The business records collection is one of the largest of its kind in Europe and holds material on almost every commercial and industrial activity that has been pursued in the west of Scotland in the last 200 years. These reflect the contribution that Scotland's business, industry and enterprise has made, past and present, to the world's culture and economy, from Robert Owen's New Lanark Mills to Clydebuilt ships and locomotives. Together these collections cover all aspects of Scottish intellect, commercial endeavour and experience at home and abroad during the past 600 years. The mission of Archive Services is to preserve, maintain and ensure the use of the collections that it maintains. The principles and responsibilities of the Department are to 'remember' for both the University and for posterity.
Every society defines itself by what it chooses to remember and by what it chooses to forget.
Archivists assign value to records, and to be able to do this archivists must understand why a series of records was created, who created it, and how it fits into the functions of the institution. Record appraisal involves all the documentation of an organisation not just those of a certain media or type. Prospectuses and brochures are a record of marketing strategy, self image and response to external regulation. E-mail constitutes a record, just as magnetic tapes, computer disks, CDs and other digital formats are part of the records of an organisation. Until the last few decades the vast majority of the University's records were readable by humans but now more and more records are created by machines and are only readable by machines, making them vulnerable to constantly changing technology.