University Archives collects the personal papers of eminent UNC faculty that do not fit into the collecting areas of the Southern Historical Collection, Southern Folklife Collection, or the Rare Book Collection. Due to space and limited resources, we cannot collect the personal papers of every UNC faculty member. We use the following criteria to determine if these papers warrant acquisition and preservation by University Archives:
- research value of the papers;
- faculty member’s record of service to UNC and contribution to its growth and development;
- faculty member’s record of service and contribution to community, state, and/or national affairs;
- faculty member’s national or international reputation in an academic field.
Also, not every document is worth retaining permanently. Below are a list of the types of documents we collect and a list of those we do not collect.
If you have questions about the types of records we collect or are unsure if your papers belong in the Archives, please contact us. We can put you in touch with the other special collections in Wilson Library and provide advice on the types of papers you have.
TYPES OF DOCUMENTS WE COLLECT:
- correspondence (including email)
- diaries and journals
- biographical material (resumes, curriculum vitae, bibliographies, biographical sketches, personal memoirs, etc.)
- grant proposals and reports
- records of committees that the faculty member chaired
- literary manuscripts
- speeches and lectures
- lecture notes
- course syllabi
- photographs
- audio-visual materials (unique, non-commercial recordings and raw tape/files)
- observational research data (data that are time bound and difficult to recover, repeat, or reconstruct)
TYPES OF DOCUMENTS WE DO NOT COLLECT:
- drafts of significant publications, although we may evaluate these on a case-by-case basis
- student records such as papers, assignments, and grades (these are confidential under the Family Educational and Privacy Rights Act (FERPA))
- experimental research data (data that is generated through a repeatable process; the documents accumulated during literary and historical research are included in this category as they can be reassembled)
- books and other publications, such as journals and magazines, including reprints, off-prints, and preprints
- university publications such as issues of the Daily Tar Heel or Carolina Alumni Review. (Library staff will consider the Daily Tar Heel and the Carolina Alumni Review, as well as department newsletters to fill in gaps in library holdings where they exist.)
