University Archive

The University Archive

The Archive was established following acceptance by the Council of the University of the recommendations of a Working Group on Archives, and the adoption by the University of an Archives Policy (included as Appendix 1).  Mr J McLaughlin was appointed University Archivist and Rare Books Curator with effect from January 2002, and Mrs Fiona Clyde became Record and Archivist Assistant in August 2002. The Archives team is part of the Department of Information Services and is based on the Coleraine campus. Archival activities are overseen by the Advisory Group on Archives and Records Management (AGARM), the membership of which is currently: Prof. P Roebuck (Convenor), Mrs I Aston, Mr B Kelleher, Mr N Macartney, Mr J McLaughlin, and Mrs F Clyde

The archives of the University are by no means confined to the period since the establishment of the University of Ulster in October 1984. They reflect the history and development, not only of UU and its immediate predecessor institutions, the New University of Ulster and the Ulster Polytechnic, but also of the Belfast campus from its early days in 1849, and the various incarnations of the Magee campus from 1865.

Prior to the establishment of the Archive the University made some attempt to list its archival holdings, and some, but not all, of the oldest material was deposited in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), particularly from NUU and Magee College. (Exceptions still surface regularly: following the recent move of the library to the Learning Resource Centre at Magee the Archivist discovered a fine set of architects’ drawings of the original college, along with an estimate from a local builder for the supply of materials and the erection of the building.) Nevertheless, archives have not been the main responsibility of a named member of staff, and over the years the care of the University’s documents fell to different departments, especially Governance Services and the Library, resulting in scattered repositories of documents with no central overview of whether serious gaps or widespread duplication existed. A conservative estimate suggests that the establishment of a centralised Archive could result in savings of up to 50 per cent of the space devoted to filing throughout the institution.

Foreword	The Archive Collections
Foreword from Professor Gerry McKenna                      Vice-Chancellor & President	Archivist's Activities   Deposits in the Archive   Premises   Rare Books Collections   Records Management   Relations with outside Bodies
The Archive Policies	Retention & Disposal Schedule
Archive Policies   Clarification of Policy   Guidelines	University material    Retention and Disposal Schedule