The Archives materials may be used by appointment in a designated area in the library during regular library hours under the supervision of a librarian. The signed permission of the Library Director is required for visitors not currently employed or otherwise affiliated with BHCC. They may be required to submit a request letter before visiting and produce an affirmative response from the Library Director as a means of access to the BHCC Archives materials. All visitors will be required to sign the BHCC Archives Visitor Register and be prepared to produce valid identification if the attending librarian requests it. The visitor's register is kept for usage and other statistical purposes and is protected under the rules of confidentiality of library users. Trained library staff will be available to assist visitors in using finding aids (i.e. databases and indexes) to identify and locate archival materials. Visitors must follow the preservation guidelines for using materials in Archives.
The Archives maintains a collection consisting of selected photographs and slides documenting College personnel, students, campus life, and events. The current photograph collection represents the college and student life in fragments and is due for development. BHCC Communications Department when possible will provide photographs of College events with annotations, which should include dates, names and locations. Routine calls will be put out to encourage contributions to the retrospective as well as current college photograph collection.
The Archives is working in conjunction with the BHCC library developing a special collection, including: the Harold
E. Shively Special Collection consisting of artifacts and documents relating to the founding president of Bunker Hill
Community College; the Chelsea Campus Special Collection consisting of photographs, drawings, and architectural renderings
relating to the gifting of the Chelsea Campus building to BHCC.
For a detailed listing of records included in these collections, please see the BHCC Archives Index
Bunker Hill Community College Archives is the official repository for the historical records of the College. Archival records are defined as those that have lasting historical value to the College community and support the mission of the College Archives, and are therefore permanently preserved and, whenever possible, made accessible for research purposes.
The Archives Collection Development guidelines apply across the college departments, as criteria for determining the appropriate materials for inclusion in the BHCC Archives. The BHCC Communications Department and its Office of Institutional Effectiveness agree to work in collaboration with the library to review and encourage Archives submissions and to ensure that all eligible College publications are routinely included in the BHCC Archives collection.
Publications produced with BHCC logo are a mandatory part of the Archives collection.
General copyright laws are applied for individually owned publications and public record items might be copied upon the payment of a reasonable fee. Guided by established copyright regulations, trained librarians will assist visitors with photocopying and/or scanning of archival materials.
Before you begin the process of transferring records to the BHCC Archives, you will need to make sure that the Archives is the correct destination for them. Some records hold permanent value for individual departments, offices, or individuals, but may not be identified as having permanent value to the Archives.
Records of permanent historical and archival value to the College include, but are not limited to:
The Archives reserves the right to make final decisions about the appropriateness of materials included in the Archives, and can revise its collection development guidelines at any time.
Records produced for and by BHCC are considered by law to be public records. The Massachusetts Public Record Law provides that any person has a right to access public information. (Exemptions apply. See also Massachusetts General Law statutes 27, 36.)
The following are given as general guidance in the preparation of records before transfer to the Archives:
Although Bunker Hill Community College does not have an official records management program, departments and offices are encouraged to consult the Massachusetts Statewide Records Retention Schedule to assist with record-keeping practices.
Additionally, BHCC Archives staff are available to advise departments and offices on which records, print or electronic, should be retained, destroyed, or transferred to the Archives. Please contact the Archivist, Stefanie Maclin, at (617) 228-2382 or via the following email srmaclin@bhcc.mass.edu to see the BHCC Retention Schedule document or for assistance of any kind.
The scope of the BHCC Archives includes selected College publications, faculty & student publications, institutional and academic documents, College Committees' records, Board of Trustees records, administrative records, photographs, publicity, and student life records. See the Types of Materials Collected section for details & specifics.
The Archives materials are stored and made available for access in accordance with the access parameters stated in the Access section of this document.
The officer in charge of each administrative and/or academic office is required to send two copies of each publication created by the off to the College Archives.
The BHCC Archives document the history of the college by collecting materials created by the administration, faculty, students, and staff during their time at the College. The Archives is the primary collector of all official College publications.
Following Publications Collections (PC) represent the types of materials that are considered to have archival value, and thus acquired by the College's Archives:
Because the records created by the administrative and academic offices of Bunker Hill Community College are voluminous, the Archives is not able to reasonably provide the necessary resources, including staff, equipment, or storage facilities, to address the preservation and access requirements for all of these records. The majority of these records are created for specific purposes and do not have lasting historical value. The following materials are not collected by the Archives: