MOUNT SAINT MARY'S ARCHIVES AND
DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
Mission Statement
The mission of the Mount Saint Mary's Archives and Department of Special Collections is to collect, arrange, and preserve the evidence of the founding, development and growth, purposes, activities, philosophy, and policies of the University. The Archives maintains the historical record of the institution's founders, faculty, supporters, and alumni, as well as the community in which it is based. The Archives supports the mission of the University by describing these records and artifacts and making them available to faculty, administrators, seminarians, students, alumni, and the community, to encourage free and rigorous inquiry in the pursuit of truth and to shape and inform responsible citizens guided by compassion and the highest moral and intellectual standards.
The Archives has an ethical obligation to make its holdings available to all researchers on equal terms regardless of affiliation.
Responsibilities of the Archives include:
Providing specialized facilities and trained personnel offering an internal administrative reference service of historical information.
Directing the acquisition and selection of historical material of the University, its faculty, alumni, and supporters.
Organizing and inventorying historically valuable records for permanent preservation.
Inventorying, identifying, conserving, protecting, evaluating, and making accessible the artwork and artifacts collected by and donated to the College and Seminary.
Overseeing the acquisition, housing, and preservation of the artwork, rare book, and other specialized book collections, including Mount authors, local history and genealogy, and art books, and carefully weeding and culling to focus the scope within the Archives' collection policy.
Developing and administering an information retrieval system for the documents, records, and artifacts in the Archives, including the creation of finding aids to the collection.
Drafting procedures for the administration of the Archives and its use by faculty, administrators, seminarians, students, alumni, and outside researchers.
Making available to researchers essential information and original source material.
Providing pertinent historical information for public relations uses.
Providing background and primary source material for publications, articles, speeches, and student research papers and projects.
Training student interns and volunteers in the philosophy, theory, and practice of archival administration and standards.
Introducing students to the techniques of conducting research in primary sources, the handling of archival and cultural materials, and special Archives rules and requirements.
Promoting knowledge about and the use of the historical collections contained in the Archives.
Collaborating with offices and departments to institute and implement a records management program to decrease the costs of onsite storage and lost records, increase the efficient retrieval of information, and ensure the continuous and orderly transfer of permanent, historical records to the Archives.
Preserving the historical records of all University actions.
Protecting and preserving all permanent records of the University and its faculty, alumni, and staff, regardless of format.
Collaborating with local communities, including the Sisters of Charity, local churches and cemeteries, the Emmitsburg Historical Society, the public library, the Town of Emmitsburg, and other historical and government organizations of Frederick County, to make the pool of historical resources known, publicize their activities, and improve access to their records.