections during open hours, and register as a researcher. 

No. 1. Contact the College Archivist!  We're here to help you and will meet with your group to answer any question you have. We'll provide: 

• guidelines for packings and inventorying records.
• archival boxes to keep your material safe during transfer to the College Archive.
• help determining the best way to transfer electronic records-by CD, flash drive, portable hard drive, or digital dropbox.

No. 2. Share the plan for archiving your group's records with your members. Arrange a visit the College Archive to see where and how records are stored and cared for. Make sure you have the group's approval before transferring records to the us. 

No. 3. Pack and transfer records to the College Archives

• Pick up boxes from us and pack your non-electronic records
  • create and inventory for each box
  • label each box with your organization name, date, and contact person
  • schedule a time to bring your record to the College Archives
• Arrange for transfer of electronic record with the College Archivist

No. 4. Don't forget where the records are!

• Make sure incoming officers and members are aware of the archiving plan.
• Make transferring records to the College Archive a routine, do it annually- e.g. at the end of each academic year. 
• Designate an organizational historian to serve as liaison to the College Archive.