Archival responsibilities of university libraries

Abstract

Based on a talk given at the Standing Conference of National and University Libraries ( SCONUL) at Birmingham University, April 1979, this paper discusses the role of the university library in the collection and preservation of archival resources, alongside the county record office and other respositories of public records. It argues that the university library's activity in this field is justified both by the dependence of university scholarship and research on archival sources and by the breadth of expertise available in universities for the library's bandling, processing and exploitation of archives as research resources. A university's manuscripts and archives collections should be closely related to the research and teaching interests of the university; and its collections of books, etc., constitute an important record and archive in themselves of the history of the university.