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<div class="container"> <div class="info-block left-column"> <ul class="info-list"> <li><h2>Categories</h2><ul class="link-list"><li class="category"><a href="/category/basic-archival-science.html">Basic Archival Science</a></li><li class="category"><a href="/category/theory-and-principles.html">Theory and Principles</a></li></ul></li> <li><h2>Cross-referenced terms</h2><ul class="info-list-italic"> <li><h2>Synonym</h2><ul class="link-list"><li><a href="/entry/archival.html#103995">archival (1)</a></li><li><a href="/entry/archival-record.html">archival record</a></li><li><a href="/entry/archive.html#122821">archive (2)</a></li><li><a href="/entry/archivy.html">archivy</a></li><li><a href="/entry/collecting-archives.html">collecting archives</a></li><li><a href="/entry/fonds.html">fonds</a></li><li><a href="/entry/institutional-archives.html">institutional archives</a></li></ul></li> <li><h2>Broader Terms</h2><ul class="link-list"><li><a href="/entry/collection.html#122624">collection (2)</a></li><li><a href="/entry/record.html">record</a></li><li><a href="/entry/repository.html">repository</a></li></ul></li> <li><h2>Narrower Terms</h2><ul class="link-list"><li>alternative archives</li><li><a href="/entry/business-archives.html">business archives</a></li><li><a href="/entry/collecting-archives.html">collecting archives</a></li><li><a href="/entry/collection.html#106528">collection (1)</a></li><li><a href="/entry/community-archives.html">community archives</a></li><li><a href="/entry/corporate-archives.html">corporate archives</a></li><li><a href="/entry/dark-archives.html">dark archives</a></li><li>digital archives</li><li><a href="/entry/dim-archives.html">dim archives</a></li><li><a href="/entry/displaced-archives.html">displaced archives</a></li><li>film archives</li><li>grassroots archives</li><li>gray archives</li><li><a href="/entry/iconographic-archives.html">iconographic archives</a></li><li><a href="/entry/institutional-archives.html">institutional archives</a></li><li><a href="/entry/joint-archives.html">joint archives</a></li><li><a href="/entry/light-archives.html">light archives</a></li><li><a href="/entry/migrated-archives.html">migrated archives</a></li><li><a href="/entry/participatory-archives.html">participatory archives</a></li><li><a href="/entry/photographic-archives.html">photographic archives</a></li><li><a href="/entry/removed-archives.html">removed archives</a></li><li><a href="/entry/reparative-archives.html">reparative archives</a></li><li>virtual archives</li></ul></li> <li><h2>Related Terms</h2><ul class="link-list"><li><a href="/entry/archival-record.html">archival record</a></li><li><a href="/entry/artificial-collection.html">artificial collection</a></li><li><a href="/entry/backup.html">backup</a></li><li><a href="/entry/fonds.html">fonds</a></li><li><a href="/entry/manuscript-repository.html">manuscript repository</a></li><li><a href="/entry/organic-collection.html">organic collection</a></li><li><a href="/entry/permanent-record.html">permanent record</a></li><li><a href="/entry/total-archives.html">total archives</a></li></ul></li> <li><h2>Distinguish From</h2><ul class="link-list"><li><a href="/entry/archive.html">archive</a></li><li><a href="/entry/manuscript-repository.html">manuscript repository</a></li><li><a href="/entry/papers.html">papers</a></li><li><a href="/entry/personal-papers.html">personal papers</a></li><li>public archives</li><li><a href="/entry/record.html">record</a></li><li><a href="/entry/web-archives.html">web archives</a></li></ul></li> </ul></li> </ul> </div> <div class="text-block main-content"> <div class="text-holder"> <h1>archives</h1> pl. n. <a name="104417"></a>records created or received by a person, family, or organization and preserved because of their continuing value<button id="idm62" onclick="toggleCitations('#idm62')" class="button-link"> (View Citations)</button> <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7614">Kimberly 1938</a>, 112After fumigation, archives are cleaned by means of an air stream applied through a narrow fan-shaped orifice in a gun of special design. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#4932">Coleman 1938</a>, 203An act, approved March 6, 1913, established officially in the State Library a department of Indiana history and archives, and intrusted to it the care and custody of such archives as might come into the possession of the library. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7621">Buck 1945a</a>, 111It will be apparent then from this definition that archival documents may be old or very recent, current or noncurrent from the point of view of administration, active or inactive from the point of view of use, interesting or uninteresting, significant or insignificant; also that they may be handwritten, typewritten, processed, or printed; and finally that they may take the form of drawings, paintings, photographs (including motion picture film), diagrams, charts, maps, and even sound recordings. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7628">Bahmer 1955</a>, 201And, beyond this, they make it possible to envisage a regional decentralization of archives of permanent value but primarily of local or regional interest. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7636">Holmes 1960</a>, 9–10, fn. 13Also deserving of notice is the most recent definition of “records,” which is to be found in sec. 149.40 of an act approved July 18, 1959, making the Ohio Historical Society the archives administration authority for that State. This reads: “Any . . . document, device, or item created or received by or coming under the jurisdiction any public office of the State or its political subdivisions which serves to document the organization, functions, policies, or other activities of the office, or which contains historical information, is a record within the meaning of sections 149.31 to 149.42, inclusive, of the Revised Code. When such records are of long term or permanent administrative, legal, fiscal, or historical value they shall be deemed to be archives within the meaning of these sections.” This is the first statute that has come to my attention that defines “archives” as that part of the official records that has long term or permanent value. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7643">Eddy 1961</a>, 77Faced with our situation we are planning a high building, with ample office quarters and working space, providing a section for permanent archives together with a section for transient materials. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7651">Holmes 1961</a>, 346To him [Hilary Jenkinson], for example, archives were no longer archives if there had been any interruption to the chain of official custody, just as a virgin, with one lapse, is no longer a virgin. They were cast out. There was no such thing as grace or the possibility under some circumstances of redemption. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7657">Sharman 1963</a>, 174The restoration of the building is indeed planned; but if this entails, as some have suggested, the reduction of the structure to the dimensions of the 1829 original, two-thirds of the floorspace that might be used for housing archives will be lost. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#5483">Gracy 1989</a>, 74“Noncurrent records . . . ,” hogwash. Archives are very current records—current, that is, from the perspective of their user, and since use is the purpose for which archives are kept, this is the perspective that matters. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7666">Heald 1996</a>, 96The genealogical use of archives is another phenomenon (misunderstood and unjustifiably denigrated by archivists) where documents have gained value for the common person. <a target="_blank" sref="henry-1998" href="/sources.html#738">Henry 1998</a>, 315The value of archives is cultural and humanistic, not just bureaucratic. Archival programs that collect records or personal papers, which may contain electronic media, find the new definition of record [as evidence of a business transaction] bewildering. Personal papers may never show “evidence” of “business transactions,” but such archival sources provide a wealth of information needed for society’s memory. <a target="_blank" sref="doyle-2001" href="/sources.html#438">Doylen 2001</a>, 352[Leonard] Rapport urged us to consider archives not as permanently valuable, but as worthy of continued preservation—a conceptual shift that justifies the reappraisal of current holdings and revision of the standards by which archivists appraised those records in the first place. <a target="_blank" sref="doyle-2001" href="/sources.html#7680">Tutu 2003</a>It cannot be denied and the fact that the apartheid Government in its death throes rescinded and abolished these iniquitous laws can be taken as accepting that they were reprehensible and thus their action is a form of accountability. The records should serve to remind us of our capacity to be so horribly inhuman to one another and to the records, the archives are absolutely indispensable for this task. <a target="_blank" sref="doyle-2001" href="/sources.html#7673">Millar 2014</a>, 107Archives have always been stereotyped as dusty, musty, and old. As the world becomes relentlessly digital, this emphasis on caches and treasures instead of evidence and testimony imperils the archival future. <a name="122910"></a>inactive records of continuing value<button id="idm107" onclick="toggleCitations('#idm107')" class="button-link"> (View Citations)</button> <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7846">Lewinson 1954</a>, 23Since 1918 the Soviet authorities have applied the term archives not only to segregated noncurrent records but to current records as well. The first class, which alone would in Western usage be termed archives, are denominated “historical archives” and were cut off in 1917. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7853">Leavitt 1961</a>, 178As a definition of archives, intended to cover only public records, I would tentatively suggest the following: Archives are old documents, whether written, printed, or otherwise inscribed, which were officially received or produced by a government body or official in the performance of official duty, and which were afterwards set aside for preservation, having been tacitly or by positive decision adjudged worthy of being kept. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7860">Evans, Harrison, and Thompson 1974</a>, 417ARCHIVES. (1) The noncurrent records of an organization or institution preserved because of their continuing value; also referred to, in this sense, as archival materials or archival holdings. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7867">Evans 1975</a>, 151–152The most basic change, in my judgement, has been the change in the very concept of archives. Less than two decades ago the term was generally understood to mean primarily noncurrent institutional records of continuing value, and archival agencies, to quote Schellenberg, were essentially “receiving” rather than “collecting” agencies. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7874">Bradsher 1989</a>, 3It may be said . . . that archives are the official or organized records of governments, public and private institutions and organizations, groups of people and individuals, whatever their date, form and material appearance, which are no longer needed to conduct current business, but are preserved, either as evidence of origins, structures, functions, and activities or because of the value of the information they contain, whether or not they have been transferred to an archival institution. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7881">Duranti 1994</a>, 332In the ancient and medieval Western world, archival documents were conferred trustworthiness by their preservation in an archives, and it is essential to remember that the term archives in this context refers to the place where archival documents were kept by their creator. As a consequence, not every entity could have an archives; only the persons or corporations invested with sovereign power had the right to establish one in their own jurisdiction (jus archivi or archivale). <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7888">Montgomery 2012</a>, 330, fn. 6Archives are defined as noncurrent records of enduring importance that possess historical, legal, administrative, or evidentiary value. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7895">Gilliland 2014a</a>, 176The term “archives” (in the plural), as used by the archival field, traditionally refers not only to records generated in the course of organizational activities that are no longer current but are still useful, but also to the repository that takes custody of those archival records and the program that ensures their preservation and access. Research in electronic records, in recordkeeping in general, and also within information science and informatics challenges the standard archival definition in two significant ways. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7902">Klasinc 2018</a>It is professionaly [sic] incorrect to claim that archival records are only considered and defined as such when they are taken over by professional archives and not earlier [sic]. It is indisputably, that we, in accordance to the regulated procedure, valorise and describe those records of the creators of the current and archival records, that have the characteristics of the archival. In conclusion, when we define archival records with the consideration of creator’s possesion [sic] and the whole context, it is then necessary to apply this theory and practice in the guidance for the implementation we are talking about. <a name="122920"></a>the organically created records of continuing value, particularly when the organization itself maintains the records<button id="idm141" onclick="toggleCitations('#idm141')" class="button-link"> (View Citations)</button> <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#930">Jenkinson 1937</a>, 11A document which may be said to belong to the class of Archives is one which was drawn up or used in the course of an administrative or executive transaction (whether public or private) of which itself formed a part; and subsequently preserved in their own custody for their own information by the person or persons responsible for that transaction and their legitimate successors. ¶ To this Definition we may add a corollary. Archives were not drawn up in the interest or for the information of Posterity. <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#7614">Kimberly 1938</a>, 114The repair of loose or unbound paper records which constitute more than 80 per cent of the archives of the United States is a most important phase of record preservation. <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#7925">Newsome 1939a</a>, 13Hilary Jenkinson contends that no records of the past now in archival custody should be destroyed and that neither the archivist nor the historian is qualified to determine what archives should be destroyed. <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#7932">Garrison 1939</a>, 101The first differentiation which brings out this relationship is that archives are better organized, better concentrated and more specific in nature. Manuscripts are unorganized, scattered and general. <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#7939">Binkley 1939</a>, 162We have among ourselves our little technical problems, such as the question of the distinguishing between archives and manuscripts: we cannot expect the public to be very much interested in technical minutia; but we can expect the public to become conscious of an archival problem generally, to assist in laying down a broad archival policy, and to share our vision of the place that the preservation of records has in the whole culture of our country. <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#7947">Leahy 1940</a>, 16–17For records accumulating at present, weeding by a committee consisting of the archivist, the administrator and the historian is emphatically ineffectual, and it destroys the archives’ reputation for impartiality; for archives of the future, the administrator is the sole agent for the selection and destruction of his own documents. <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#7699">Posner 1940a</a>, 159A load of bricks was brought in and the archivist explained how archives had to be stored and arranged according to the principle of provenance and other sacred axioms. <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#7955">Hill 1943</a>, 208It obviously was very natural that those who were interested in the subject placed before this commission should use the word “archives” in its second acceptance, and perchance they were inclined to limit it to governmental materials only as distinguished from “manuscripts” which were considered to belong to private individuals. It is believed that this distinction was not necessarily justified by the definition of the word. <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#7621">Buck 1945a</a>, 111Thus we may speak of the archives of the government of the United States, the archives of the State Department, the archives of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, the archives of the Literary Society, the Jones family archives, or the archives of John Doe, though usually the odds and ends of documents preserved by John Doe because of their possible evidential value are so fragmentary and lacking in integration as hardly to justify their being called his archives. <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#7846">Lewinson 1954</a>, 20In this report, the term “labor archives” is confined to the official records of the history, organization, and functioning of Government agencies dealing with labor matters, and of labor organizations, wherever found. <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#8081">Van Schreeven 1954</a>, 44The director of the archives usually decides which documents can be lent, but in some cases the decision must be made by the ministry of which the archives is a unit. <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#7853">Leavitt 1961</a>, 176In the plural the word came to be used for “the public records” kept in the senate-house or the townhall, and here we have our word “archives”—public records kept in the senate-house or other magistrate’s office. <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#8066">Deutrich 1961</a>, 391Strictly speaking, most of the record holdings are manuscript collections rather than archives. <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#8073">Winfrey 1961</a>, 431Among the major archival collections in Austin, Tex., are the archives of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. . . . The archives have been a major responsibility of the Church Historical Society, which was founded in Philadelphia on May 17, 1910, by a handful of laymen who felt that the church had an obligation to preserve the records of its own development. <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#8059">Brooks 1962</a>, 32The papers of private persons are deposited under legal agreements on access similar to those for the Presidential papers. These collections are handled with the same care for their integrity as for that of archives. <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#8025">Shelley 1962</a>, 431The difficulty of using large collections of manuscripts or series of archives without some form of index is well known to us all. <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#7743">Mason 1963</a>, 163Some college officials obviously do not recognize the inherent differences between archives and historical manuscripts and have confused the two in administering them. In many institutions, the development of sound archival programs has suffered because the emphasis is placed on the acquisition of historical manuscripts. <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#8050">Hinds 1963</a>, 341–342Kentucky knows, for example, what State archives are. It knows that such archives consist of materials accumulated by State offices in the conduct of public business and desired by professional historians, economists, public administrators, and political scientists to make quality studies of government; but it is also aware that a high percentage—perhaps 95 percent—of State archival holdings are currently vital to the day-to-day operations of State governments. <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#8043">Brown 1963</a>, 357We then could remove a quantity of the archives from the historical society’s building, thus helping to relieve overcrowding in the manuscripts division. <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#762">Holmes 1964</a>, 21Theoretically in the archives of an agency of government, or of any organization—and therefore in the archival depository that has custody of such archives—each document has its place, a natural place, so that its association and relation with all other documents produced or received by the creating agency remain clear. <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#7758">Evans 1964</a>, 269Until the present century Pennsylvania’s archives, in the sense of her permanently valuable public records, shared in the general neglect that long characterized public archives in this country. <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#8033">Berner 1964</a>, 403There seems to be little recognition that modern manuscript collections resemble archives in their mass and in the completeness with which individual groups of manuscripts document any given line of social action and that they should be treated accordingly. <a target="_blank" sref="jenkinson-1966" href="/sources.html#8018">Preston 1965</a>, 369There are also reasons of another kind why the qualified reader may not obtain free access to manuscripts. Their content may necessitate curatorial restriction: in archives, for example, it is usually considered against the public interest to have recent records available for all to see, especially when the officials concerned are still alive. <a target="_blank" sref="berner-1983" href="/sources.html#150">Berner 1983</a>, 7The fateful separation of the historical manuscripts tradition field from the public archives field began in 1910 at the AHA’s Conference of Archivists, when the application of library principles was attacked as inapplicable to public archives. The differences that developed meant that the historical manuscripts tradition would remain linked to techniques of librarianship. Public archives, meanwhile, would develop along lines derived from European archival institutions where theory and practice had long been the object of scholarly discourse and refinement. <a target="_blank" sref="appm2-1989" href="/sources.html#90">APPM2 1989</a>, 1.0Aarchives ¶ The preserved documentary records of any corporate body, governmental agency or office, or organization or group that are the direct result of administrative or organizational activity of the originating body and that are maintained according to their original provenance. <a target="_blank" sref="appm2-1989" href="/sources.html#5483">Gracy 1989</a>, 76ARCHIVES are the records, organically related, of an entity, [That is, they are the documentary production of a creator—the records of organizations and the papers of individuals, as distinguished from artificial collections of documents grouped around a subject interest, such as a gathering of otherwise unrelated items whose bond is simply that they bear the signature of individuals belonging to a special group—say framers of the Texas Declaration of Independence.] systematically maintained [Archival enterprise is required to expose the rich informational content to the prospective user.] (normally after they have fulfilled the purpose for which they were created), [Most records, but certainly not all, have served the purpose for which they were produced and have entered their second—research—life, as T. R. Schellenberg defined it.] because they contain information of continuing value. [Archives are not old records; they are permanently valuable information in records.] <a target="_blank" sref="cox-1994" href="/sources.html#336">Cox 1994</a>, 9Archives are records with ongoing evidential value to the organization and society. <a target="_blank" sref="cox-1994" href="/sources.html#8011">Delmas 1996</a>, 439According to the classic definition, an archival document is a document regardless of its date, form, or physical support, which was created or received by a single individual or organization at a certain moment in the course of, and for the execution of, its habitual activities. The document is made use of according to its original purpose and then, after its initial use, is arranged, classified and saved if there is any sense of ongoing usefulness. This definition of archives by function applies to all documents, both contemporary documents as well as the oldest documents. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#756">Hirtle 2000</a>, 10A true archives is a contextually based organic body of evidence, not a collection of miscellaneous information. . . . Found within this definition are the essential elements that define an archives and are the source of much of its power to authenticate. First, archives consist of documents. . . . The documents constituting a formal archives are further distinguished by the fact that they have to have been officially produced or received by an administrative body. <a target="_blank" sref="kaplan-2000" href="/sources.html#960">Kaplan 2000</a>, 147The pervading view of archives as sites of historical truth is at best outdated, and at worst inherently dangerous. The archival record doesn’t just happen; it is created by individuals and organizations, and used, in turn, to support their values and missions, all of which comprises a process that is certainly not politically and culturally neutral. <a target="_blank" sref="kaplan-2000" href="/sources.html#7997">Cook 2011a</a>, 616As archives evolved during the nineteenth century, this sense of the pristine quality of archival records was reinforced by contemporary Darwinian thinking. The pioneer archival thinkers asserted that records arranged in archives were an “organic” whole, a kind of natural selection left over from administrative processes, a “residue” deposited, as it were, from the bureaucratic river at the delta of archives. This residue the archivist then acquired and kept in original order to reflect (and thereby authenticate) the origin, the context or provenance, of that organic survival. <a target="_blank" sref="kaplan-2000" href="/sources.html#8004">Stoykovich 2017a</a>, 136The organic growth of government records—as much as their legal and symbolic value—induced Americans on both sides of the war to articulate the value of records and archives. <a name="122953"></a>nonrecord material selected, preserved, managed, presented, and used in the same manner as archives<button id="idm239" onclick="toggleCitations('#idm239')" class="button-link"> (View Citations)</button> <a target="_blank" sref="hirtle-2000" href="/sources.html#8122">Public Archives Act 1912</a>The Public Archives shall consist of all such public records, documents and other historical material of every kind, nature and description as, under this act, or under the authority of any order in council made by virtue thereof, are placed under the care, custody and control of the Dominion Archivist. <a target="_blank" sref="hirtle-2000" href="/sources.html#8113">Evans 1985</a>, 427Also recognizing that in recent times the term archives “has been stretched to cover any primary documentary materials, including individual pieces gathered into artificial collections, photographs and other non-manuscript material,” they adopted this broad definition of the term. <a target="_blank" sref="hirtle-2000" href="/sources.html#8106">Millar 1998</a>, 110As a result, the term “archives” evolved a distinctly Canadian meaning, different from European or English definitions. Anything historical was “archival,” from diaries and letters to government correspondence and corporate files. The passage of the Public Archives Act in 1912 provided the first clear definition of “archives,” a definition that emphasized historical significance over institutional importance; medium, form, and origins were of little consequence compared with the possession of the information. <a target="_blank" sref="hirtle-2000" href="/sources.html#756">Hirtle 2000</a>, 10In the vernacular, the word archives has come to mean anything that is old or established, be it collections of old movies (such as the Pacific Film Archive), a journal that publishes what the editors hope will be papers of enduring value (for example Virchows Archiv, the official journal of the European Society of Pathology), or even rock-and-roll oldies on cable television (in the VH1 Archives) (Maher 1997). Even information professionals have not been loath to extend the definition of archives beyond that found in the American Library Association (ALA) Glossary or other official lexicons when they speak of “digital archiving,” a generic term for the preservation of electronic information. <a target="_blank" sref="hirtle-2000" href="/sources.html#8129">Peres 2016</a>, 96In this paper, I explore how seed banks were imagined as a response to the problem of genetic erosion and argue that seed banking was seen to both preserve and make available genetic diversity so that it could be used within the modern paradigm of scientific breeding, working with the shift to more globalised agricultural methods. Therefore, seed banks can be seen as archives of genetic diversity that made the past accessible as future sources for scientists and breeders by creating ‘records’ of the evolutionary history of crops through the freezing of seeds. In this way, the potential value of these resources could be accumulated for extraction at a later date through the use of contemporary technology. The case of seed banks demonstrates how strategies of conservation were also determined by the ways in which people expected to use these materials in the future. <a target="_blank" sref="hirtle-2000" href="/sources.html#8092">Patterson 2016</a>, 344Today, “archive(s)” can refer to backup data or data stored offline, the portion of a website containing older content, “virtually any collection of information,” and, in the case of “archive,” the action of transferring data to be stored offline. <a target="_blank" sref="hirtle-2000" href="/sources.html#8137">Laloë 2018</a>, 238Certainly, with traditional and biological archives alike, questions of accountability, transparency, governance, and research, to name but a few, are usually more powerful than wondering whether archives are a snapshot of a time or potentially useful in the future, in case of a nuclear catastrophe. sing. n. <a name="122961"></a>an institution’s or individual’s entire preserved body of interrelated and interdependent records; a fonds<button id="idm264" onclick="toggleCitations('#idm264')" class="button-link"> (View Citations)</button> <a target="_blank" sref="hirtle-2000" href="/sources.html#7621">Buck 1945a</a>, 111In other words, unless a body of records can be said to constitute archives of some governmental agency, organization, institution, family, or even person it cannot be said to possess the characteristics of archives. <a target="_blank" sref="hirtle-2000" href="/sources.html#7990">Eastwood 2000</a>, 93The word “archives” is taken here to mean the whole of the documents made and received by a juridical or physical person or organization in the conduct of affairs, and preserved. It is synonymous with the term “fonds.” <a target="_blank" sref="hirtle-2000" href="/sources.html#7913">Franco 2015</a>, 148The notion of ramification cannot be construed in this manner, since it is an analytical instrument that may be used by the archivist as an aid: it helps to determine the existing relationships (whether official or not) among distinct fonds and thus to discover the existing original documents or copies related to a historical event. These fonds, however, do not intermingle, nor do they form a mixed archives. <a target="_blank" sref="hirtle-2000" href="/sources.html#7983">Douglas 2016</a>, 28This article draws on research conducted for my doctoral dissertation, for which I studied writers’ archives in an attempt to characterize how archivists understand the nature of personal archives and how they try to represent that nature through arrangement and description. <a name="122966"></a>a selection of digital records or digital surrogates of records made available as a curated online collection<button id="idm278" onclick="toggleCitations('#idm278')" class="button-link"> (View Citations)</button> <a target="_blank" sref="hirtle-2000" href="/sources.html#7997">Cook 2011a</a>, 613–614Even after Derrida, there is still expressed in historiographical writing, as recently as 2007, the hope that, in contrast to the often commercially driven “archives” appearing on websites that are “evident[ly] interpretive[,] . . . scholars who use professionally organized archives have come to expect that archivists will make their data available in a disinterested and non-directive way”—evidently without interpretation. <a target="_blank" sref="hirtle-2000" href="/sources.html#8092">Patterson 2016</a>, 344Today, “archive(s)” can refer to backup data or data stored offline, the portion of a website containing older content, “virtually any collection of information,” and, in the case of “archive,” the action of transferring data to be stored offline. <a target="_blank" sref="hirtle-2000" href="/sources.html#8099">Brett 2017</a>, 481In the process, fans have pioneered a new form of archives that democratizes cultural memory and wrests traditional ideas of cultural canon away from the mainstream toward a dynamic and ever-changing concept of what is considered “legitimate.” <a target="_blank" sref="hirtle-2000" href="/sources.html#5048">Vavra 2018</a>, 104In Hong Kong, however, in 2010 and 2012, the judiciary redacted names in a matrimonial case and the privacy commissioner ordered David Webb, who created and operates a searchable archives of publicly available court documents, to remove the individuals’ names in the copies of court documents stored on his database. <a name="122971"></a>a collection of manuscript collections managed as a thematic unit and representing a collecting specialization of an archival repository<button id="idm292" onclick="toggleCitations('#idm292')" class="button-link"> (View Citations)</button> <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7807">Edmunson-Morton 2015b</a>, 6Though I’d grown up in Oregon and had hop growers in my family (four generations back), I wasn’t a collections archivist, scientist, brewer, hop grower, or even a big beer drinker. Being the first to establish a subject-specific archives like this is awesome, but if I wanted to collect and refer, I had research to do. <a name="122973"></a>an organization that collects the records of individuals, families, or other organizations; a collecting archives<button id="idm298" onclick="toggleCitations('#idm298')" class="button-link"> (View Citations)</button> <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7939">Binkley 1939</a>, 162–163True, libraries often offer reading counselling services; a fully developed archives may have to go much further than the library in teaching people to use it. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#8145">Jennings 1949</a>, 163The practicing archivist, if he renders the services expected of his agency, is daily obliged to rely on the printed materials in the library for the supplementary evidence needed to interpret his own manuscript collections. The sheer convenience of having these materials close at hand is an advantage that both the staff and the user of the archives will keenly appreciate. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#8152">Horn 1954</a>, 223This archives would also include manuscript collections of the papers of such leading figures in the history of the church as the church may desire, and is able, to acquire. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7643">Eddy 1961</a>, 75There can be no doubt that, in its day, propaganda regarding records bulk served a purpose. It overcame inertia, made possible the expansion of staff in some State archives, helped to launch programs for microfilming, and promoted the establishment of procedures for regulating and fostering the destruction of that great percentage of public records whose life span should be brief. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7736">Bahmer 1963</a>, 4Much of the work in an archives can be safely relegated to other classes of employees. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#8162">Richards 1963</a>, 323An archives should analyze the records on hand, the searchers' inquiries, the frequency of use of certain groups, and their intrinsic value; and then should prepare enough finding aids so that the searchers will not overburden the personnel in reference. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#8169">Wallot 1996</a>, 23Indeed, archives themselves are living testimonials demonstrating that societies do not develop merely as a result of technological and economic progress, but through a long maturation of many interrelated identity-inducing factors, including basic values, myths, and ideals, and the formal and informal political, economic, social, cultural, and religious institutions, which serve as loci for truces and compromises between ideals (rarely unique, sometimes conflicting, always only imperfectly implemented) and material riches—limited of necessity and subject to many demands from those holding these conflicting ideals. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#8176">Mortensen 1999</a>, 20How exactly do such biases find expression in archives as institutions or in the work of the individual archivist? <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#8183">Gilliland-Swetland, Kafai, and Landis 1999</a>, 111Adult users of archival materials usually have some understanding of the role of archives in collecting and preserving materials, and have often been trained intellectually to recreate the historical and functional context of archival materials with no more than the assistance of finding aids and a reference archivist. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#8190">Cunningham 2008</a>, 532One way of understanding the work of archives, therefore, is to say that archives implement and manage systems for carrying recordkeeping systems forward across time and domains of use. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#8197">Tang 2017</a>, 440How can archives and archivists negotiate the politics of what is “appropriate” content for the public—balancing outreach programs, educational initiatives, and grant-seeking with representation in and diversification of their collections? <a name="122985"></a>(usually construed as sing., earlier treated as pl.) the division within an organization responsible for acquiring and maintaining the organization’s records of continuing value; institutional archives<button id="idm333" onclick="toggleCitations('#idm333')" class="button-link"> (View Citations)</button> <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8205">Haskins 1896</a>, 40Of all the great repositories of historical documents, the archives of the Papacy possess the widest interest. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#4932">Coleman 1938</a>, 205The archives, at present, have an office and reading room on the ground floor 59 feet 9 inches by 31 feet; a stack room north of the main stacks 83 feet 10 inches by 29 feet, containing two levels; also on the ground floor a vault in the interior 44 feet 6 inches by 22 feet; and two sides of the basement, one approximately 170 feet long by 33 feet, the other 68 feet by 34 feet. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#7947">Leahy 1940</a>, 18The prefect in turn fulfills the law through the intermediation of the superintendent of the archives of the kingdom. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#7699">Posner 1940a</a>, 164As a rule the framework of archives depositories corresponds to the administrative structure of the country, with provincial or similar archives taking over the records of the respective provincial offices. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8043">Brown 1963</a>, 356It was pointed out by the Archivist that should the archives be absorbed by the Department of Administration the officials composing the Archives Commission should be retained as an advisory body. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8238">Chokel 1963</a>, 445The National Library in Sofia thus became the archival center of Bulgaria with a status of State Archives, but acquisitions until 1945 were nevertheless small and irregular, only sufficient to keep alive the archives as a section of the library. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8245">Weber 1964</a>, 63, fn. 4The archives are closed between July 16 and September 15. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8252">Bakken 1982</a>, 280–281Nor is a corporate archives a department that saves every piece of paper the company created since its founding. It is neither a library that organizes material in an item-by-item system nor a records management program concerned about the destruction of records. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8259">Moss 1982</a>, 386This archives, which we were not allowed to visit, is directly under the management and direction of the State Council. It is the principal repository for the records of the central organs of the Chinese Communist Party, certain records of various people's governments established in “liberated areas” prior to 1949, records of various revolutionary groups prior to 1949, and, of course, records of the government of the People’s Republic after 1949. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8169">Wallot 1996</a>, 17They can work in relatively independent archives, or in archives subsumed within libraries, museums, galleries, businesses, churches, and many other organizations. <a name="122996"></a>(capitalized and usually preceded by the) the official repository of a nation, state, territory, or institution’s records of continuing value<button id="idm365" onclick="toggleCitations('#idm365')" class="button-link"> (View Citations)</button> <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#7801">Claus 1948</a>, 197This division of function was the cause of no little confusion in the early administrative development of the Archives. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#7801">Claus 1948</a>, 197Its place in the organization scheme of the Secretariat, for example, was difficult to determine; acceptable logic, in each case, dictated its connection with first the Documents Division, then the Library, and finally the Central Registry. This of course was a matter of minor importance, but it was perhaps symptomatic of initial uncertainty about the major purpose of the Archives. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8266">Horn 1953a</a>, 108Overcrowding became very serious when the termination of World War II emergency agencies led to a flood of transfers to the Archives. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8273">Kennedy 1954</a>, 123Perhaps a more accurate name for the Archives would have been the Record Depository, but Archives it was christened and Archives it will remain. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8280">Poole 1962</a>, 221The historian or researcher in our Archives will now be able to compile his information with far less effort. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8043">Brown 1963</a>, 356The commissioners may at their discretion assist the Archivist at budget hearings and press for adequate appropriations for the Archives. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8312">Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. 1965</a>Under the Records Management provisions the Archivist is to establish procedures within the executive branch (which other branches may adopt) for current records management, for the transfer of noncurrent records of archival value to the Archives, and for the destruction of noncurrent records lacking archival value. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8292">Gustafson 1976</a>, 276As they drove off together in Roosevelt’s car, the President got to the point, “MacLeish is a good fellow. You'll like him and find him a good man to work with. Yesterday out of a clear sky, he told me that he could see no good reason why the Declaration and the Constitution should be at the Library. He thinks they belong in the Archives.” Connor was so surprised the only thing he could think of to say was “I hope you told him that you agree with him.” <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8299">Core 1976</a>, 309That unit accessions all UN inactive records—registry files, office records, commissions, committee records, records of offices away from headquarters—and evaluates or appraises them to determine the duration of their retention, disposes of material no longer required for reference, and transfers to the Archives records of permanent or historical value. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8306">Ross 1983</a>, 265If you enter the National Archives from Pennsylvania Avenue, you may take either of two ceremonial marble staircases to the floor where the top administrators of the Archives have their offices. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8322">Leonard 1984</a>, 75Indeed, the basic allocation of space did not account for a reference room, an archival processing area, or library, even though the Archives was assigned responsibility for maintaining a rare book collection and a heritage reference library. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8336">Peterson 1986</a>, 126The National Archives has passed through three stages in the development of archival theory. In the first, beginning with the establishment of the Archives and lasting until about 1950, archivists developed the basic concepts that allowed them to handle the rush of documents; primarily these were the formulations on arrangement, description, and appraisal. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8329">Tyacke 2001</a>, 5“Archives” with a capital “A” is a little easier to describe: it is used to mean the institutions or units within a country or organization which hold archives. The term “Archive” as institution does not denote something exactly comparable to Library and Museum as institutions, as the originating context or provenance of the Archive’s creation gives it its characteristics and purpose, whereas the collecting activity defines the library or museum, e.g., maritime museum. <a name="123010"></a>the building, buildings, or portion thereof housing records of continuing value<button id="idm407" onclick="toggleCitations('#idm407')" class="button-link"> (View Citations)</button> <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8435">Adams 1939</a>, 85I remarked that archives were apt to be places in which were kept unimportant documents after the important documents had been borrowed or otherwise removed. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8442">Norton 1945</a>, 8These laws are useful in the recovery of deliberate thefts from the archives, but are practically never successfully invoked in the case of records taken by officials going out of office, which is the most common way by which public records disappear. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8449">Kent 1961</a>, 47When the historical teams started their task they received valuable guidance from their predecessors; but, despite all the work that had been done, they had to devise their own methods and find their own way in the archives as they proceeded further in their work. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8456">Barrett 1961</a>, 334By contrast, the records center is the home of documents that face a relatively early and nearly certain death. It has the characteristics of a grocery warehouse and a definite air of impermanence. This fact of personality and location contrasts explains why the vital records protection programs nearly always became connected with archives rather than records centers. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8162">Richards 1963</a>, 323After a searcher has found his way to the archives, the next step is to aid him in finding materials of use to him. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8464">Belov 1963</a>, 441Poland and Rumania have given back to the Soviet Union many records of interest to it that were housed in their archives. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8471">Shipton 1964</a>, 396I have told this story to a number of college presidents on whom I have been “sicked” by professors of history who wanted to see archives established in their institutions—sometimes with the not altogether happy result that there have been set up records management centers where the student wishing to do research gets no encouragement. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8478">Gondos 1964</a>, 478Because of the intensity of loading due to ceiling height, there may be more pounds-per-square-foot floor loading for a record center than for an archives. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8487">Plavchan 1977</a>, 371Ottawa City Archives. The municipal archives has moved to a building acquired from the Ottawa Separate School Board, a building located a short distance southeast of city hall. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8494">Joyce 1984</a>, 131While this may be true in the narrow sense of disciplinary affiliation, it overlooks an important fact: whatever the disciplinary affiliation of the academic user of archives, most come to the archives using an historical way of thinking. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#1068">Lubar 1999</a>, 14We use an archives to remember things after they happen. But if we think of the records in archives as points of inscription, as sites of cultural production, we realize that they serve, if not to remember things before they happen, to remember things as they happen. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8501">Nesmith 2002</a>, 26This article aims to contribute more fully to our understanding of the how the postmodern view of communication throws light on the role of archivists as key mediators or constructors of the knowledge available in archives. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#7997">Cook 2011a</a>, 606Archival appraisal decides which creators, functions, and activities generating records will be represented in archives, by defining, identifying, then selecting which documents and which media become archives in the first place. <a name="123024"></a>the professional discipline, practice, and study of administering such collections and organizations; archivy<button id="idm448" onclick="toggleCitations('#idm448')" class="button-link"> (View Citations)</button> <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8425">Newsome 1939b</a>, 217The new profession of archives has taken its place beside law, medicine, theology, history, political science, and other older arts in the pattern of American life. Like the lawyer, doctor, and historian, the archivist professes that he has the requisite special knowledge, mastery, and inclination for devoting his time and energy to the service of others by practicing his chosen art for considerations not wholly or primarily commercial. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8509">Leland 1941a</a>, 1I found some comfort in the thought that, if I had never been an archivist, there were many members of the Society who had not been archivists very long; and I drew inspiration from my memories of lifelong association with archives and of friendships with archivists in many lands. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8516">Trever 1948</a>, 163Institutions will likewise be faced with unprecedented record problems. Undoubtedly there will be a considerable demand for trained archival personnel in a wide variety of fields—even in the field of archives and records management for international organizations. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#7707">Bryan 1958</a>, 35Until more States can account for how much of their funds are being spent for archives and how much for record programs, the field of archives will continue to be handicapped. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8524">Schoenberner 1964</a>, 492First, the professional person whose main interest is in the field of archives can be most helpful in planning the itinerary for the inspection, having furnished to the architect beforehand any technical bulletins he may have. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8531">Svoboda 1970</a>, 348Eventually, Ph. D’s [sic] should be awarded to candidates who successfully complete their dissertations in the field of archives as part of their studies. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8538">Cappon 1982</a>, 25These are bold, extravagant thoughts on the “archival edge,” so to speak, projecting great expectations for an alliance of archives with history. In such an alliance, however, let us not compromise the status of archives as a separate discipline, maintaining the integrity of the records as its first principle. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8545">Weldon 1983</a>, 130If we want to comprehend where we are and to foresee where we are going in archives, we must look at work in America. Records are the byproducts of people’s labor, the evidence of human and mechanical activity directed to the creation and distribution of goods and services. The nature of work, the way it is organized, and the composition of the work force all shape the eventual historical record. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8336">Peterson 1986</a>, 131It is difficult, perhaps, to remember that fifty or even thirty years ago these principles were not widely observed in the world of archives. Restricted records existed, of course, but researchers were not always informed about their existence. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8553">Kecskeméti 1987</a>, 409We have to admit that archives is not an easy subject. There are at least four built-in paradoxes which have a confusing effect outside and, often enough, inside the profession. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8560">Evans 1990</a>, 15–16Much more significant than our total numbers, however, was our view of ourselves and of our chosen field of endeavor. Quite simply, at that time we regarded the administration of archives as a profession and ourselves as professionals. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8571">Bearman 1994a</a>, 13Archives and records management share a simple goal: providing for organizational accountability. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8578">Blouin 2007a</a>, 173If there are any shortcomings to this intelligent contribution to the Archival Fundamental Series II, they derive only from the fact that archives as a profession and as an academic discipline have come so far so fast in the last twenty years that a true understanding within the confines of 146 pages is nearly impossible to achieve. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8585">Ramirez 2015</a>, 340A 2013 survey of the archival profession conducted by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) demonstrated that the realm of archives continues to be predominantly white, if increasingly female, and that African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and other groups remain only marginally represented. <a target="_blank" sref="lubar-1999" href="/sources.html#8592">Laico 2015</a>, 578Based on her examination of the North American archival literature of the last thirty-five years, Brooks argues strongly that the central relationship between history and archives remains the distinction between the trained historian of yore, who worked in archives, and the qualified archivist of today with a historical background, who is able to negotiate the postmodern recordkeeping environment replete with digital information and ever-evolving technologies. adj. <a name="123040"></a>(sometimes capitalized to note reference to a particular archival organization) related to archives; archival<button id="idm498" onclick="toggleCitations('#idm498')" class="button-link"> (View Citations)</button> <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7686">Reviews of Books 1938</a>, 94Adding much to the attractiveness and interest of the archivist’s report are the excellent illustrations which include photographs of the Archives Building, the two Faulkner murals of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, storage cabinets for nitrate film, and reproductions of the first amendments to the Constitution as proposed by the House of Representatives. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7692">Gates 1938</a>, 131Closely associated are those which relate to the housing and equipping of his archives staff. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7699">Posner 1940a</a>, 159After the courses at one of the European archives schools had been terminated the teachers and members of the school met at a modest banquet, for which the latter had prepared a number of humorous entertainments. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7707">Bryan 1958</a>, 32Two States, South Carolina and Georgia, have passed legislation during 1957 to erect archives buildings to replace their present inadequate quarters. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7643">Eddy 1961</a>, 78Is there an established microfilm agency, and what is its position in relation to the archival agency? Equally essential is a careful survey of the archives staff itself. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7714">Chatfield 1961</a>, 171, fn.A Fellow of the Society of American Archivists, Miss Chatfield has written and lectured extensively in the fields of archives administration and records management. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7722">Sinclair 1961</a>, 337–338If you have in your archives museum items for exhibit purposes, they must be placed in some historical context, a context that results from intellectual activity on your part. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7728">Gingerich 1961</a>, 449The archives manual should set forth certain standards pertaining to equipment. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7736">Bahmer 1963</a>, 4As I see it, the basic functions of any manager, including managers of archives operations, whether small, medium-sized, or large, are these: (1) defining the purposes and objectives of his organization (within the boundaries, of course, of his statutory or other charter); (2) translating these objectives into plans susceptible of practical accomplishment; (3) selecting competent staff members and organizing them as a work force; (4) checking progress toward established goals and from time to time reevaluating both objectives and programs; and (5) interpreting his organization to a great variety of publics. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7743">Mason 1963</a>, 164Significantly, 133 colleges and universities reported that they were seriously considering the establishment of archives programs, and 23 of these informed the committee that they would establish their programs in the immediate future. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7657">Sharman 1963</a>, 169In May 1956 a new spur to implementing the archives legislation came in the form of a threat. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7750">East 1964</a>, 48Some of the best qualified people in the Army and the National Archives lectured or led discussions on every aspect of archives and records administration. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7758">Evans 1964</a>, 277–278It should also be noted that this period marked the emergence of the Philadelphia archives and records management programs under a new home rule charter, a development that will greatly facilitate the creation of a modern local records program for the rest of the Commonwealth. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7764">Evans 1973</a>, 543Publication of a new monograph on archives administration normally should be greeted with enthusiasm by archivists everywhere and particularly by those involved in archival education and training. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7772">Hefner 1988</a>, 441Numerous management models exist employing different leadership and decision-making styles that an archives director might select to approach organizational improvement. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7779">Ukwu 1992</a>, 203–204In the subregion there is no institution where archives science forms part of the curriculum for a degree. The archives in Ghana runs post graduate and certificate courses in archives administration. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7787">McKemmish 2000</a>, 357Over the past decade, recordkeeping educators, researchers, and practitioners in Australia have also engaged in the international discourse that has reconceptualized traditional theory and “reinvented” records and archives practice. <a target="_blank" href="/sources.html#7794">Anderberg et al. 2018</a>, 189Due to the comparatively shorter history of archival education in North America, graduate programs often end up within either library science or history departments, rather than as independent archives schools or departments. </div> <div class="text-holder"><h3>Notes</h3> The most central term to the field of archives is also the most fraught. The word “archives” carries within it twelve commonly used and sometimes overlapping meanings. Archivists generally recognize only three senses of the word (the records, the facility where they are stored, and the organization responsible for both), but Richard Pearce-Moses’ Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology (released in 2005) identified six. Archivists, including Terry Cook and William Maher, have decried both the plethora of senses for “archives,” and the non-archivist’s urge to create yet more senses that do not confine themselves to the canonical senses. In this regard, Solon J. Buck wrote, “It is not only, as an assistant of mine once said, that many people when they encounter the word ‘archives’ do not know whether one is supposed to eat them or to use flit [an insecticide] on them! More serious is the fact that so many different conceptions or misconceptions of the meaning of the word prevail among those who are aware that it has some relation to records or documents.” [“‘Let’s Look at the Record,’” American Archivist 8, no. 2 (April 1945): 110.] Frank Evans in 1964 examined the triple meaning of “archives,” yet uniquely suggested “the close relationship among them suggests that a single account encompassing all three will produce a series of more realistic and thus more readily recognizable pictures.” [“The Many Faces of the Pennsylvania Archives,” American Archivist 27, no. 2 (April 1964): 271.] Yet what does the field make of the number twelve? Roscoe R. Hill’s solution to these overlapping senses was to suggest new words to replace some of the senses, but his best creation “archivology” was already covered by the existing neologism “archivy.” [“Archival Terminology,” American Archivist 6, no. 4 (October 1943): 206–211.] Even given these many senses identified in this dictionary, archivists still also employ others. For instance, Hilary Jenkinson, famously (to archivists, at least) claimed that government records could not be considered archives if a continuous chain of custody had not been maintained, thereby reducing the definition of “archives” to its narrowest possible state. Otherwise, he asserted, the records could not be treated as evidence, and they were, essentially, null and void—though a nongovernmental body might take them in, as a curiosity, we assume. Early use of the term made a clear distinction between records (always active) and archives (always inactive), causing writers to use “records and archives” to clarify they were referring to records currently in use by their creators and those that had passed over into the archives for secondary use. Similarly, writers in the first half of the twentieth century drew a line between archives (permanent institutional or, especially, public records received by repositories) and manuscripts (permanent records of people, families, and institutions collected by repositories). The end of the twentieth century tended more to demonstrate the profession’s attempts to erase the lines between the field of archives and the historical manuscripts tradition—and to recognize the essential similarity between historical records regardless of their source or manner of acquisition. Archivists occasionally combine “archives” with another word to clarify its meaning, as in “archives facility” or “archives organization.” They also employ the adjective “archival” before other words to provide the clarity that the word “archives” sometimes cannot. Such usages include “archival institution,” “archival records,” “archival profession,” and so on. To be sure, sometimes a reader or listener cannot definitively tell which sense the writer or speaker intended, yet we manage to communicate with one another despite this polysemy. The term “archive” overlaps significantly but not precisely with this term, sometimes serving as a singular form of it, yet at other times sharing the same sense merely without the addition of a final “s.” </div> </div> <div class="info-block right-column"> <ul class="info-list"> <li> <div class="title-holder"> <h2>Word of the Week</h2> <a href="https://www2.archivists.org/word-of-the-week" class="subscribe">subscribe</a> </div> <div class="link-list"> <div id=wotw></div> </div> </li> <li> <h2>Terms trending now...</h2> <ul class="link-list" id="trending"> </ul> </li> </ul> <div class="banner-holder"> <div id='div-gpt-ad-rightrail_mid1'> <script> googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-rightrail_mid1'); }); </script> </div> </div> </div> </div> </section> </main> <footer id="footer"> <div class="container"> <a href="https://www2.archivists.org"> <img src="/images/SAAHoriz-Blue_200.png" alt="SAA logo"> </a> <ul class="footer-list"> <li><a href="/browse/A.html">Browse by Alphabet</a></li> <li><a href="https://www2.archivists.org/dictionary/suggest-a-term">Suggest a Term</a></li> <li><a href="https://www2.archivists.org/dictionary/feedback">Provide Feedback</a></li> </ul> <ul class="footer-list small-list"> <li><a href="https://www2.archivists.org/privacy">Privacy & Confidentiality</a></li> <li><a href="https://www2.archivists.org/disclaimer">Disclaimer</a></li> <li><a href="https://www2.archivists.org/contact">Contact Us</a></li> </ul> Copyright © 2005-2024 by SAA. 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