On this page:
“You remember too much, my mother said to me recently. Why hold onto all that? And I said, Where can I put it down?”
Building our University Archives collections
The University Archives aims to capture the history of the University through the transfer of institutional records.
Whether you are looking to set up regular transfers of records from your department to the archives or if you have had a one-off office clear-out and have found records you believe to have historical significance, this page offers guidance on how to proceed.
The University's retention schedule
In line with current data protection legislation the university governance team have drawn together a retention schedule for use across the university.
A retention schedule lists the types of records an organisation creates, provides guidance as to how long records should be kept within their originating department, and designates what should happen to them once they have reached the end of this retention period.
The university's retention schedule acknowledges that many records created in the course of our work have potential historical value and advises records holders to notify Information Compliance where such records are encountered. Looking at the retention schedule can be a useful start when trying to assess whether records are suitable for transfer to archives.
You can find the university's retention schedule on Sharepoint or access a direct link to the document here.
What type of material do we collect?
As a rough guide, here are just some of the key records we collect (in all formats whether paper or digital):
- Annual reports and other corporate and administrative records
- Committee minutes and papers
- Project files
- Promotional material e.g. prospectus, newsletters, leaflets etc.
- Photographs
- Records relating to course design and development
- Examination papers
- Organisation charts
And much, much more - your department creates many records that could be crucial to capturing and telling the stories of our university in years to come.
The records transfer process
If you have identified a set of records you wish to transfer to the archives, please take the following steps:
1. Physically gather the records together.
2. Complete an internal transfer form and email it to us at the following address archives@hull.ac.uk. This allows us to assess the type of material to be transferred and to provide you with further guidance.
3. One of our archivists will contact you upon receipt of the transfer form to discuss the matter and make arrangements for the material to be sent to Hull History Centre.
If the material to be transferred is extensive, one of our archivists will arrange to visit you to view the records and to help formulate a plan for their physical transfer to the Hull History Centre.
Useful documents
If you have any records for transfer, please complete the internal transfer form below and email it to the University Archives team at archives@hull.ac.uk.
We are currently in the process of revising our Terms and Conditions of Transfer document, once agreed the document will also be available to access below.
Material outside the remit of the retention schedule
You or your department might have material that you believe to have significance to the history of the university that falls outside the remit of the retention schedule or that the schedule does not identify as having historical value.
If this is the case we would be more than happy to speak to you and offer our guidance.
Simply drop us an email at archives@hull.ac.uk.
