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For further information, including all policies and procedures, see the following in the Docs & Policies section of CamelWeb:

 The Records Management Program

College records, regardless of format, serve a variety of administrative, legal, and fiscal needs for the personnel in the offices that originally created and used them. These records must be managed so that they are well-organized, easily accessible, safely stored, and properly disposed of when their use and value ends.

In 1990, the Board of Trustees recognized the need to establish formal guidelines for identifying and managing records of importance to the College’s operations and history, issuing a mandate which formally established the College Archives (now part of the Linda Lear Center for Special Collections and Archives):

  • "A records retention plan will be developed for each department to guide faculty and staff in managing their records and files. Records should not be discarded without first consulting the retention plan or, if necessary, the department head and the College Archivist.
  • The Archivist shall be given reasonable access to college records in order to develop a records retention and disposal plan for each department in cooperation with the department head. All non-current material of enduring value shall be transferred to the Archives according to a schedule unless otherwise decided by the department head and the Archivist."

(Mandate for the College Archives by the Connecticut College Board of Trustees, August 1990)

Definition of College Records

Records are any information which is created, received, used, or maintained as a part of routine, daily business activity, and which reflect College academic, business, and related activities and transactions.

Records can hold operational, legal, fiscal, vital, or historical value, and can exist in any format--paper, digital, email, photographic, sound, video, etc.

Records have a lifecycle, from creation to disposition. The lifecycle of records is organized into three stages, which help determine their use and disposition:

  • Active: Records that are referred to regularly and/or are needed to support current or ongoing business activities of a department or office
  • Inactive: Records that have not been referenced for at least one year or for which the designated active period has passed
  • Permanent or Archival: Records which are determined to contain historical, administrative, and/or research value to the College and which the College maintains indefinitely (determined by College Archives). Note: some permanent records must be maintained because of legal requirements or  institutional practice, and may not become part of the College Archives. Please contact the College Archivist with questions about permanent and archival records.