n.an individual responsible for business recordsEdgerly 1982, 269The guidelines are not an attempt to separate business archivists from other archivists with whom they share many common goals and ideals. In fact, because many of the elements described in the guidelines are basic to any archival program, it is anticipated that they may encompass the diversity of business and other archives. The guidelines, however, do take into account the reality that archives in a business setting frequently require a nontraditional approach to administration.Van Camp 1982, 297Business archivists can and should strive to make available to all researchers, on an equitable basis, those records that have been designated as unrestricted, and to obtain reasonable time restrictions on those records that should be protected.Hives 1986, 48–49The 1970s witnessed new archival programmes at Walt Disney, International Harvester, Anheuser-Busch, Corning Glass Works, Wyerhaeuser, Wells Fargo Bank, Deere and Company, Gerber Products, the Los Angeles Times, and Atlantic Richfield. During this decade alone, the number of corporate archives doubled while the ranks of business archivists quadrupled. . . . By 1980, the SAA’s business archives directory listed over two hundred business archives and sixty corporate archivists.Jones and Cantelon 1993, 19Most business archivists in administrative positions today had previous work experience in other archival programs.Jones and Cantelon 1993, 77Many business archivists argue that they do not have formal policies because they fear drawing attention to sensitive records in their possession.Jones and Cantelon 1993, 128To ensure that valuable and useful records were safeguarded and preserved through proper evaluation, the Firestone Tire and Rubber Co., in 1943 became the first company to hire an archivist and begin a comprehensive archives program in cooperation with the company’s records manager. The first business archivist was William D. Overman, who had for a number of year been curator of history and state archivist at the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society and who later served as president of SAA.McDowall 1993, 348The lot of a business archivist is becoming no happier. Corporate archivists have perennially been confronted by the daunting challenge of bringing order to the mountain of corporate documentation deposited on their doorstep. All too often, archivists have also been obliged to contend with the skepticism of their corporate masters, battling to maintain that the archives is a vital corporate function.Van Ness 2010, 141As one business archivist points out, the principal users of corporate records tend to be the archivists themselves.
