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Introduction The State Archives’ principal function, traditionally, has been to preserve the official records of New Jersey colonial and state government agencies and make them available to the public for research. The Archives, however, has also accepted certain historical county and local government records as permanent accessions from time to time. The Archives’ earliest predecessor agency, the Public Record Office (PRO), surveyed local government records throughout New Jersey during the 1920s and '30s, and gathered together then what is a substantial portion of the Archives’ present county and local records holdings. During the last few decades, it has been the Archives’ policy to encourage county governments to establish their own archival storage and research facilities. While a number of counties have made tangible progress in building or renovating central storage facilities and establishing a professionally staffed archives program, many others have not been able to do so. Important historical records of certain counties are therefore left vulnerable to loss or theft (when their use is not supervised by a professional archivist) and to serious deterioration or complete destruction (when environmental controls and storage space are inadequate). Considering this, in October 1990 the State Archives developed guidelines for accepting county and local records for permanent accession into the State Archives. These guidelines established cut-off dates for most of the loose-manuscript series, and some bound-volume series, found in the clerk’s offices. Most of these cut-off dates range between 1880 and 1920. The 1991 Court Bifurcation Act (P.L. 1991, c. 119), which absorbed the former county courts and their records into the state court system, compelled a further revision of the Archives’ accessioning policy. Below is a list of the revised guidelines to be used by Archives staff in appraising county and local records. It will continue to be the policy of DARM that county and local governments first be strongly encouraged to provide suitable storage for their archival records at home as part of a central archives and records management program. When, however, it appears to DARM staff that the preservation of, or public access to, important historical county and local records depends on transfer of such materials to the State, it will be useful to have on hand consistent guidelines for deciding what should-and should not-be transferred to Trenton. Categories of Records Eligible for Accessioning
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