n.records created and kept by an individual at a work that are merely personal in natureLovett 1958, 267–268Other institutions can also furnish examples of varying treatment of individual collections. Mrs. Renze sent me a copy of the rather elaborate provisions entered into by the State Historical Society of Colorado for the use of the nonofficial papers of Gov. John Evans.Geselbracht 1986, 153From the beginning the public archives tradition stressed that the documents with which it was concerned—the official records of governments, as opposed to the nonofficial papers of individuals and other nongovernmental entities—should be as unreservedly open for use as was possible.Gilliland-Swetland 1991, 169–170As early as the 1940s, when only a handful of academic archives existed, the Society of American Archivists’ Committee on College and University Archives was debating the appropriate function of academic archives. Should they be committed to preserving only the official administrative records or should they also be committed to preserving the nonofficial papers which document student and campus life, and the work of their scholarly communities?
