At a meeting of the President and Fellows of Harvard College in Boston, February 6, 1939: voted to adopt the following provisions for the preservation of official files, records and documents:
All administrative officers of the University, including officers of instruction whose regular or occasional performance of administrative duties puts them in possession of files, records or documents pertaining to their official duties, are requested to observe the following regulations:
- The archives of the official activities of University officers and offices are the property of the University.
- Such property is not to be destroyed without the approval of a committee of three consisting of (a) the Secretary to the Corporation; (b) The Director of the University Library; (c) the officer in charge of the department where the papers accumulate.
- The officer in charge of each administrative office will be the judge as to how long it is convenient to hold obsolete papers in his own office under his direct control.
- All archive material, when no longer wanted in the office to which it pertains, shall be sent to the University Archives in the College Library. Note: The term "archives" in the above statement is taken as meaning: (1) files of letters, both sent out and received; (2) records and memorandum books, ledgers, journals, cash books, vouchers, mimeographed and similar material; (3) the files of any matter printed for official uses.
In adopting the above regulations, the Corporation have had equally in view the importance of preserving material for the Archives and the facilities which the Archives department of the University Library is in a position to render to all administrative officers in relieving their offices of obsolete material, in eliminating materials that does not need to be preserved, and in providing space and safe custody for everything that should be preserved.
The Director of the University Library and the staff in charge of the Archives are to be at all times ready to assist officers of the University in disposing of archive material of which they wish their offices to be relieved.
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