Policy And Procedure Summary

Little Big Horn College Archives Mission Statement

The Little Big Horn College Archives promotes the culture and history of the Crow Indians through the preservation of manuscripts, personal papers, official reports, photographs, and video/audio recordings on the historical and contemporary life of the Crow Indian people. The Archives acquires, organizes, describes, protects, preserves, and makes accessible this wide variety of materials to help perpetuate the culture and history of the Crow community and to assist in building self-knowledge, identity, and purpose for the Crow people.

Use and Access

The Little Big Horn Archives is a most valuable resource for the Crow community and for the students, faculty, and staff of Little Big Horn College. Outside researchers are also welcome.

Little Big Horn College Archives Policies

These policies cover the usage, acquisition, processing and management of the Archives and its collections.

Acquisition Policy

Acquisition Focus

The Little Big Horn College Archives is a collecting archives which gathers historical and cultural materials relating to the Crow people for the purposes of education and research. As such, the focus of the Little Big Horn College Archives is:

Copies of materials readily available elsewhere and materials not directly related to Crow culture and history may be graciously declined. The Archivist has the primary authority to accept material for evaluation and inclusion in the Archives. Due to limited resources and space, the Archives cannot house materials that are not of an archival nature.

Archival Appraisal

Archival appraisal is not a monetary evaluation and appraisal. If a monetary appraisal is desired by the Donor, it must be done at his/her own expense. All materials acquired must undergo archival appraisal and be recommended for access into the Archives. The Archivist will appraise the materials and establish their value to the Archives based on standard archival characteristics:

Deaccessioning

The Archivist is given the authority to recommend that records be deaccessioned (formally removed from the Archives’ collections) and returned to the Donor, transferred to a more appropriate facility, or destroyed when they become redundant, physically deteriorated, or become outside the collecting scope of the Archives. Deaccessioning will be recommended to the Library Committee, which will give final approval.

Gifts and Donations of Materials

Materials that are potential gifts or donations will be appraised for condition, pertinence to the collecting scope, and accessibility before being accepted for permanent addition to the Archives.

It is possible for donors to place restrictions on their collections. However, the Archives encourages donors to leave materials free of restrictions to better facilitate management, accessibility, and research potential.

Material accessioned by the Archives becomes the property of the Little Big Horn College, to be administered according to Little Big Horn College Archives policies. Little Big Horn College holds all copyrights for its accessioned collections unless otherwise specified by the Donor.

Access Policy

The Archives will make available to researchers all open archival records. All users of the Archives have the same rights and must follow the posted rules and approved policies. Please note, however, that the Archivist has the authority to enact any precautions necessary to protect the integrity of the collections and to prevent physical deterioration.

The materials may not be used when the Archives is closed or the Archivist unavailable.

In the absence of an Archivist, the Archivist will assign archival responsibilities to a qualified person.

Usage Policy

Unlike a library, materials in the Archives do not circulate. They may be used in the reading room of the Archives during open hours.

All users and visitors to the Archives must sign the Register on a daily basis, noting the date, his or her address, and collection used.

For unprocessed materials, the Archivist may require up to two days prior notice for access.

In order to protect the materials, only pencils and word processors may be used to take notes while using the collections. It is against the Archives Policy for anyone, including researchers or people working in the Archives, to deface, alter, damage or destroy archival records. Purses, backpacks, binders, folders or personal belongings of any kind are to be left in the Archives office area.

Inventories and Finding Aids

As collections are processed a box listing and inventory is made. As resources allow, finding aids are created.

Copies

Photocopies can be made at a charge of 5 cents per copy for Little Big Horn College staff, students, and faculty and 10 cents per copy for patrons not affiliated with the College.

Copies or reproductions of archival materials, audio/visual recordings, photographs, or slides will be made if there are no restrictions placed on the requested materials by the Donor and if the Archivist has determined that no risk is posed to the materials. Items subject to restrictions by donors will not be copied.

The Archives can offer digital rendering of such materials which researchers may subsequently manipulate into formats suitable for computer monitor display, paper prints, or web-based presentations. Of course, any such manipulation of Special Collections materials is subject to the standard copyright restrictions of Title 17, U. S. Code, and in some cases, special fees will be charged for use permission. Before any publication of Archival material, conventional or digital, researchers should formally request permission from the Archivist.

For digital copies of photographs or textual images, researchers must complete and sign a request form indicating the specifications for the scanned data. The fee for scanning is $2.50 per file/image, with an additional charge of $2.00 for a blank disk (floppy or CD) if such is desired. Shipping and handling for mail orders require a $3.00 charge as well. All orders for scanning will be taken by the Archives, scanned, transferred to floppy disk or CD ROM, and then shipped if necessary. The image files can also be sent by email if such will not be an undue burden on Little Big Horn College computer network resources or bandwidth.

There will be no refunds once an order for conventional or electronic reproduction of photographs, slides, and audio/visual recordings is filled. Advance payment is required for all such reproduction orders. Prices and time in which orders will be completed vary. In the case of photographic copy prints, because Little Big Horn College does not have a photo laboratory, materials must be transported to Billings and duplication fees will include charges for travel expenses. The Archives does not accept cash payments for reproduction orders. Payments should be made to Little Big Horn College and appropriate receipts should accompany all orders.

Research

Research may be performed by the Archivist at a flat fee plus expenses. Please contact the Archivist for further information.

Copyright

Patrons are responsible for following Copyright Law when making copies of the materials held by Little Big Horn College Archives.

Citing Archival Materials

When quoting from materials from the Little Big Horn College Archives in a paper, article or other publication, the Archives must be credited. The proper citation is:

(collection name)
(date of access to materials)
Little Big Horn College Archives
Crow Agency, Montana