The University Archives accepts records documenting UCSC activities, functions, decisions, and/or policies and programs (both adopted and rejected), in every format, once they are no longer needed for current use.

Compare your records to the records schedules in the University of California Records Disposition Schedules Manual. You may also consult the University of California's Business and Finance Bulletin RMP-2, Records retention and disposition: principles, processes, and guidelines. Some instructions include the phrases "then to Archives" or "Subject to archival review." That means you must bring them to the attention of the University Archivist once they are no longer regularly used. However, there are some records not listed in the Disposition Schedules as "to Archives" that may, nevertheless, belong in the Archives. If you are obligated to keep the material permanently in order to conduct business, if you must maintain it to meet fiscal or legal obligations, or if it has research value, contact us at to determine whether your materials should be transferred.

The examples below may help you make a preliminary analysis of the historical value of your records. Please allow the Head of Special Collections & Archives / Acting University Archivist (tmora1@ucsc.edu) to assist you in making any final decisions.

• Check the UC Records Retention Schedule to determine if your records are inactive and appropriate for permanent retention. Contact the University Archivist for an on-site or email review of the records.
• Once the records are approved for transfer, make sure to maintain them in the order that they are filed. Remove records from hanging files and binders and place them in standard file folders, labeled in pencil. Place loose documents in file folders.
• Complete a records transfer form. Create a container list for each carton, noting its number, folder numbers, folder titles, and date spans. Please spell out all abbreviations and acronyms. Save a copy for your own records.
• Submit an electronic version of the container lists to the University Archivist. Save a copy for your own records.
• You will be contacted to schedule a convenient pick-up date. A printed copy of the transfer form and the carton lists should accompany the transfer.

Administrative

• Accreditation and self-study files
• Alumni and student organizational files
• Annual reports (institutional, departmental)
• Architectural records
• Correspondence
• Grant files                                                             
• Maps
• Membership rosters
• Memoranda
• Minutes
• Organizational charts
• Planning documents
• Policy and procedures manuals
• Reference and subject files
• Research project files
• Speeches
• Task force and ad hoc committee files

Fiscal

• Annual financial statements
• Audit reports
• Ledgers
• Marketing reports and surveys
• Public relations materials (for example, press releases and advertising kits)

Legal

• Legal documents (for example, briefs)
• Legislative reports

Historical

• Articles of incorporation
• Artifacts (select)
• Biographical material (for example, Bio-Bibliographies and curriculum vitae)
• By-laws
• Photographs (with identified subjects)
• Scrapbooks
• Sound and video recordings

Publications (produced by the unit)

• Advertising kits
• Brochures
• Catalogs
• Handbooks
• Newsletters
• Press releases

• Applications (job, scholarship, and the like)
• Blank forms
• Donor records
• Duplicate copies
• Equipment and software instructions
• Faculty publications (reprints selectively accepted if included in faculty papers)
• Grade books and grade reports
• Invoices
• Personnel records
• Purchase orders and receipts
• Records relating to other campuses
• Reimbursement requests
• Student papers and dissertations