Student Clubs and Organizations Records (SCOR)

The greatest benefits of donating your organization's records to the University Archives include:

1. Freeing up your storage space,
2. Professional care and management of your records,
3. It frees any time and financial resources expended in their care, and
4. Provides historical context to the student experience at CSUN.

All while maintaining access to your records. 

When records are donated to the University Archives, they are arranged and stored in acid-free folders, boxes, and appropriate environmental conditions to ensure the long-term preservation of the materials. A professional archivist will prepare an online finding guide that provides a brief description of the organization and an inventory of the records found in the collection. An example of such a guide can be on the Online Archive of California. This link is to the finding aid of the Early Birds, an unofficial social organization of administrative support staff on campus. Your organization's records will also be cataloged in the library's online catalog and be made available for research.

By donating your organization’s records to the University Archives you know that future members of your organization will have access to these resources when planning outreach and fundraising initiatives or researching alumni and past events and projects. 

In most cases, your organization will follow these steps:

1. Pack your records into boxes exactly as they are filed in your current storage (if you don’t have record storage boxes, the University Archives can provide them.) Each box should be numbered and labeled with your organization’s name.
2. Create an inventory of every file in each box. You may use a summary statement, such as “Meeting Minutes,” to describe a group of files or the entire contents of a box.
3. Email a copy of the inventory to the University Archivist and place a printed copy of each box’s inventory inside the box. This will enable the archives staff to identify any materials should they be separated.
4. The organization’s president will sign an agreement finalizing the donation to the University Archives. This document, called a Deed of Gift, will legally transfer ownership and rights of the records to the University. If the standard Deed of Gift does not meet the needs of your organization, please communicate concerns as some modifications can be made.  (Please see the PDF of our standard Deed of Gift at the bottom of this box.)
5. Notify the University Archivist when you are ready to transfer the records to schedule a drop-off or pick-up.

Donating your organization's records should be an ongoing project. Create documentation and assign the duty of maintaining a relationship with the archives to an officer, like a Historian or Secretary. The end of each academic year is a great time to review your group's records and determine what might be eligible for inclusion in the archives.

If you have any questions or concerns or are just interested in what the University Archives has to offer, please feel free to contact us. We’re here to help!