The term “Archives” can conjure up very different pictures in people’s minds. It may evoke a picture of a storage space with old material or manuscripts from ancient Greece. Archives in the digital age can also be used to refer to digital articles or podcasts released just days before.
Archives have a set of practices that might challenge the preconceptions noted above. Archives carry primary sources that were created by an individual or an organization in the course of their daily work and lives. What is kept in the archives is primary sources that have enduring value meaning that they have value beyond their purpose at the time of creation and will be able to act as evidence. The primary sources can be very old but archives may also have records that were created very recently.
What is a primary source?
A document or artifact created at time of the event
Examples of primary sources are letters, meeting minutes, photos, tweets, speeches
Different from secondary sources that cite these sources, interpret and describe them
Enduring value
A post-it-note on your fridge reminding you to buy milk would be a primary source but would be unlikely to be consider of enduring value for archives because it does not act as evidence other than perhaps that post it notes were used in our culture for reminders. A post-it-note from the Prime Minister of Canada may have enduring value if he’s planning a meeting with another world leader.
Published versus unpublished material
Typically, archives carry unpublished material and published material is located in the libraries. This is not a strict division that is always followed because there are times that published material will end in the archives notably when it helps to increase our understanding of other material in the archives.
Artifacts
Archives do not typically house artifacts; they are usually located in a museum. There are some exceptions that are made if the item gives evidence and information that helps to enhance our understanding of the other records in the archives. For example, pins from an environment group with slogans or sayings will give additional evidence of the group’s lobbying campaigns.
- What are the Archives?
- Why do research in the archives?not completed
- How are archives organized?not completed
- How to find information in the archivesnot completed
- How to read a fonds level descriptionnot completed
- Searching the archives using Archeionnot completed
- Evaluating your sourcesnot completed
- Accessing the Archives and help with your researchnot completed