Summertime is Records Management Time

The summer months are a quiet time here at Carolina as most of the students have gone home (or elsewhere) for the summer.  The few that remain are immersed in intensive summer school courses, or working on campus or in town.

Campus can seem almost deserted this time of year.  The sidewalks are empty, there’s virtually no one hanging around the Pit, and there are minimal lines and wait times at the few food-and-drink stops that remain open.

Deserted campus walk by Flickr user docta puella.

But don’t be fooled, there’s still a large group of people hard at work from Graduation day until the first day of classes.  In fact, for many University staff this time of year is no less busy than August through April, it’s a time when we can catch up of administrative tasks, such as records management!

Piles of files... by Flickr user jspad

So if you are a staff member finding yourself sorting through “piles of files” this summer and need help give us a call at 962-6402 or email us at recman (at) unc (dot) edu to schedule a consultation.  We are more than happy to help you start making sense of the mess!

 

 

Acquiring Born-digital University Records

Most departments have moved from creating and managing paper records to handling files in digital formats. University Archives is now receiving records of permanent value that are born-digital. We are developing our skills and tools to handle these digital files.

Here are some highlights:

  • We use write blockers like the Tableau T35es and Tableau T8-R2 to ensure that materials are not altered during the transfer process.
  • We have a great tool that prepares the materials for the Carolina Digital Repository called Curator’s Workbench. It’s free, open-source software that other repositories can use for handing digital materials.

If you are part of a unit on campus that has digital materials that you’d like to transfer to University Archives, please contact us.

Welcome!

Welcome to “For the Record,” University Archives and Records Management Services’ (UARMS) blog.  We look forward to using this space to share content with you and make announcements regarding our services.

Expect posts from UARMS staff, students, and friends on diverse topics such as

  • University history,
  • records management,
  • interesting finds from the Archives, and
  • archives-related news and events.

Thanks for visiting!  If you have any tips, suggestions, or other comments for us please let us know!