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Guidelines for Faculty


The purpose of this guideline is to assist faculty members in identifying records that might be suitable for long-term preservation in the University Archives. Overall, records that meet these criteria are those that are generated from activities that are significant to MUSC.

Please note that records belonging to individuals are as varied as the careers that produced them; the context of their creation influences their content, form, arrangement, and usefulness for research. Generalizations about what records might have archival value are further complicated by the difficulty of predicting what might be of greatest value to future researchers. The following should serve only as a basis for discussion between the records creator and the archivist.

Faculty, both current and former, are encouraged to donate records from their professional tenure with the Medical University of South Carolina.

Administrative Records

This series contains records created by faculty administrative activities at the Medical University of South Carolina and its affiliated teaching hospitals. Please note that where faculty members hold a major administrative role in an office or department, the records generated by that office or department should remain with the creating organization. For example, a faculty member who is also a Dean or department chair may create reports, correspondence, or personnel evaluations in that role; these records should remain in the office of the Dean or department.

Records that may be considered for acquisition include:

  • grant records (reports, audits, etc.),
  • fundraising records
  • meeting records
  • faculty committee records
  • photographs and audiovisual materials
  • program planning and development records
  • program administration records
  • administrative correspondence
  • pre-1980 ad hoc committee records (if chair)
  • legal records.

Records not ordinarily eligible for acquisition include:

  • financial records
  • personnel records and evaluations
  • facility maintenance and operations records
  • position search records (ad hoc) after 1980, and
  • non-grant contracts

Teaching Records

This series contains records created by teaching activities.

Records that may be considered for acquisition include:

  • syllabi
  • lectures and lecture notes
  • class materials and teaching aids (e.g. handouts)
  • slides, if unpublished, identified, with sufficient context in terms of text documentation, and high level of association with the creator

Records not ordinarily eligible for acquisition include:

  • grade records
  • examinations
  • student lists
  • evaluations of students or faculty
  • course or class arrangement records

Research Records

This series contains records generated by research activities. Evaluation of research records considers the impact of the research on the field, the potential for re-use of the data, and the completeness of the records.

Records that may be considered for acquisition include:

  • meeting minutes or other planning records
  • laboratory notebooks
  • unaggregated or raw data
  • research notes
  • video/audio records
  • surveys
  • reports
  • photographs
  • specimens (in certain cases)
  • electronic research data and records
  • systems documentation (systems overview, data dictionaries, code books, etc.)
  • consent forms
  • research correspondence.

Records not ordinarily eligible for acquisition include:

  • microscope slides
  • certain types of specimens

Professional Records

This series contains records created by professional activities outside of MUSC, such as participation in professional associations or publications.

Records that may be considered for acquisition include:

  • professional correspondence
  • speeches and non-teaching lectures
  • unpublished writings
  • significant drafts of seminal published writings
  • records created through editorial activities
  • professional association records
  • records generated through non-MUSC consulting or work with private and non-profit organizations
  • photographs and audio visual materials relating to work with professional organizations and, in some cases
  • health consumer correspondence.

Records not ordinarily eligible for acquisition include:

  • records generated from making travel arrangements (e.g. itineraries and plane ticket stubs)
  • published writings that are easily acquired
  • meeting arrangement records
  • membership cards
  • other people's publications
  • other people's unsuccessful/rejected manuscript submissions
  • manuscript review requests
  • recommendations

Personal Papers

This series contains records created by the individual outside of work or professional capacities.

Records that may be considered for acquisition include:

  • student notes
  • diaries
  • CVs
  • daily planners
  • personal correspondence
  • personal photographs and, in some cases
  • family photographs and
  • family correspondence or family records

Records not ordinarily eligible for acquisition include:

  • personal accounting or financial records
  • newspaper clippings and obituaries
  • legal records (e.g. wills)
  • blueprints
  • holiday cards
  • currently unreadable or unidentified electronic or audiovisual records (e.g. 3 x 5 floppy disks)

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