Archives Procedures

Collecting Scope

1. The VCC Archives collects the following types of records in print, digital, and audiovisual formats:
   
   
   
   1. Official records of VCC: These include administrative, operational, financial, legal, and academic records with permanent historical value in documenting programs, decisions and individuals at Vancouver Community College, such as meeting minutes and related documentation for all College committees. The Records Retention Schedule (RRS) provides guidelines on what kind of records departments may send to the Archives for permanent storage or retained for a certain period before they are destroyed.
   
   
   2. Non-official records of VCC: These include College calendars, annual reports, newsletters, etc.
   
   
   3. Historical records: Material of a historical nature that will communicate to students, staff and the public, the history, traditions, place, and community involvement of the College and its predecessor bodies. These include photographs of the campuses and College life, and film and video of College events, speakers, and promotional materials. The Archives does not acquire artefacts or memorabilia; these will only be included selectively if they relate directly to, and support the understanding, use and/or display of, a specific archival document.
   
   
   4. Selected scholarly and creative works created by the VCC community including: articles, conference and workshop papers, theses and dissertations, art and design works, technical reports, and working papers, books, outstanding student projects as selected by faculty members or academic units, selected course-related materials and learning objects produced by instructors, etc.
   
   
   
   


2. Submission guidelines are published online at: https://vcc.arcabc.ca/submissionguidelines

Deselection/Withdrawal

3. Items will typically be stored indefinitely.


4. The relevance of materials in the Archives can and will change over time. Periodic review of the collection may be done to identify items which no longer fit the criteria for inclusion in the collection. Those items can be made unavailable for public access, or may be withdrawn fully from the collection due to legal requirements.
   
   
   
   1. Criteria can include issues of privacy and copyright; academic freedom violations; and/or failure to follow sacred indigenous knowledge principles.
   
   
   
   

Preservation

5. Long term preservation will be achieved through an appropriate combination of technology, environmental controls, materials and handling techniques and conservation treatments.


6. Whenever possible, the Archives will place select materials in its digital repository to ensure continued readability and accessibility.

Access, Privacy and Copyright

7. The URL for VCC's Digital Repository will be posted on the College website.


8. While the primary mandate of the Archives is to serve students and employees of the College, the Archives grants public access to archival records, unless otherwise specified.


9. Access to physical records is supervised and assisted by Library employees. Works in the digital repository will be accessible to all users online, unless otherwise specified.


10. Access to College records containing personal information will be determined consistent with the College's policy on access to information and protection of privacy, any applicable provincial and federal legislation, including hosting on Canadian servers and any other relevant agreements and documents.


11. To include their work in VCC's digital repository, creators grant a non-exclusive, perpetual and royalty-free licence to the Archives. Because the license is non-exclusive, authors retain copyright, and may continue to use and license the work without further obligation to the College. By signing this non-exclusive licence, contributors give the Archives permission to make the work publicly available on the web; to store it in a digital repository; and to transition it to new formats if required for preservation.
    
    
    
    1. Wherever possible, records not owned by VCC will have appropriate consent to archive by the creator.
    
    
    2. Other types of licenses may be negotiated with creators at the discretion of the Archives (including limiting access to the records). The value of the record will be balanced with the goal of open access to information.