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Statement of Purpose

In accordance with the vision statement of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and the mission statement of the University Library, the Archives and Special Collections unit serves the university and local community by collecting, preserving, providing access to, and interpreting primary resource material on the culture and history of the university and the local region, southeastern Massachusetts.

Region defined

Southeastern Massachusetts is defined as the region and includes the towns of Fall River, New Bedford, Dartmouth, Westport, Acushnet, Fairhaven, Berkely, Dighton, Rehoboth, Seekonk, Swansea, Somerset, Norton, Taunton, and Raynham, Lakeville, Middleborough, Carver, Wareham, Rochester, Marion, and Mattapoisett. Due to their proximity and shared heritage with the region, the Rhode Island towns of Tiverton and Little Compton will also be included when appropriate.

Materials Collected

The following categories of primary resource material reflect the culture and history of the university and the local region, and will therefore be collected under the authority of the University Archivist to become a permanent part of the Archives. Primary resources are found in a variety of media including paper, electronic, photographic, audio, moving image, and artifact. No format will be excluded if the content is relevant.

1. University Records: records created by employees and students of the university in the regular course of service to the university. Includes records created by employees and students of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Southeastern Massachusetts University (and all previous university names), and parent schools New Bedford Textile School and Bradford Durfee Textile School (as well as all subsequent permutations of these school names) and the Swain School of Design (including those records produced before it became part of Southeastern Massachusetts University). Only those university records deemed to be of enduring value by the University Archivist will be accepted.

2. Manuscript Collections: personal papers of individuals associated with the university, including faculty, administrators, students, alumni, trustees and members of the community. These are distinguished from university records because they were not created in the course of employment or service to the university, but are of a more personal nature and often reflect the scholarly pursuits of the individual.

3. Manuscript Collections: personal papers of individuals, families, civic groups and organizations from the local region which document the history of the people and culture of southeastern Massachusetts, with special emphasis on ethnic communities, organized labor, textiles and regional economics.

4. Artificial collections: collections of primary resource material produced by various individuals or groups and brought together under a particular theme, or duplicated collections of primary resource material housed elsewhere, which support the curriculum of the university.

The following categories of secondary resources will be included in Special Collections, under the authority of the University Archivist:

- Reference copies of monographs reflecting the history of southeastern Massachusetts (may also be duplicated in the general collections for circulation) to complement manuscript collections.

- Archival copies of publications by university faculty and staff.

- Signed or rare editions of monographs and serials that support university curriculum.

- Monographs or serials which reflect the history of the university, especially older texts in textile sciences (may also be duplicated in the general collections).

- Reference copies of monographs on political assassination (may also be duplicated in the general collections) to complement manuscript collections.

- Psychological testing kits.

(Approved by Collection Development Committee, 9/26/97)