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 [log in to unmask] A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org. For the terms of participation, please refer to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] In body of message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname *or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES To post a message, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>