MISSION STATEMENT
The mission of the University of Alaska Anchorage is to develop, disseminate, and apply knowledge to sustain and enrich the social, economic, and intellectual lives of the communities it serves. The Consortium Library supports each of the three major components of the university's work: teaching, research and creative activity, and public service. The Library's reference services provide access to its own holdings and to the larger world of information outside. Its corpus of books and periodicals is the principal storehouse of traditional and contemporary scholarship and opinion in southcentral Alaska. Its collections of printed manuscripts, statutes and cases, government documents, unpublished manuscripts, photographs, and other records are the raw materials for research on subjects of historical and contemporary significance.
The Archives and Manuscripts Department of the Library acquires, preserves, and makes available to students, faculty, and the public unpublished manuscripts, photographs, and information stored in non-print media. It is the principal comprehensive archival institution in southcentral Alaska. In addition to supporting the several educational and research missions of the University, it performs a special service mission as community conservator of the papers and records of persons, families, organizations, associations, and businesses.
The Archives and Manuscripts Department collects papers and records relating to the history of Alaska and the northwest Pacific area. As a public archival repository, the department seeks and is sought by donors. The contents of manuscripts collections are determined by the decisions of donors. Consequently, while the department focuses acquisition efforts on southcentral and southwest Alaska, its holdings are not limited to those regions. Within these broad terms of reference, the department's future collection efforts will be focused on three areas:
*Administration, Public Policy,
and the Social Sciences
(to include selected University records)
*Health and Biomedical Sciences
*Applied Sciences and Technology
The Archives and Manuscripts Department does not accept all proffered materials. It declines collections based on estimates of cost, time, and the difficulty of processing; insufficient storage space; use of the materials; and problems of conservation. In addition, the department generally refuses non-Alaskan collections which are more appropriately situated elsewhere.
Approved by the UAA Archives Advisory Committee and the Joint Library Advisory Committee in February 1992.