About

Planning a Visit

Please email or call before your visit to discuss your interests and to make an appointment to visit. The Archivist will pull material you are interested in and have it available upon your arrival.

Registration

All researchers must register with the Archives before beginning their work. You will be asked to complete and sign a registration form upon which your subject interest in the collections will be noted.

Archives are a valuable resource for our present understanding of the past. The research materials found in archives are often primary sources, meaning that they may be documents and recordings containing the unedited drafts and official works of a creator, office, or institution. To learn more about primary and secondary sources, please see the Bank Street College Library’s Research Guide on Finding and Using Primary Sources

To ensure continued access to and preservation of the unique materials in the Bank Street College Archives, the following rules for collections use shall be observed:

1. Researchers must complete and sign the Researcher Registration Form prior to use of the collection.
2. The researcher must accept the responsibility of carefully handling all materials made available. Manuscripts and books may not be leaned on, written on, folded, traced over, or handled in any way that may damage them. All manuscripts must be kept on the surface of the table.
3. All food and drink are prohibited while using archival materials.
4. Materials are not to be moved from the designated table where they have been placed for your use.
5. Notes may be taken in pencil only. The use of ink is prohibited.
6. All materials must be kept in the order in which they are found in each folder. Folders must likewise be kept in the order in which they are found in each box.
7. Do not mark or fold materials in any way. The use of sticky notes is prohibited. Paper flags will be provided for you if you wish to identify pages for photocopying.
8. Requests for reproduction of materials will be considered when such duplication can be done without injury to the material and when such duplication does not violate donor agreements or copyright law. If you wish to request copies, please consult with the Archivist/ Special Collections Librarian. For more details on copyright law, please see the Bank Street Library’s Copyright Guidelines Page
9. The use of digital cameras and laptop computers is permitted at the Archivist’s discretion.
10. Photocopies and digital reproductions are for research purposes only and may not be reproduced or used in any other manner. If you wish to reproduce materials from the Archives for other purposes including publication, you must obtain permission in writing from the Archives.
11. Each collection in the Bank Street College Archives, whether processed and described online or unprocessed with little description, should be cited by the researcher when that collection is referenced as a consulted source in the researcher’s work. The preferred citation should include: [Collection title, Box number], Bank Street College Archives, New York, NY

Access to certain collections may be restricted based on the request of donors or preservation or privacy concerns. If you have any questions about restricted materials, please contact the Archives.

The Archives shall collect and maintain selected materials of enduring value that reflect the historical development or mission of the Bank Street College of Education. Final decisions regarding the selection of materials for permanent retention are the responsibility of the Archivist.

Donating Materials

The records of the College provide a rich source for historical research and support current administrative needs. The following guidelines will assist faculty and staff in identifying those portions of their files that are appropriate for transfer to the Archives.

PART I

Records commonly transferred to the Archives include:

1. Constitutions and bylaws, minutes and proceedings, transcripts, and lists of officers of College corporate bodies
2. Office Files: correspondence and memoranda (incoming and outgoing) and subject files concerning projects, activities, and functions
3. Historical files documenting policies, decisions, committee and task force reports, or questionnaires
4. Publications: two record copies of all newsletters, journals, brochures, monographs, programs, posters, and announcements issued by the College or its subdivisions. The Archives should be placed on College, department, and office mailing lists to receive all future publications
5. Audiovisuals: photographs, films, and sound and video recordings
6. Personal papers of students, faculty, alumni, and staff that relate to the College’s work

PART II

Records that generally should not be transferred but scheduled for disposal after consultation with the Archivists include:

1. Records of specific financial transactions
2. Routine letters of transmittal and acknowledgment
3. Non-personally addressed correspondence such as general distribution memoranda (except for one record copy from the issuing office)
4. Individual requests for publications or information after the requests have been filled. (However, statistics of such requests should be retained.)
5. Replies to questionnaires if the results are recorded and preserved either in the Archives or in a published report.

PART III

Items that may be discarded directly from the office when they are no longer needed for administrative purposes include:

1. All blank forms and unused printed or duplicated materials
2. All other duplicate material (keep only the original copy and annotated copies)
3. Personal papers that do not relate to the work of the College

A letter briefly identifying the material and describing the activity to which it relates should accompany the transfer.

This list is intended as a general guide. If questions arise about records not listed here or if you have questions about the retention or disposal of specific materials, please contact the Archives.

Digital Collection Policy

Born-digital materials, such as digital files, videos, emails, websites, and digital photographs, will be considered for inclusion in the archive if they’re shared with adequate descriptive information and meet the criteria for collection in the Bank Street Archives. As with paper records, large transfers of files must be organized and labeled by the individual or department submitting the materials. The organization and naming structure should reflect how these materials were used and/or their purpose.

Electronic documents (including email) should be stored with the date of creation or publication added to the end of the filename (formatted as: filename_YYYYMMDD.pdf).

If your electronic records meet these requirements and you have a current Bank Street email, please complete the records transfer JotForm. For external donations, reach out to libraryarchives@bankstreet.edu.

The Bank Street Archives currently uses educate as a digital institutional repository to preserve and make accessible public-facing digital objects of high interest. Most digital materials will be stored on an internal drive, and the finding aids will be made publicly available on ArchivesSpace once collections are processed.

Ethics & Principles

The Bank Street Archives, in recognition of how archival practice has historically and continually enacted violence through erasure and exclusion, harmful description, and control of access, seek to define our principles that inform a more ethical archival practice. The Bank Street Archives actively strives for ethical archival description, aiming to use culturally sensitive and inclusive language and historically accurate information. We do not censor records but rather seek to contextualize any possibly harmful content through archival description. Many of our finding aids were created decades ago. As capacity allows, we revise insensitive and inaccurate descriptive language currently present in the collection.

The Bank Street Archives does not collect records or other materials extracted, displaced, or stolen from the communities and places of their creation, and we will actively seek to return any such items found in our collection. We refuse to accept these materials on ethical grounds, and we recognize and respect the archival sovereignty of Indigenous communities and other peoples. 

We recognize that mistakes will be made, and we welcome feedback; please contact libraryarchives@bankstreet.edu or call 212-875-4562 with corrections, suggestions, or feedback.

Credits:

The Ethics & Principles Statement was drafted by the Bank Street Archivist and edited and adopted by the Archives Advisory Group in the spring of 2025. We consulted and borrowed language from ethical archival statements by Queens College Special Collections and Archives, UCLA Library, Stanford Libraries, and Temple University Libraries. The first sentence on archival violence is influenced by the work of  Michel-Rolph Trouillot in Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History. The phrase “does not collect records or other materials extracted, displaced or stolen from the communities and places of their creation” was taken directly from the Queens College Collection Development Policy.