American Society for Quality Archives

Frequently Asked Questions

The Archives

• Why should we send our meeting minutes and other documents listed on the transfer guidelines to the ASQ Archives?

Your records are a valuable legacy for the future of quality.  Your meeting minutes, newsletters, and other items allow people to experience the evolution and growth of the American Society for Quality.

By sending your documents to the ASQ Archives, you ensure that your documents are placed under archival care.  You also allow greater access to your organization's activities and achievements that ASQ members or the public can utilize in the future.  Your documents also assist us with answering questions that we receive from ASQ members and the public.

Please support the preservation of ASQ history, both distant and recent, by transferring your records to the ASQ Archives.

Transferring your materials to the ASQ Archives

• What should I send to the ASQ Archives?

Please look at our transfer guidelines for more information about what types of material we would like to obtain.  If you have any questions, please contact the ASQ Assistant Archivist.

• How do I donate materials to the archives?

Please see our How to donate page for information.

• My section does not have all of the material listed on your transfer guidelines. Can we still send what we have?

The transfer guidelines is meant to be a general guide of items that we would like to acquire, if possible.  It is understandable that your section may not have all of these items.  We would be happy to have the items listed on the transfer guidelines that you possess.

If you have items not listed on the guidelines that you would like to contribute, please contact the ASQ Assistant Archivist for further discussion.  As always, any contribution of material that fulfills our mission to document the history of the American Society for Quality, large or small, is greatly appreciated.

• What happens to our records after we send them to you?

Upon arrival of your shipment, the ASQ Assistant Archivist processes your documents.  Processing consists of preservation, arrangement, description, and storage of your materials.  Your documents are checked for components that may cause future deterioration, such as paper clips, and placed in acid-free folders according to their original order.  These folders are given a title and are dated according to the folder's content.  The folders are described in their corresponding control card and finding aid, both of which are accessible via the web.  Your documents are then put into archival boxes, labeled, and then shelved for future retrieval.

Using the ASQ Archival Collection

• I am not an ASQ member. Can I still receive reference assistance and use the archives?

Yes, of course! The ASQ Archives is open to the general public.

• Your website mentions finding aids. What are they, and where are they located?

Finding aids describe the contents of an archival collection.  The finding aids for the ASQ collection list the title and time span for each folder contained in each box in each record series.  You can use the information in the finding aids to see if the Archives holds materials of interest to you.

You can browse through the online finding aids at the ASQ Archives Holdings page.  When you click on the link, you will be taken to the control card, which provides a brief description of the records contained within that group.  For a more detailed description, scroll down to the link to the finding aid which states "view finding aid/box and folder list."

You can search our records using the Archives Holdings Database.

Some ASQ records series do not have online finding aids.  If you require further assistance, please contact the ASQ Assistant Archivist.

• How do we access ASQ records listed on your finding aids?

Please contact the ASQ Assistant Archivist.  He or she will gladly provide assistance.

• I found your finding aids, but I could not determine if you would have the information that I am seeking. Can you help me?

We are always happy to answer any questions that you may have regarding the documents we have at the archive.  Please contact the ASQ Assistant Archivist.