Evaluation and Appraisal of University Administrative Computing Datasets

In September of 1990 the Pennsylvania State University Archives in cooperation with Management Services, a division of the university responsible for administrative computing services, began a two year grant project funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC Grant #90-095). The objectives of this project are to appraise, preserve, and make available electronic records created, stored and used in the Management Services Division of Penn State University; to develop ongoing procedures for the appraisal of administrative computing data in the future; to develop protocols for the use of the data by institutional and outside researchers while enforcing restrictions on access for privacy and confidentiality purposes; and to provide recommendations based on the project for the preservation of archival data from on-line administtative database systems.