Several years ago, our Sponsored Research Office was requested to clear
out its "free" storage area to be converted into a classroom.    Its
Director balked at this, but the Vice President insisted.   Our
University Records Manager, Gus Harris, and I went through about 150
cubic feet.   Gus identified the materials to be disposed of that had
met retention requirements (both state/university and the granting
institution), identified those that still needed to be retained and
removed these to records management.

On my end, as Archivist, I examined the materials that were no longer to
be retained to identify materials to permanently save.    At first, I
was interested in saving any research or reports that were created by
the grant or project.   If we funded Professor XYZ summer research to
find the Fountain of Youth, then I wanted to save the final report that
summarized that research and the map!  :D     But then I made a second
run, and many of these were not retained if they were not reports but
merely "how I
used my time or spent your money" things.      If the project resulted
in some kind of
major "publication" with the University's name, I saved that.   Some of
these could be
checked against ERIC to see if they are already preserved in that
manner.

I cannot see saving all of the Sponsored Research materials
indefinitely.   First, for federal and state grants, these requirements
and goals change yearly and the idea that you can look at a grant from
twenty years ago as your example today is fallacious.    Second, much of
the files were accounting/financial/employment materials which were not
important or for which summaries might be in the final report.   It
really depends on what kind of information the Sponsored Research folks
kept.      I will mention that at our campus, for years, we've offered
small grants to faculty for travel, research, writing, etc.    These
files are interesting because the faculty member includes a vita as well
as a copy or offprint of their publication or
article or book.    We actually transfer these to faculty biographical
and publication
files for the University.

Hope this helps.

Dean




Dean DeBolt
University Librarian, Special Collections
John C. Pace Library, University of West Florida
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL  32514-5750
850-474-2213
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