Collection context
Summary
- Creator:
- Williams, Robert V. and Ford Foundation
- Extent:
- 1.45 Cubic Feet and 3 Hollinger boxes and 1 oversize photograph box
- Language:
- English .
Background
- Scope and Content:
Collection contains the office files of Robert Williams who occupied different records management related positions in the Ford Foundation's Logistical Services unit between 1969 and 1974. Logistical Services operated within the Foundation's Division of Administration, and Williams was hired as a Records Analyst before becoming Records Services Manager. The collection consists of one series of subject files. Williams' staff subject files include a lot of material that originated from before he joined the Foundation and some material that appears to have been created by Robert Mayer who was Officer-in-Charge of Logistical Services. This material may have been collected by Williams or may have been mixed in with his subject files at some point by the Foundation's archives.
The collection documents the development of the Ford Foundation's records management and archives policies and procedures. It contains correspondence, memos, drafts, reports, and notes that discuss topics like the Foundation's grants index, catalogued reports, information retrieval policies, filing procedures impacting the Foundation's field offices, records security, space allocation for records in the Ford Foundation New York City Headquarters building, microfilming, and data processing. In addition to documenting the activities of Williams and Mayer, the collection also contains a significant amount of memos and other records created by Margaret Sloane who was the Information Services Manager.
- Biographical / Historical:
Robert V. Williams (1938-2017) was an archivist, information services professional, and educator. He worked in various records management and archives positions in the Ford Foundation's Logistical Services unit.
Williams received an undergraduate degree in Social Sciences and Education from Harding University in 1961, a Master's Degree in Library Science from Florida State University in 1964, and a PhD in Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1978. Prior to joining the Ford Foundation, he worked at the Georgia Department of Archives and History from between 1965 and 1969. He became a professor at the University of South Carolina in 1978 and served as Director of the Office of Research for the College of Mass Communications and Information Studies between 2002 and 2004.
- Acquisition information:
This material was transferred to the RAC in 2019 and was ingested by the RAC as Accession 2019:098.
Accessions continue as necessary.
- Arrangement:
Collection consists of one series of subject files.
Collection arrangement is as follows:
Series 1. Subject files, 1956-1980
Access
- RESTRICTIONS:
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Open for research with select materials restricted as noted. Brittle or damaged items are available at the discretion of RAC.
- TERMS OF ACCESS:
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Ford Foundation has title, copyright and literary rights in the collection, in so far as it holds them.
The Rockefeller Archive Center has authority to grant permission to cite and publish material from the collection. Permission to publish extensive excerpts, or material in its entirety, will be referred to the Ford Foundation.
- LOCATION OF THIS COLLECTION:
- CONTACT:
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