University Archive

University of Maine departments and groups (including student) should contact Special Collections Librarian Matthew Revitt (207 581-1634 or matthew.revitt@maine.edu) regarding the transfer of records to special collections. Matthew will arrange a time to meet with you and survey the records. Once agreement has been reached on transferring the records you will be asked to complete the below form and the material will then be picked up by one of our team of student workers.

The University Archives also welcomes material from alumni, former staff and faculty. You should contact Special Collection Librarian Matthew Revitt (207 581-1634 or matthew.revitt@maine.edu) regarding donating records to special collections.

Records transferred to Special Collections will be processed by the University Archivist. Processing includes the arrangement, description, and housing of archival materials for storage and use by patrons.

Processing steps:

1. Accession material into Special Collections including adding metadata from the transfer form into our archives management tool and shelve the material at the Annex.
2. Organize the material into a logical order.
3. Dispose of any material that is not required (most commonly this will be duplicate copies of items).
4. Catalog the material in the archives management tool, adding metadata like file titles, dates, scope and contents, and biographical and historical information.
5. Re-house material into acid free archival quality folders and boxes.
6. Remove metal paper clips and staples and replace with plastic ones which don’t corrode and bleed on to the paper.
7. Label boxes and folders.
8. Create an archival finding aid and add it to Digital Commons.
9. Create library catalog records for the record group.

Much of the physical processing is done by our team of student workers and volunteers who we rely on in Special Collections, thank you guys!