B. University of California Business and Finance Bulletin, RM-4, Vital Records Protection. C. UCSB Policies Manual, Policy 7055, UCSB Archives. Records which are essential to the protection of the rights of individuals. Examples of the first type of vital records are current payroll records necessary to pay employees, master student academic records necessary to show completion of course work, and the employee service records required for protection of tenure and retirement status. Vital records should not be confused with archival records.
Archival records are records which have significant historical value.
See UCSB Policy 7055. Exact identification of a particular record as vital can be accomplished only on a judgmental basis. The owners or users of the record are most able to apply such judgment. Many types of records are of great importance but not of vital importance. Such records require much effort and expense to reconstruct, if lost, or have intrinsic histor ical value.