The Student Organization Records Toolkit, or SORT, is designed to assist student organizations in developing their recordkeeping practices to preserve their group’s history by identifying significant records and those that can be discarded, as well as best practices for storing, organizing and making your records accessible.

Because students spend a relatively short amount of time at Pitt, SORT offers easy to use solutions for maintaining your organization’s history that can be passed down to future members. By implementing SORT and working with the University Archivist, you can be sure that your group’s accomplishments are being preserved as part of Pitt’s history.

The University Archives is a part of the University Library System that collects, preserves and makes accessible the papers, records, photographs and media that document the history and mission of the University of Pittsburgh.

While the University has been well documented through the records of the administration, faculty, schools and academic departments, records that document the Pitt student experience are underrepresented. One way students can help fill this gap in the University’s history is by donating the inactive records of their organizations to the Archives.

If your group is interested in the SORT methods described on this site, but is unsure about donating its records to the University Archives, that is OK. The University Archives is an option that is available to your organization for the long-term storage and preservation of your records, but it is by no means mandatory. The primary concern of SORT is to advise students on the best means of documenting your time at Pitt for future generations.

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