The updated records schedule for the University of North Carolina System is now on the website of the State Archives of NC, and linked from the University Archives. Contact University Archives for help managing state records, including retention, disposition, or archiving.

About the 2021 Update

About State Records Created During the COVID-19 Crisis

Reviewed and amended annually, the University of North Carolina (UNC) General Records Retention and Disposition Schedule is a tool for the staff and faculty of the institutions in the UNC System to use when managing office records. Due to a web update at the State Archives of North Carolina, the UNC General Records Retention and Disposition Schedule has a new online location:

https://archives.ncdcr.gov/government/retention-schedules/university-schedules/university-north-carolina-general-records

You can still access the schedule through the UNCW University Archives website here.

An updated general schedule with 2021 amendments will be released this year.  

Records management questions? Contact Adina Riggins, University Archivist.

Archives  Collections: A to Z

Disclaimer: This is not a Records Schedule, which is a much more detailed listing of materials in a University Archives, categorized by function or department. Rather, the purpose of this A-Z list is to identify some of the basic must-haves in Archives.

A

• Accreditation/self-study reports
• Admissions guides, bulletins, brochures
• Alumni magazines and directories
• Anniversary celebrations - planning materials, publicity, brochures, event information, scrapbooks.
• Annual reports by offices, units, departments, divisions, college/school, and Chancellor
• Apparel - see Textiles
• Architectural plans/designs/blueprints/drawings
• Area studies/campus studies/traffic studies
• Art exhibition guides
• Athletics - programs, news releases, guides, schedules, reports, correspondence, photographs, videos
• Audit reports
• Awardee information - biographical information, news releases, and announcements pertaining to faculty, staff, students, and alumni awards
• Awards and certificates for the university and its departments

B

• Benchmark Studies
• BIG (Brand Identity Guide)
• Board of Trustees – minutes, correspondence, oaths of office, biographical data, official photos, rosters, Executive Committee minutes, commitee minutes and reports
• Board of Visitors - minutes, rosters, executive committee minutes, committee reports
• Books, serials, journals, newspapers, and magazines not published by UNCW, but exclusively for or about UNCW
• Books, serials, journals, newspapers, and magazines published by UNCW, its departments, student organizations or classes
• Budget reports (official, annual)
• Business Week programs

C

• Calendars of Events
• Camps and youth programs - brochures, guides, policies, reports
• Campus Crime Awareness and Security Act Reports (annual)
• Capital Improvements – architect’s proposals, change orders, budget reports.
• Codes of Student Life/Student Handbooks (annual)
• Common Data Set
• Commencement programs, videos, photographs, and speeches
• Committees and task forces of faculty, staff, and students - minutes, reports, charge, accomplishments
• Conference programs for university-initiated or sponsored conferences or workshops
• Contracts (selected)
• Convocation programs, videos, photoraphs, and speeches
• Core values
• Course catalogs
• Course schedules
• Cultural activities – brochures, reports, videos
• Curriculum – committee reports, University Studies reports, updates, news

D

• Donors – Report of
• Directory information (student public records formerly published in telephone directories)
• Directories, miscellaneous (department and school)
• Directories of Club Sports teams
• Directories of Student Organization
• Deans Council - minutes, committee reports, charges

E

• Equal Employment Opportunity /Affirmative Action Plan (HR)
• "External Programs" - programs, course descriptions, workshop descriptions for continuing studies

F

• Faculty Senate minutes, announcements, motions, correspondence, and committee minutes, reports, etc.
• Factsheets/IPEDS data
• Financial reports (annual)
• Foundational documents such as charters, certificates of establishment, acts of legislation central to university development, etc.
• Friends of UNCW – Annual Reports, minutes, committee reports

G

• Governance - see Staff Senate, Faculty Senate, Student Government Association, Graduate Student Association
• Graduate Council - minutes, announcements, motions, correspondence, executive committee minutes, etc.
• Graduate theses
• Grants, Awarded. Final reports, statistics of grants activity, proposals.
• Graduate Student Association - minutes, correspondence, motions, reports, committee charges and accomplishments
• Groundbreakings and Openings of Buildings  - programs, photographs, announcements, news releases, videos, news articles
• Guidelines for Publications
• Guides to Financial Aid

H

• Handbooks - Faculty
• Handbooks - Student Organizations
• Histories of campus and departments
• Honor Codes
• Honorary societies - minutes, correspondence, reports, newsletters
• Honors Papers
• Housing – Guide to

I

• Installation, Chancellor. Programs, speeches, event listings, articles, photographs, videos
• Inventory of Fixed Assets

J

• Judicial procedures for student conduct

K

• Knowledge production - Copyright registration by UNCW and applications after expiration of copyright; Patent awards, applications, and notice of awards after expiration

L

• Legal - selected agreements, consent decrees, memoranda of understanding, deeds of sale of university property, etc.
• Legislation - Acts passed by NC General Assembly
• Literary and art magazines
• Long-Range Plans

M

• Maps
• Master Plans
• Memorabilia, historical
• Mission Statement

N

• New Faculty and Staff - directories and profiles
• News articles, editorials, and columns about UNCW from local, statewide, national, and international media organizations
• News releases
• Newsletters

O

• On Campus Living – Guide to
• Off Campus Living – Guide to
• Oral Histories - Faculty, Students, Staff, Trustees (including retired)
• Orientation Guides

P

• Parents, Guide for
• Performances - videos, photographs
• Personnel records (faculty and staff) (selected, after a waiting period)
• Photographs (University Relations)
• Planning, Univearsity - correspondence, reports, statistics
• Policies and Procedures – UNCW
• Progress Measures Reports
• Programs - Kenan Auditorium, Department of Music, Department of Theatre, Department of Art
• Proposals to Establish New Degree Programs
• Publications, Campus

Q

• Quality Enhancement Plan
• Questionnaires - Summary reports and conclusions from student, staff, and faculty surveys

R

• Razor Walker Awards programs - Watson College of Education
• Reports prepared for Board of Governors or UNC System President (i.e. UNC Tomorrow)
• Research / faculty scholarship / student scholarship / creative works by faculty and students (collecting in these areas is coordinated by library with participation of Archives)

S

• Salary increases and compensation for faculty faculty-reports
• Scholarships - announcements, names of recipients, acknowledgments of gifts, photographs
• Scrapbooks
• Senior Sankofa programs and vidoes - Upperman Center
• Service Awards luncheons programs and videos
• Service Learning - eTEAL courses, programs, mission, reports, studies
• Speeches by chancellor, provost, and senior staff
• Staff Senate-minutes, announcements, motions, correspondence, reports and committee minutes, reports, etc.
• Strategic Plans
• Student Government Association-minutes, announcements, motions, correspondence, reports and committees minutes, announcements, motions, correspondence, reports, charge, accomplishments
• Student Organization Directories for registered student organizations
• Student Services - programs, photographs, reports, policies
• Study Abroad - programs, reports, brochures, posters, photographs
• Summer School - catalogs, course listings, publications, publicity, special events
• Synergy – first-year student common read book is collected annually

T

• Teaching - Blackboard courses, etc.
• Textiles significant to UNCW-quilts, robes, hoods
• Telephone directories
• Timelines
• Transfer Guides

U

• UNCW Foundation - Annual Reports, minutes, committee reports
• University Advancment - Records and statistics for major gifts and inactive endowments
• University code

V

• Videos (promotional/Utube/Sports/UNCW Presents/ UNCW Media programming
• Vision Statement
• Visual Oral Histories - videotaped oral history recordings. See Oral Histories.

W

• Works of art reflecting UNCW

X

• Xeroxed copies (or photocopies) may be acceptable for certain materials, such as final reports and approved minutes. We will want to note where signed originals are permanently kept if Archives maintains photocoopies.

Y

• Yearbooks

Z

• Zip discs, floppy disks, cdroms, and other obsolete media. We will work with you on retrieving data from these obsolete media if the information contained on it fit our collecting criteria.

This month marks 40 years since the dedication of the Herbert Bluethenthal Memorial Wildflower Preserve at UNCW on November 8, 1974. The preserve honors the memory of Herbert Bluethenthal, a successful business-owner in Wilmington.

The university set aside about 10 acres of land behind Hoggard Hall and near the university’s existing nature trail. New trails were created in order to grant easy access to areas that included excellent examples of the native flora of Southeastern North Carolina.  The preserve has been further developed over the years to offer the best examples of unique plants of the region.

The dedication ceremony featured the unveiling of the memorial to Herbert Bluethenthal by his widow, Mrs. Janet Bleuthenthal, as well as the presentation of a monument honoring contributions to botany by Dr. Bertram Wells, a noted botanist who worked in North Carolina for much of his career. Both Dr. Wells and Mrs. Bleuthenthal were honored guests at the dedication.

The preserve is intended for use both by the public as well as students in fields such as biology. The University Archives has a range of materials about Bluethenthal Wildflower Preserve and the dedication including photos, brochures, Seahawk newspaper articles, and newspaper clippings in the university’s annual scrapbooks.

Herbert's brother, Arthur, served with the French as a bomber pilot along with other Americans during World War I. He was the first North Carolinian killed in action in World War I.

Resources from Archives: 

Bluethenthal Preserve Brochure

The Seahawk, November 20, 1974

Photo from Dedication Ceremony

Exhibit Opening, Panel Presentation and Reception

Randall Library Auditorium, RL2047

This exhibit from University Archives invites visitors to witness UNCW’s evolution, stunning accomplishments, and shining role in higher education since 1947.

Wilmington College students enrolled in technical courses such as masonry, drafting, and air conditioning and refrigeration. When the college achieved university status and joined the UNC system in 1969, the chancellor declared

The University of North Carolina is a magnificent system of higher education institutions located throughout the state, but the University of North Carolina at Wilmington is the jewel in this education crown.

--William H. Wagoner
President, Wilmington College, 1968-1969
Chancellor, the University of North Carolina Wilmington, 1969-1990

Guest Speakers:

Dorothy Powell Marshall, faculty member and registrar at Wilmington College and UNCW, 1949-1992

Bertha Todd, Williston College Librarian

Ty Rowell, Former UNCW Vice Chancellor for University Advancement

Adina Riggins (Moderator) University Archivist

The Jewel in the Crown will be in Special Collections at Randall Library through December 3, 2014.

The Jewel in the Crown: The University of North Carolina Wilmington

A Journey and Legacy

_{University Archives student assistant cleans item from collection. Photo by University Archives / UNCW.}

April 27-May 3, 2014 was American Library Association Preservation Week and May is Preservation Month with loads of great information from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Preservation--also known as “preventive conservation”--emphasizes noninterventive actions to prevent damage to and minimize deterioration of a museum object or archival collection.

For example:

• Monitoring and recording environmental conditions where collections are housed (e.g., light, relative humidity, temperature, and air pollution)

• Inspecting and recording the condition of objects

• Practicing proper handling, storage, exhibit, housekeeping, and packing and shipping techniques

_{Taj Mahal model in University Archives. These models are made in various sizes.  This one in Archives has a base of 9 in. by 9 in.}

In University Archives, we rely on our excellent student assistants to take on essential preservation and collection care responsibilities.

Allison Thompson, Archives student assistant, wore cotton gloves while carefully cleaning the soapstone model. First she dry-brushed the item with a fine brush from a collection care kit and then cleaned it with plain water using a similar brush.

For storage, she fabricated custom archival boxes and lids from ArtCare_TM 100 percent cotton mat board. Boxes made of this material help create a safe “microchamber” for archival and museum objects.

This Taj Mahal mini-replica was a gift to former James Leutze upon his retirement in 2003. He donated it to University Archives at that time. Chancellor Leutze, a historian, was host of the UNC Television series Globewatch and an often-sought speaker on international issues.

_{Chancellor James R. Leutze (2007). Photo by UNCW University Relations.}

Reference

Knapp, A. M. (1993, July). Preservation of museum collections. Conserv O Gram, 1(1), 1-2. Retrieved from http://www.cr.nps.gov/museum/publications/conserveogram/01-01.pdf.   

Randall Library won a grant award from the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) allowing Special Collections and University Archives to bring a preservation specialist to UNCW to assess these unique collections. The Preservation Assistance Grant (PAG) for Smaller Institutions paid for Matthew S. ("Matt") Johnson of Etherington Conservation Services (ECS) to spend March 17-21 in Special Collections and University Archives for the survey. Next Mr. Johnson will produce a written report of his findings and recommendations for improving collection care.

Mr. Johnson, Senior Rare Book Conservator at ECS in Browns Summit, NC, has been with the company since 1993. He is a 1991 graduate of UNC-Greensboro, where he earned a BFA degree in Design and Printmaking. He trained directly under renowned conservator Don Etherington. Mr. Johnson's responsibilities include staff training, project management, and advanced conservation.

The NEH PAG for Smaller Institutions helps small and mid-sized institutions—such as libraries, museums, historical societies, archival repositories, cultural organizations, town and county records offices, and colleges and universities—improve their ability to preserve and care for their significant humanities collections. These may include special collections of books and journals, archives and manuscripts, prints and photographs, moving images, sound recordings, or architectural plans and maps. UNCW was awarded $6,000 in January 2014 to fund the preservation assessment.
 

Assessing map case CONTENTS in UNIVERSITY Archives (click on thumbnail)

TAKING LIGHT METER READINGS (click on thumbnail)

Adina Riggins, Rebecca Baugnon, Jerry Parnell FROM UNCW AnD Matt Johnson, NEH Preservation Assistance Grant CONTRACTOR (CLICK on ThumbNail)

INSPECTING BOOKS (click on thumbnail)

SHINING A LIGHT ON PRESERVATION  (click on thumbnail)

• Press Release - Dec. 2, 2013: NEH announces $14.6 million in awards and offers for 202 humanities projects

• Download list of NEH Grant Awards, December 2013 (45-page PDF)

   

In 1973, the book collection of the William M. Randall Library of the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) reached 100,000 volumes. To celebrate, the library acquired a first edition Huck Finn by Mark Twain (published in 1885) and held a special ceremony. This first edition is in Special Collections.

An announcement for the Nov. 30 ceremony was in the Seahawk student newspaper.

For comparison, according to 2012/2013 statistics, Randall Library has 481,134 books. 

A couple notes from the library's history:

*Wilmington College Library moved from a few rooms in Alderman Hall to its own building during winter break of 1968. It opened in January of 1969 and the official dedication was March 30.

*Randall Libray began planning an expansion in 1985, which was completed in 1987. 

This model of Randall Library, circa 1985, is in University Archives in Randall Library at UNCW.