A World of Repositories, a World of Records: Redefining the Scope of a National Subject Collection

Archivists have been less succesful in collecting documentation on white ethnics than in gathering materials on other neglected groups in American society. This article addresses the problem by applying concepts of collection development to the holdings of an outstanding immigrant-ethnic repository, the Immigration History Research Center Collection of the University of Minnesota. It argues that the historic collecting policy is too broad and too indiscriminate to make the best use of the institution's resources and outlines a new policy based on present holdings and on the holdings and policies of other institutions.