Archives and Special Collections - Policies & Forms

The Salve Regina University Archives retains the permanent records of the university, including materials of many types that document the history, development, and administration of the institution. The earliest records in the Archives date to 1934.

Materials documenting the following activities are a high collecting priority:

• Founding of the university
• Governance and financial management
• Maintenance of facilities
• Formulation and evaluation of the curriculum
• Student activities, including residential life, sports, and extracurricular activities
• Research by faculty and students
• Promotion of culture through special events, the archives, and the library

Archival records may be in any format, including paper, photographs, film, tape, disk, video, and digital formats. In the case of audiovisual items, the Archives prefers to receive high-quality digital files saved in standard, lossless file formats. All acquisitions must be approved by the University Archivist, who reserves the right to determine the usefulness and appropriateness of materials offered to or received for the collection. Materials are retained in the Archives if they are unique or if they document the history of the university or demonstrate the work and purpose of an office or organization.

The Archives will also accept alumni donations of university-related items, provided that the Archives and university incur no obligation to retain such donations in any prescribed form.

Salve Regina University owns the copyrights to material created by staff, faculty, or university departments. Donors from outside the university will sign a gift agreement transferring all rights to Salve Regina University.

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The Special Collections contain items that have significance to the university, its individuals, and its programs but which are not records produced by the institution itself. The collections include rare and special books as well as periodicals, pamphlets, ephemera, and manuscripts.

Materials to be considered for inclusion in the Special Collections must meet at least one of the criteria listed below.

• Imprint date of 1865 or earlier
• Scarcity
• Miniature size
• Special physical properties
• Significant provenance
• Subject, author, or publisher relevance to the collection
• Consistency with the university's mission
• Relevance to the university's curriculum
• Relationship to an existing special collection

Special Collections will accept materials in the following physical formats:

• Printed books, pamphlets, periodicals, and ephemera
• Records in manuscript, typescript or printed format
• Photographs and pictorial images, e.g. images produced through mechanical printing processes (such as postcards or lithographs), photos produced through chemical photographic printing processes (such as gelatin prints), color slides, 120mm and 35mm negatives, or digital files in TIFF or JPEG file format. Born-digital images should contain adequate pixel dimensions for printing and publication. In some cases, Special Collections will accept computer printouts of digital photos.
• Films on DVD
• Sound recordings on CD or DVD
• Original art and three-dimensional objects only if they relate to associated material and to the university's mission and/or curriculum

Occasionally, a donor will offer a collection of materials on a defined subject for inclusion in Special Collections. A decision about acceptance of these collections will be made by the Special Collections Librarian after review of the collection's condition, formats, subject content, and suitability based on the guidelines in this document. These proffered collections should be of sufficient quality for permanent preservation and must be available for public access.

Organizations or individuals interested in donating materials to the University Archives or Special Collections should contact the Archivist/Special Collections Librarian. The Society of American Archivists has created several brochures about donating materials. These can be accessed online, or paper copies can be requested from the Archivist:

• Donating Your Personal or Family Papers to a Repository
• Donating Your Organizational Records to a Repository
• A Guide to Deeds of Gift

• If you have completed an oral history interview for the Archives, please submit a release form.

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