Members of the SCH Community are welcome to visit the SCH Archives for research purposes. Before visiting:

• Book the SCH Archives with this form at least one week in advance.  The reservation will need to be approved by the archivist before it is finalized. Relevant materials must be prepared in advance for your visit visit, although additional materials may be retrieved during the visit if necessary

• If visitors will be handling original materials, they may be asked to wash and dry their hands thoroughly

• Most materials can be photocopied, photographed or scanned, but discretion always rests with the archivist or archives staff. Materials do not circulate and must remain in the archives.

I. Introduction

The SCH Archives serves as the final repository for the historical records of Chestnut Hill Academy, Springside School, and Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. Its primary purpose is to document the history of the School and to provide source material for administrators, faculty, students, alumni, and other members of the School community, as well as scholars, authors, and other interested persons who seek to evaluate the impact of the School’s activities on the history of American social, cultural, and intellectual development.

II. Core Mission

The core mission of the SCH Archives is as follows:

• To appraise, collect, organize, describe, make available, and preserve records of historical, legal, fiscal, and/or administrative value to CHA, SS, and SCH Academy

• To provide adequate facilities for the retention and preservation of such records

• To provide information services that will assist the operation of the School

• To serve research and scholarship by making available and encouraging the use of its collections by members of the School community

• To promote knowledge and understanding of the origins, aims, programs, and goals of the School, and of the development of these aims, goals, and programs

III. Collection Development

The School’s archives are located in the SCH Archives Room in the Thornley Middle School building.  The SCH Archive's collections policy is based on the Society of American Archivists’ Guidelines For College and University Archives (1983), which calls for the preservation of School records for the purposes of:

• maintaining a clear account of School life and achievements, administrative policy and actions and educational programs

• reinforcing an image of the School that stimulates financial support and encourages an appreciation of the School’s past and its role in the history of American education among students, faculty, and alumni

• making available a body of records useful for student, casual, and scholarly research in history and other disciplines. The SCH Archives must rely on the cooperation and support of administrators, deans, directors, faculty, students, and alumni to ensure that materials of historical value are collected and preserved. The SCH Archives will promote school-wide records management and collect material in the following categories from all administrative and academic units of the school.

A.  Official Records, Paper and Publications of CHA, SS, and SCH (INTERNAL INTAKE CHECKLIST)

Official records encompass the records or papers generated or received by the various administrative offices of SCH Academy in the conduct of their business. These records will include:

• Minutes, memoranda, correspondence and reports of the Board of Trustees

• Records of the Office of the Head Master, including correspondence, administrative subject files and reports

• Correspondence, subject files, and reports of the Deans of Academics, Faculty, Residential Life, and Students and other such administrators as will be appointed

• Correspondence, subject files and reports of the offices of central administration, including Admissions, College Counseling, Day Student Office, Financial and Administrative Services, and the Registrar

• Correspondence, subject files and reports of the offices of the individual academic departments, and academic programs including Educational Support and Advising, International Programs, Multicultural Affairs, and Performing Arts

• Correspondence, subject files and reports of the offices of supporting departments

• Minutes, memoranda and reports of all major academic and administrative commissions, councils and committees including the Faculty and its committees

• Departmental records, including: minutes, reports, correspondence, and syllabi

• Examples of student work

• Accreditation reports and supporting documentation

• Annual budget and audit reports

• Records of the Registrar, including timetables, class schedules, enrollment reports, graduation rosters and other reports issued on a regular basis

• In-active student records

• Alumni records, including minutes of the alumni associations

• Records of student organizations

• All publications, newsletters and booklets distributed in the name of SCH Academy, including catalogs, special bulletins, yearbooks, student newspapers, School directories and faculty/staff rosters, faculty and administration newsletters and publications, alumni publications and ephemeral material

• Photoprints, negatives, slides, audio and video film, tapes, reels, oral history interviews, scrapbooks and optical and compact discs documenting the development of the School

• Maps, prints and architectural drawings documenting the physical changes and development of the School

• Electronic records representing any of the above contents. The official administrative records of Springside Chestnut Hill Academy (correspondence, reports and subject files) designated as archival should be inactive and no longer used in the current activities of the originating office. Records should be forwarded to the Archives after consulting with the archivist for the orderly transfer of non-current materials. An inventory of records transferred should accompany accessioned material. The originating office may place restrictions on access to non-current records in addition to the restrictions on administrative, Board of Trustees, employee and student records described in the Access Policy statement.

B. Records related to members of the School community

The SCH Archives will solicit and collect records and papers which are not official School records but which relate to the history of CHA, SS, SCH Academy. and its community members. Examples include:

• Professional and personal papers of the members of the Board of Trustees if associated with School business

• Professional and personal papers of alumni relating to their SCH experiences and, for eminent alumni, their great life experiences

• Papers or records dealing with the history of the city of Philadelphia as they relate to the growth and development of the School

• Papers, records and published items on CHA, SS, SCH Academy and its role in the history of secondary education

C. Artifacts relating to the history of the School

The CHA, SS, and SCH  artifact collection includes 3D objects, banners, clothing, other textiles, trophies, plaques and other objects that document the material history of the School.

D. Materials the SCH Archives does not collect

• Invoices or financial statements documenting minor financial transactions

• Duplicates or multiple copies of publications and records

• Duplicates or multiple copies of non-annotated drafts

• Blank forms kept for supply purposes

• Personal or private papers neither created nor received in connection with the School’s business

• Newspaper clippings not related to the School

• Published books and articles not written by alumnu

• Textbooks

IV. Donations

• Items sent to the archives that are not official school records become the property of the School, to be kept or discarded as determined by the archivist’s professional judgment.

• The SCH Archives reserves the right to refuse articles which are not suitable for our collections or which have mold or insect damage which could pose a hazard to our existing collections.

• If a collection or item is not appropriate for the School’s collections, archival staff may assist the donor in locating a more appropriate institution to receive the donation.

• Donations should include the donor’s name and contact information.

• The SCH Archives does not perform financial appraisals of donated collections for tax purposes. While the archives can issue a detailed gift acknowledgment listing donated items, assessment of materials’ fiduciary value must be conducted by an outside appraiser.

• When possible, as much information about items as possible should be included, including associated people, events, locations and dates.

SCH Academy’s Archives welcomes donations of materials related to the history of the School. Please see our the collection policy above for details on what the SCH Archives collects.

Things to know before you donate:

• Materials are legally transferred from the donor to the SCH Archives when the donor reviews and signs a deed of gift. The Archives can only devote resources to the description and preservation of collections which it owns. Materials on loan are generally not accepted.

• Items sent to the archives that are not official school records become the property of the School, to be kept or discarded as determined by the archivist’s professional judgment.

• The SCH Archives reserves the right to refuse articles which are not suitable for our collections or which have mold or insect damage which could pose a hazard to our existing collections.

• If a collection or item is not appropriate for the School’s collections, archival staff may assist the donor in locating a more appropriate institution to receive the donation.

• Donations should include the donor’s name and contact information.

• The SCH Archives does not perform financial appraisals of donated collections for tax purposes. While the archives can issue a detailed gift acknowledgment listing donated items, assessment of materials’ fiduciary value must be conducted by an outside appraiser.

• When possible, as much information about items as possible should be included, including associated people, events, locations and dates.

School archival records will normally remain closed for a maximum period of twenty years from the date of their creation (the date on which each document was written) unless the office of origin has designated a shorter period.  Publications by the School will generally be considered open upon publication.  The only records that are restricted for a different period are:

Student records: Restricted to administrative users for 80 years following the student’s class date and with the death of the student, except by permission of the Registrar. Under FERPA, students are permitted access to their own records.  Files in other collections containing student disciplinary records and grades also adhere to these restrictions.

Personnel records:  Unpublished material contained in personnel files of individual members of the faculty will be closed until 100 years until after the person’s year of birth or 5 years after the person’s year of death, whichever is longer. Access to certain other records may be restricted by law regardless of time passage.