Legal requirements and Johns Hopkins University policy

When determining the disposition of a university record, first determine if the record's maintenance or destruction is regulated by any law or broader JHU policy. Any actions taken to retain or dispose of university records must not conflict with applicable laws and university policies: 

• See Restrictions > Determining Restrictions for the JHU retention schedule. Note that some laws and university policies specify a maximum or minimum retention period.
• The office of general counsel may also place any record under a legal hold due to potential or actual legal proceedings. Records under legal hold may not be disposed of under any circumstances while the hold remains in effect.

Financial records are currently the only record type whose retention and disposition are controlled by a university-wide policy that is not managed by the archives. See Chapter 2: Reconciliation Guidelines & Records Retention of the Account Reconciliation Guide issued by the Controller's Office for more information.

Business value

Next, investigate whether the office that created the record has an ongoing business or operational need for it. Records should be retained for as long as their ongoing existence routinely and actively supports the effective administration of their creator's purpose. 

When determining how long a record should be retained for business purposes, the archives and records creators should consider: 

• Any published guidelines, as well as the practices of peer institutions
• The degree and likelihood of harm that a record's absence would create
• Whether continuing to maintain the records creates an undue risk for the university
• Ongoing costs of maintaining the records
• Feedback from office staff
• Some records - such as board of trustees' minutes or registrar's records about students - may have permanent business value, but the majority will not.

Historical value

If the records have not been selected for permanent retention due to applicable laws, university policies or business needs, the archives must determine whether they merit retention due to their historical value, that is, their usefulness or significance for understanding the past. To do this, the archives considers the records' function, their evidential strength, their informational content and their cultural value. 

When presented with a particular set of records, the archives should analyze what functions gave rise to the records' creation and prioritize the collection and preservation of records that document the university's most important functions and activities:

• When multiple records or record formats that document a particular function are available to the archives, the archives should give preference to records that represent the most reliable and authoritative source of evidence available. This assessment must be made within the context of all known or available records. For example, original transcripts maintained by the registrar's office would typically represent a more reliable source of information about a student's academic career than copies maintained by an academic department. However, in the absence of the preferred form, a less-preferred form may merit retention.
• Records that do not reflect a function prioritized in the archives' collecting plan or that do not have strong evidential value may still merit permanent retention if they contain significant information that is likely to assist researchers attempting to understand the past. The information may be useful to genealogists, historians or researchers in other areas, and may be related to the university, individuals related to the university, or any of the local or global communities to which the university belongs. When records are retained for their informational value, the information should either be unique or difficult to obtain from other sources.
• Records that do not meet any of the above criteria but have a major cultural significance to the university may be selected for retention in the archives. The few artifacts that the university archives collects are likely to fall under this category, such as the ceremonial mace and chain.

Overview

Weeding, “the process of identifying and removing unwanted items from a collection,” may occur as archivists identify materials that we are obligated to remove due to legal or policy requirements, or that are otherwise deemed unnecessary to retain. As with all deaccessioning, weeding requires the University Archivist's authorization. Materials may be weeded for the following reasons:

• Legal/policy requirements. (See Retention Schedule tab for guidance.)
• Material has little research value. (See Retention Schedule tab for guidance on historical value.)
• Material is not relevant to the collection.
• Material is duplicated elsewhere in the collection.
• Material is readily available elsewhere (e.g., copies of journal articles).
• Material contains personally identifying information (PII) or other personal information that should not be shared with researchers. (Note: material with PII that is retained due to policy or research value will be subject to access restrictions. See Restrictions page for guidance.)
• Material is otherwise not a good fit for our collections policy (e.g., most memorabilia). See Sheridan Libraries Collection Philosophy and University Archives collections policy for collections policies and consult the University Archivist to determine which types of items may or may not be a good fit for our collections.

Disposition

If weeded material is of relevance to a different collection, consult the University Archivist about transferring the material to the other collection. This process should only occur under the University Archivist’s direction. See Processing > Combining or Separating Collections for more information.

When material is identified for weeding, follow the instructions on the ArchivesSpace Deaccessioning Rules and Physical Disposition tabs to document and dispose of the material.

Additional Resources

• SAA’s Guidelines for Reappraisal and Deaccessioning

Appraising Digital Records

Digital records require additional considerations during the appraisal process due to a number of factors including physical media carriers. Some physical media can be obscure or very old, meaning that there aren't players in the archive to read and transfer the content off of the carriers. In this case, a determination will be made about whether to accept such carriers. Consult the digital archivist or the university archivist if a donor has old media. It may be worthwhile to ask the donor if they have equipment the would consider donating or lending to the archive to play the carriers.

Some file formats are likewise old and obscure, but potentially also proprietary, and the archive may not have a complete way to read the files or convert them into more stable formats. In this case, a determination will be made about how best to preserve these files - at the bit-level, acquiring additional software that can read the formats, or ultimately deciding to not preserve at all.

Websites can additionally present preservation and access challenges. If a website is too dynamic, pulls and embeds information from databases that aren't hosted on the website, or is a social media site, it may not be a good fit to be crawled using existing web capturing tools like Archive-It. Alternative methods are available in these cases, including screenshots, saving the information in text or image files, or modifying the crawling parameters. A careful analysis of the site will need to be made before agreeing to capture via Archive-It.

Excluding, weeding, reappraising or otherwise permanently removing material requires steps for documenting decisions and disposition, outlined below. 

Deaccessioning an unprocessed accession

The following should be done when deaccessioning an accession before it has been processed into a collection:

1. Preface title with [DEACCESSIONED] in all caps.
2. Create a Deaccession event with a brief justification recorded in the outcome note. The authorized Agent (usually the University Archivist) should be linked with Role type: Authorizer. The role of Authorizer trumps Implementer; any implementer must contact the University Archivist for authorization for deaccessioning. This means if the Implementer is also the Authorizer, he or she only needs to record themselves as Authorizer. If the Implementer is not the Authorizer, two records should be created to reflect this.  
3. Include justification for deaccessioning in the user defined field Appraisal.
4. Be sure to remove the bib record and item records (barcodes) from Horizon if any exist. Take note of each removed box's RMST and then notify LSC that the box is being removed and that the RMST is available. Just deleting item-records in Horizon does not alert LSC staff that the RMSTs have been made available.
5. Delete any top containers associated with the accession.
6. See Physical disposition tab for guidance on physical disposition.

Deaccessioning part of a pre-existing collection

1. Remove all references to the materials to be deaccessioned from the resource description. 
   • Review component-level notes, such as arrangement or scope and content notes if the material was already described. Be sure to review both collection and series-level notes, especially those that appear after the materials in question, which may reflect a legacy numerical series description. For example, if deaccessioning what was formerly referred to as Series 13, notes for Series 14 and beyond may need to be changed.
   • Delete or suppress any container lists. Suppressing elements is suggested for situations where material may return. The decision on whether to suppress or delete a container list should be made in consultation with the University Archivist.
   • Deduct the amount of deaccessioned materials from the collection-level extent and remove references to the box(es) being removed in the textual container summary.
   • If necessary, alter the collection-level date ranges and reference to those ranges in Scope or Abstract notes.
   • Delete any top containers associated with the deaccession. To delete top containers, go to Plugins > Manage Top Containers > search based on Resource name, and delete all associated containers. Then return to the record to be sure they disappeared.
2. Document the action with three notes:
   1. Create a collection-level Deaccessions record in the Deaccessions module located in the Resource record that thoroughly describes the materials being deaccessioned, the reason for deaccession, and the disposition of the materials. See RG 07.185 and RG.18.001 for an example. This is an internal note.
   2. Create a Deaccession event record with a brief justification recorded in the outcome note. This is an internal note. The authorized Agent (usually the University Archivist) should be linked with Role type: Authorizer. The role of Authorizer trumps Implementer; any implementer must contact the University Archivist for authorization for deaccessioning. This means if the Implementer is also the Authorizer, he or she only needs to record themselves as Authorizer. If the Implementer is not the Authorizer, two records should be created to reflect this.
   3. Create a collection-level Appraisal note to inform the public of the removal of items. Include a brief description, quantity, reason, date, and the final disposition of the removed materials. The University Archivist will determine how much information about the appraisal decision will be shared with the public.
3. If the original accession number for the deaccessioned material is known, add a user defined Appraisal field to the accession. If the entire accession is affected, refer to instructions for deaccessioning an accession.
4. Be sure to remove the item records (barcodes) from Horizon if any exist. Take note of each removed box's RMST and then notify LSC that the box is being removed and that the RMST is available. Just deleting item-records in Horizon does not alert LSC staff that the RMSTs have been made available.
5. See Physical disposition tab for guidance on physical disposition, if being disposed.

Deaccessioning an entire collection

The SAA guidelines for reappraisal and deaccessioning recommend to “Destroy inventories available to researchers (i.e., online finding aids and those available in reading room) but keep a master copy for administrative use.” 

When deaccessioning an entire collection, write an appraisal note unless otherwise instructed. Retain the Resource record, but make the following adjustments:

1. Uncheck the Publish check box (but do not "Suppress" it)
2. Preface title with [DEACCESSIONED] in all caps.
3. Create a collection-level Deaccessions record in the Deaccessions module located in the Resource record that thoroughly describes the materials being deaccessioned, the reason for deaccession, and the disposition of the materials. See RG 07.185 and RG.18.001 for an example.
4. Create a Deaccession event with a brief justification recorded in the outcome note. The authorized Agent (usually the University Archivist) should be linked with Role type: Authorizer. The role of Authorizer trumps Implementer; any implementer must contact the University Archivist for authorization for deaccessioning. This means if the Implementer is also the Authorizer, he or she only needs to record themselves as Authorizer. If the Implementer is not the Authorizer, two records should be created to reflect this.
5. Change extent to “0” (extent cannot be removed entirely since it is a required field). Remove all text from the Container Summary.
6. Delete any top containers associated with the collection. To delete top containers, go to Plugins > Manage Top Containers > search based on Resource name, and delete all associated containers. Then return to the record to be sure they disappeared.
7. Be sure and have the bib record and/or item records (barcodes) removed from Horizon if any exist. Take note of each removed box's RMST and then notify LSC that the box is being removed and that the RMST is available. Just deleting item-records in Horizon does not alert LSC staff that the RMSTs have been made available.
8. See Physical disposition tab for guidance on physical disposition, if being disposed.

If materials are to be returned to a donor or university office: 

• Cross out all markings on boxes, folders, etc. indicating that the materials are part of a collection.
• Clearly label any boxes "deaccessioned.”
• Black out any barcodes.
• Delete top containers in Archives Space (please note that unlinking a container is not the same as deleting a container; please delete containers when permanently removing material).
• Remove the item records (barcodes) from Horizon if any exist. Note that any request to delete RMSTs need to be sent to LSC. Just deleting item-records in Horizon does not alert LSC staff that the RMSTs have been made available.

If materials are to be destroyed, consider whether they require confidential shredding or may be generally recycled. Complete the form currently stored here: G:\archives-and-manuscripts\forms-and-templates\records-destruction-form.docx. Once destruction is complete, place the fully signed destruction form in G:\archives-and-manuscripts\administration\records-desctruction-approval-forms-completed and title it with the date of destruction. Save another copy in the collection or accession folder.