What are Archives?

This page is part of: Using Archives: A Guide for the Inexperienced

How do you define 'archives'?
What is the difference between archives and manuscripts?
Where are archives held and who looks after them?
What is an archive collection?
What are primary sources and secondary sources?
What is the difference between a library and an archive?
Can archives be digital?

How do you define 'archives'?

'Archives' in the context we are talking about can be defined as:

Materials that have been created by individuals, groups or organisations during the course of their life or work and deemed to be worth keeping permanently for the purposes of research and as evidence of the functions and responsibilities of their creator.

Importantly, they are not consciously created for future research, but for immediate practical, personal or adminstrative purposes, as part of the activities of an individual, family or organisation. They are kept because they have long-term value for cultural, historical, or evidentiary purposes.

Rather confusingly, the term 'archive' can also mean a place where archives are stored, as well as a collection of materials. You may hear 'archive', 'record office' or 'repository' to refer to a place that preserves and makes available materials for research. So, for example, you can say that the Stanley Kubrick Archive is held in the University of the Arts Archive in London.

Archives range in date from ancient right through to contemporary. They can offer insights into all walks of life and all subject areas. They reflect our personal, social, economic and political activities throughout history, up to the present day, and they provide evidence that sheds essential light on the who, why, when and where of our history.

Take a look at an Archives Hub feature that highlights some of the more curious collections that are described on the site, and you will see how diverse archives can be.

See also "What is an Archive Collection?" below.

What is the difference between archives and manuscripts?

Quite often a repository will refer to 'archives and manuscripts'.  The term 'manuscripts' strictly speaking refers to handwritten records, but it may also be used to describe personal papers, as opposed to organisational and business records. If it is used to refer to personal papers, a 'manuscript collection' may comprise mixed media in which unpublished materials such as typescripts, photographs, diaries and legal handwritten documents predominate.  Something defined as an 'archive collection' is also likely to include handwritten documents, so manuscripts may form part of archives. In the end, the terms may be used interchangeably and inconsistently.

Find out a bit more about the variety and uses of archives by watching this video from the Tate Gallery Archive (from You Tube).

Increasingly, archive collections include electronic records, such as word processed documents, emails and webpages ('born digital' materials). However, many collections are still primarily paper-based. Some materials have been digitised, but they form a small percentage of the paper-based archives that we have, and typically a physical collection will not be entirely digitised - digitisation is costly and archivists prioritise what is digitised using a range of criteria including likely levels of use and the condition of the originals. Note that archive collections can also include artefacts, from artworks and models through to personal items.

Where are archives held and who looks after them?

There are recognised specialist buildings or departments that house archives in secure and controlled conditions.

The holding body or place may be called a repository, a record office or an archive. These bodies typically hold archives relating to a geographical location (for example the record office for a county), or a subject area (such as architecture or medicine), or they form part of an organisation (such as a university or college). The UK also has national archives - The National Archives at Kew in London, and the National Archives of Scotland and of Northern Ireland.

Record offices vary in size, but they almost always have a 'reading room' or area where you can consult their holdings. Some may require you to make an appointment before you visit; this is often because they have limited space or resource. It can be helpful to let them know which materials you want to consult in advance, as some records may be held in external storage.

Archive collections also exist within the community - you sometimes hear the term 'community archives'. These may be kept by a local special interest group and may be available for consultation.

Archives held in record offices are usually looked after by qualified staff, called archivists. A record office may employ archivists, as well as archives assistants and conservators, and it may also have a number of volunteers.

What is an archive collection?

There is no universally agreed definition of 'archives' or 'archive', and this can cause some confusion. 'Archive' is sometimes used informally simply to describe materials that are stored indefinitely, such as a back-up of emails or some boxes of old documents stored in a loft. Even within the archives profession, 'archives' can be used as an all-encompassing word to refer to a wide variety of records that are of historical interest, or it can be used more strictly to refer to collections with a single provenance. In the UK there is a tradition of defining archives as collections of materials that have a shared provenance. In the US, for example, the definition is commonly broader, referring to any materials deemed worthy of permanent preservation.

Within the archives domain, an archive collection can be defined in two ways:

1) Materials with a common provenance. Provenance is about the origins and history of something over time. Materials with a common provenance were created or brought together by an individual or individuals, so they have an organic nature, sharing a common history. That means that the collection was created by one entity or entities, i.e. a person, family or organisation, and they are seen as the 'archival creator'.

The collection is an organic whole and would not exist as a whole without the archival creator; it was created in the course of their activities, and the collection therefore tells you something about the creator - it has 'evidential value'. sometimes use the term 'fonds' for this type of collection.

For example, the archives of a business, the personal archives of an individual or the estate archives of a family- each form an integral collection.

We sometimes talk about the evidential value of this type of collection. It provides evidence of someone's life or work, or the business of an organisation as a whole. You might say the sum is more than the parts - you can often get a sense of how someone worked or how a business was organised by looking at the entire collection.

But do bear in mind that not all collections are complete - it may be that there are gaps within a collection, and this may mean that some of the context is lost.

2) Materials that have been brought together artificially, but do not have a common origin, often known as artificial collections.

For example, a collection of photographs that show a particular event or represent a group of people, or a collection of ephemera on a particular subject.

These artificial collections are usually created because they bring together similar materials in a way that is useful for research, the materials are not related by a common history or provenance. The collection as a whole does not provide evidential value because it is not an 'organic collection'.

Cambridge University Library have produced a video about one of their high profile collections, the Board of Longitude archive. This video gives an overview of the subject matter and why the archive is so important to our understanding of the history of navigation at sea. The Board of Longitude archive is a typical large, historically significant collection, and it has been digitised. But many archives are much smaller and more modest. They may also be paper-based, as digitisation requires time and resources, so archivists have to be selective in which archives they choose to digitise.

 

Board of Longitude Archive: Video Introduction

What are primary sources and what are secondary sources?

• Primary sources are either (1) contemporary with the time that they are written in, or (2) they are first-hand accounts of events. Usually they are both of these.
• Letters, diaries, minutes of meetings and account books are often good examples of primary sources. Oral histories are a good example of first-hand accounts that may be created after the event, but provide eye-witness accounts. If the source was written by someone who was there, and who experienced the events they are writing about, then it is a primary source.
• Secondary sources are not based on direct observation, and are usually written after the event. They often use primary sources in order to make observations and conclusions. Typical secondary sources include articles and books.
• You can think of secondary sources as having the benefit of hindsight, whereas primary sources were created by the people involved, at the time being studied, so they can provide direct evidence of an event. This is why they are considered to be essential for historical research.
• Archives tend to contain primary sources, so they are very important for researchers, because these materials were created 'in the moment', but archives can also contain secondary sources.
• It is worth remembering that types of documents or information can be both 'primary' and 'secondary', the terms are not clear cut and they depend upon the context in which you are using the source. A published article can be read as a primary source that reveals something about how a topic was reported at that time.

A newspaper account of the politics of the 1832 Reform Act that was written in 1832 is a primary source for the 1832 Reform Act. A similar account written in 1867 is not a primary source for the 1832 Reform Act, becaue it is looking back, written in retrospect. However, it might be used as a primary source for the 1867 Reform Act. You might use it to assess how opinions about the 1832 Act affected views of the 1867 act.

The University of Cambridge has more information about Reading Primary Sources.

What is the difference between a library and an archive?

• The core collections in a library are published secondary sources - books and periodicals, maybe magazines, CDs and DVDs. Many items are displayed on shelves for you to browse. A library usually includes a loan section.
• An archive holds original and unique sources, which are largely unpublished, although it may also hold books, periodicals and pamphlets of an historic nature, often complementing and supporting the archive collections. The unpublished collections are not available on open shelves, but are in a secure store. You need to order the items that you want to consult and they are not available for loan. Digital collections may also be available to view on PCs within the repository and some material may be on microfilm.
• Sometimes a library includes an archive, and sometimes the archive is defined separately from the library.
• A library may hold 'special collections'. These typically include manuscripts, rare books and other unique and possibly fragile material. A special collection may include archive collections, or they may be defined separately: 'special collections and archives'.

Can archives be digital?

Yes, archives can take any form. Digital content is increasingly common within archive collections, although most archives are still non-digital. Digital archives include websites as well as emails and electronic documents.

Read about The University of Manchester's project to archive and make available the email archive of the Carcanet Press .

Digital archives may have been created, or born, as digital materials, or they may be 'surrogates', which means that a digital copy has been created from a non-digital source. Many archives have been digitised in this way, to make it easier for you to view them online, and sometimes to preserve the original if it is fragile.

You may think digital content is more convenient, but sometimes digital archives are hard to access because they are on old formats. Digital formats change very rapidly, and the issue of digital preservation is a major concern, as we have huge amounts of information stored digitally that may be lost if we cannot find ways to access it over time.

It seems easier to work with digital materials than physical, as I can view them remotely

It may be more convenient to work with digital materials, but it is much better to think about the archives that are most valuable and relevant for your research, rather than whether they are digital or not. Only a small proportion of archives are digital, so you could be missing out on a huge amount of evidence if you only looked for digital content.

In addition, being able to handle a physical object can be very rewarding and can tell you more about history. You can feel it, examine it, and maybe find physical evidence beyond just the written content. Many researchers prefer the tactile nature of physical collections, and put great value on the evidence they can glean from the physical document, such as wear and tear, watermarks, and simply the sensation of holding a document that tells a story!

Where a source has been digitised, it is better to think of the digital copy as something separate and different from the original.  It may contain the same information, but it is not the same thing.  

Do archives include research data or data sets?

Data sets are usually set out in tabular form and they list values for a range of variables. The image here shows the 2011 Census - you can download anonymised statistics about UK households.

They are often outputs from research, and may comprise data from surveys and other studies.  Archive collections may contain data sets and all kinds of research data, but at present there is a tendancy to think of research data separately from archives. This is partly because data sets often relate to current work, or to work done by active researchers. They are important in order for the research outputs to be  verified and potentially recreated. Archives are materials that are no longer current, but are preserved for research.  

There is currently a move within academia to ensure that research data is properly preserved for researchers to access, so you may hear about research data archives.

Social Scientists tend to use this kind of research data. If you are a social sciences student, you may create your primary data through something like a questionnaire, and this data could become an archive for others to use.

There are initiatives to bring archives and research data closer together, as archive collections are really anything created during the course of a person or organisation's life and work, so they can, of course, include data of all types.

 

This page is part of: Using Archives: A Guide for the Inexperienced