Archives & Special Collections - Policies

PCOM Archives Mission Statement

The PCOM Archives collects, preserves and interprets documents, photographs, manuscripts, institutional records, memorabilia and artifacts which document and reveal the history of the College and to a lesser extent, that of the osteopathic profession. The Archives provides a secure, central holding for these materials to make them available to staff, faculty, alumni, students and other qualified researchers. Inherent in the Archives’ mission is a proactive plan to collect and preserve materials that will document the future history of the institution. Several key departments will be contacted regularly to solicit new materials. Those departments include the President’s Office, Alumni Relations & Development, Marketing & Communications and Student Affairs.

As a repository for historical materials pertaining to the College, the Archives supports the mission of other departments including, but not limited to, Alumni Relations & Development, Marketing & Communications and the President’s Office. The Archives supports these other departments by providing historical materials for publications, programs, events or other purposes geared toward promoting an awareness and appreciation of the institution’s unique history.

The Archives also supports an exhibit program for display cases and other designated areas throughout the College. To this end, the collection includes objects that may help illustrate or enrich various topics about PCOM’s history.

PCOM Archives Collections Policy

Introduction

The PCOM Archives, established in January 1996 in preparation of the institution’s Centennial celebration, is a permanent branch of the College’s O.J. Snyder Memorial Library. Through its historical collections, the Archives chronicles and preserves PCOM’s past. Through implementation of this collections policy, the Archives also plans for the ongoing documentation for the College for the sake of its unique history and celebration thereof in the future. This is to be accomplished through a systematic program of archives maintenance and acquisitions that support the Mission Statement of the Archives and enrich the quality for its educational holdings.

Collection Scope

Consistent with its mission to document the continuing history of PCOM, the Archives actively seeks to acquire photographs, documents, publications, records, memorabilia and other items that reveal the continuing history of the College. While this Collection Policy outlines many specific items to be accessioned routinely, it is not meant to be limiting. Rather, the list should be used to help department heads and other individuals identify additional materials of archival value to the institution that may exist now or in the future.

• Digest and other in-house publications
• Annual Announcements/Bulletins
• Synapsis
• Annual reports
• Financial reports/budgets
• Alumni files (To be stored in the “Class of…” Files)
• Other biographical materials
• Press clippings
• Photographs, slides, videotapes and audiotapes 
• Other photographs from Communications, Alumni/Development and Student Life
• Board of Trustees Minutes
• Alumni Association records
• Programs from special events including, but not limited to Founders’ Day, Commencement, dedications, groundbreaking ceremonies, anniversaries and celebrations of any kind.
• Publications, photographs memorabilia programs and documents pertaining to the 1999 Centennial celebration
• Brochures, reports pertaining to graduate medical education and other degree programs
• Reports on admissions and curriculum
• Printed materials, photographs and memorabilia from student events, including fraternities and honor societies
• Memoirs and scrapbooks of individuals about their experiences at PCOM or other writings which address the institutional history or experiences of classes as a whole. (Note: in general, the Archives is not collecting personal papers.)
• Architecture, planning and facilities documents.

Procedures for Collecting

Donations

The PCOM archives welcomes donations of materials. Before delivering materials, potential donors should first fully complete and sign a Deed of Gift form and submit it to Institutional Advancement. This will be reviewed by the PCOM Gift Review Committee for approval.

Donors of approved donations will receive a gift-in-kind thank you letter from Institutional Advancement for tax purposes. No receipts will be issued.

Ongoing

All department heads will be notified of these policies to facilitate the regular routing of archival materials from their respective departments. Such documents as noted above will be forwarded to the Librarian/Archivist who will then organize, accession, and record in a computer database information about the documents. The materials themselves will be kept in archivally stable files and containers.

This Collection Policy is a living document providing a strong guide to those items the College collects. If an opportunity arises to acquire pertinent, unique and valuable items, documents, photos or collections which are a part of the PCOM institutional story, all due considerations must be given to accommodating such an acquisition. The Librarian/Archivist will evaluate potential gifts for their relevance to the collections; their research, scientific, educational, intrinsic or historical importance; their physical condition; their support of the in-house exhibit program; and their impact on the Archives’ operation. If the Librarian/Archivist is unable to determine whether such a bequest is acceptable, she/he will submit the proposal to an Archives Committee which will decide the matter.

Usage and Borrowing Policies

The PCOM Archives are available for research purposes to all PCOM students, faculty, staff and alumni, as well as other qualified researchers. The Archives encourages maximum use of its collections by PCOM and the larger medical and/or public community by making loans which are consistent with the long-term conservation and preservation of the collection and with PCOM’s own needs for exhibit and research purposes. A record of all such loans will be kept on file in the Archives.

Collection loans will only be made to institutions for educational and scholarly purposes. Collections will not be loaned to individuals outside PCOM. All such loans will be for a specified time.