Acquisition Policy
The University Archives strives to compile a comprehensive documentary history of the university for the benefit of the university and research community through its acquisition of all university records of enduring value as well as complementary primary and secondary source materials. The University Archives acquires the following types of records:

• Faculty papers

• Correspondence

• Teaching materials

• Conference notes and papers

• Research & manuscripts

• Administrative records

• ERAU charter

• Vital records or security copies of policy statements, reports, minutes, substantive memoranda, correspondence, and subject files of the Board of Trustees

• Records generated from the chief executive, academic, legal, financial, student affairs, and administrative officers

• Records generated from the major academic and administrative committees, including the faculty senate

• Self-study and accreditation reports

• Annual budgets and audits

• Reports from the offices of Admissions, Institutional Research, University Relations and Development

• Reports from research projects grant records

• Departmental minutes, reports, syllabi, faculty vitae

• Student Association records

• Records concerning ERAU Alumni

• Accident and Safety records (FAA, NTSB etc.)

• Aeronautical artifacts related to ERAU and its predecessor agencies

• Records created, used, and preserved by university donors ñ both corporate and private partners

Archival Procedures

Archival operations operate according to the following guidelines.

Accessions

• The initial collection of archival records has been assigned the designation Found in Collection [FIC]

• All subsequent accessions are assigned a numeric value based on the year of accession followed by a sequential numbering system. A number is assigned when the archives takes legal custody of the records.

• Example : 2003.001 would be the first accession for the year 2003. It is followed by 2003.002 etc.

• To the best of the archives' staff ability, all accessions are recorded using the University Archives accession form.

• A signed Deed of Gift form must be signed for artifacts or records donated by persons or agencies juridically unrelated to ERAU.

• The Deed of Gift and Accession forms will be kept together in an accession file. Retention is permanent.

• The University Archivist has final authority to de-accession records.

• Records are donated to the University Archives from four primary sources
  
         University Departments
         Private individuals
         Corporate entities
         Organizations and professional associations

• Donors may request access restrictions. Restrictions will be honored, but the University Archives prefers that records be donated without restriction .

Arrangement & Description

• Archival principles of arrangement are applied. Records are described from the general to the specific. Administrative records and academic departmental records are arranged using Record Groups. Personal papers and manuscripts are arranged as collections.

• Due to the nature of the existing ERAU archival collection, many records are described as discrete items and are not associated with a collection or record group.

• All records and artifacts will be described according to the Rules for Archival Description [RAD], a recognized archival standard.

• The University Archives' holdings are arranged by media type. There are six collections:
  
        Textual Records
        Photographs
        Pamphlets
        Maps & Plans
        Audio/Video materials
        Artifacts

• Each media type is described using a unique numbering system, with photographs being sub-divided to identify prints, negative, slides, and digital images.

• The following numbering system is applied:

• Textual Records use a sequential numbering system commencing from 1

• Photographs use a sequential numbering system commencing from 1 and, when entered into the database, uses a prefix to identify the type of image (SL for slide, N for negative, no prefix for print).  All database image numbers are suffixed with the extension .jpg representing the storage format for the image.   Example: SL00051.jpg - represents the physical slide number 51 with the corresponding low resolution digital image stored in the database as SL00051.jpg

• Digital Images - some photographs have high resolution digital images stored separately in the Archives.  In these cases the corresponding WebArchives record will state that a digital image is also available for this photograph.

• Pamphlets use a Year of publication of the pamphlet followed by sequential number assigned during processing for example: 1969-001

• Maps/Plans use a sequential numbering system plus identifier to be used in organizing and identifying oversize & vertical file storage system

• Audio/Video materials use a sequential number system assigned as processed

• Artifacts use an Accession number which doubles as an artifact number except in the case of FIC where a sequential number will follow FIC

• All records will be given a location indicator. Location identifiers include bay, row, shelf, box and file numbers. WebArchives attaches an identifying prefix to records entered for each campus thus clearly identifying records from the Daytona Beach, Prescott, and Extended Campuses.

• All records are entered in to the WebArchives online database.