The Status of Business Archives

Abstract

some time the Committee on Business Archives of the Society of American Archivists felt that a directory of business archivists would be helpful. To make a start on such a directory even though it was realized that coverage would not be complete a questionnaire was sent in May 1968 to over 700 U. S. and Canadian firms.1 The American Records Management Association (ARMA) kindly agreed to let us use its address list. This was weeded to eliminate nonbusiness members and multiple members from the same firm. To include firms not in the ARMA listing, a further selection was made from the Fortune 500 list of corporations. Notices of the project were placed in certain of the library and archival journals. The committee realizes that some business archivists may have been overlooked. The questionnaire was somewhat similar to that used by the College and University Archives Committee in preparing its directory.2 Perhaps because of the questionnaire's origin in a university library, emphasis was placed on information of use to the researcher. This included the date when the archives was established, dates of the holdings, types of records collected, approximate size of the collection, and availability for use. But answers to these questions also revealed the nature and extent of the archives. The definition of business archives included in the letter accompanying the questionnaire was suppied by William Rofes of IBM, a member of the committee.