The major of Archival Science in Shandong University was founded in 1982, which is the only major with special characteristics in Shandong province. In 1996, the School of History and Culture of Shandong University established the Department of Secretarial and Archival Science. In 2003, it was authorized to grant the master's degree. In 2011, it was awarded the first-level master's degree of Library Information and Archives Management. At present, with two level of education, the department enjoys rights to award both bachelor’s degree and master’s degree, forming a relatively complete education system, and the graduates are granted Management degrees. With the deepening of social information construction, the major of Archival Science, as an important way to cultivate information resource management talents, has a broad development prospect.

In recent years, based on its own academic tradition and discipline advantages, the Department of Secretarial and Archival Science in Shandong University has made outstanding achievements in discipline construction and talent cultivation, and has created great academic influence in the fields of archival theory and history research and the development and utilization of archival information resources. At present, the department has nine full-time teachers, including four professors, four associate professors, one lecturer, and eight of them have doctor's degree and four of them have more than one-year overseas experience, forming a strong faculty team. Their researches enjoy considerable influence in the academic world, such as professor Zhao Aiguo's research on basic theory of archival science and archival document compilation, professor Liu Xuguang's research on modern archival thought and archivist, professor Wang Yunqing's research on archival information resource management and development, professor Qu Chunmei's research on Chinese and foreign archival theory and historical, etc. Bi mu, Tan Biyong, Huo Yanfang, Yan jing and other associate professors as well as Dr. Chen Jian have made abundant research achievements in the fields of archive cultural resources construction and development, digital archive resources organization and construction, and archive literature research.

The Department of Secretarial and Archival Science gives full play to their own advantages, in recent years, hosting or undertaking a lot of influential domestic high-level academic forums and meetings, such as the Annual Meeting of The Teaching Steering Committee for Archives of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education, Seminar on The Construction of Archival Science for Universities in Pan-eastern China, High-level Forum on “Memory of China”, and The Fifth National Academic Forum of Young Archivists in Universities.

Archival Science is a second-level discipline under the first-level discipline of Library Information and Archives Management, belonging to Management, and mainly studies the development law and practical characteristics of archive management activities, the management theory and utilization of archive information resources, which is a characteristic specialty combining theoretical research and practical application and has a promising development prospect in the information society.

This major offers classes about management, records science, secretary science, archival management, information resource management, electronic document management, archival documents compilation, archives conservation technology, the China’s history of archives, foreign archival management, management of scientific and technical documents and archives, computer and network technology, digital archives and e-government. The master’s degree of Archival Science set three main cultivation direction including the basic theory and history of archival science, the management and development of archival information resources and the study of cultural heritage archive, and two innovative cultivation direction, that is, electronic document management research and archives research. The major of Archival Science also employs famous experts and scholars from Taiwan’s National Chengchi University Research Institute of Book Information and Archival Science, Renmin University of China’s School of Information Resources Management, Hubei University’s School of History and Culture, Shandong University Archives, Qingdao Archives, Shandong Library and other institutions as part-time professors. It has modern teaching and scientific research places such as multimedia classroom, computer room, Secretarial and Archival Science laboratory and so on.

The major of Archival Science mainly cultivates compound senior information management, archives management and secretarial talents who meet the needs of the information society, have high cultural literacy, information literacy and credit quality, master modern management theories and methods, and also have international vision and innovative spirit. Graduates are able to engage in information management, archives management, administrative management, secretarial management, human resource management and other work in all levels of archives management departments, party and government organs, enterprises and public institutions. The Archival Science major has established good cooperative relations with government, large archival organizations and archival departments of large enterprises such as Shandong Archives, Jinan Municipal Archives, Qingdao Municipal Archives, Jinan Urban Construction Archives, Shandong Hi-speed Group, Shandong Electric Power Group, general office of Shandong government, CPPCC general office of Shandong government which have become a stable practice teaching base for the Archival Science major.

Thanks to the comprehensive and systematic specialized education, advanced educational concept and good training environment, the Archival Science graduates is mainly recruited by government organs at all levels, archives management departments, public institutions and large and medium-sized enterprises, such as the working committee of departments directly under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Taiwan Affairs Office, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, Customs, Court, National Archives, the Central Party School, People's Daily, Guangming daily press, CGNPC, SNPTC, CNEIC, CHGY, Shandong Luneng, Shandong Langchao, China Construction Bank, Zhongtai Securities, Evergrande Group etc. In recent years, the employment rate of both undergraduates and postgraduates is more than 90%, and the employment level of graduates is relatively high. Graduates of Archives major have strong social practice ability and high comprehensive quality, which are widely praised by relevant employers. In addition to choosing to work, graduates, in recent years, decided to study for a master's or doctoral degree in London School of Economics and Political Science, University College London, University of Manchester, University of Connecticut, University of Melbourne, or Renmin University of China, Wuhan University, Nanjing University, Nankai University, Zhongshan University, Zhejiang University, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In the area of international exchanges, the Department of Secretarial and Archival Science have four teachers have paid an academic visit to the member units of international leading association of information colleges I - Schools for more than 1 year, and has participated in the annual meetings of American Archives Education and Research Institute (AERI) and the International Council on Archives (ICA), and International Congress on Archives. Moreover, the department has carried out specific international academic cooperation with overseas professional universities such as the University of Liverpool, the University of California, Los Angeles and Monash University in Australia. In recent years, undergraduate and postgraduate students majoring in Archival Science have successively gone to UCLA, Kumamoto University, Yamaguchi University, Korea Central University, Busan University, Korea University and other foreign universities for exchange.

The Department of Secretarial and Archival Science of Shandong University actively plays the role of think-tank and undertakes social public service. It participated in the draw up and review of important regulations and documents such as “Regulations of Shandong Province on Archival Work”, “The Implementing Advices on Strengthening and Improving the Archival Work for a New Area” initiated by general offices of the party committee of Shandong province and the government of Shandong province, and development planning of archives in Shandong province stipulated by “the Twelfth Five-year Plan” and “the Thirteenth Five-year Plan”, which has become an important think-tank for the development of archival undertakings in Shandong province. Four teachers of Archival Science were selected as the first batch of archival academic theory experts in Shandong province, and professor Zhao Aiguo and professor Wang Yunqing were selected as leading talents in the archives field of Shandong province. They have served as the directors of the evaluation committee of senior titles of archives in Shandong province. In 2015, they promoted the evaluation work of the first list of precious archives in Shandong province and Qingdao, and served as the chairman and expert of the evaluation.