archives

Archival records are the by-product of human activity retained for their long term value.  The are contemporary records created by individuals and organisation as they go about their business and there they provide a direct window on past events of an organisation or an individual.  They come in a wide range of formats including written, photographic, moving images, sound, digital and analogue.  An archive is a repository or room or building where archival materials are preserved for present and future reference.  The archival records are unique in that they are usually original documents p

In general, Archives consists of records that have been selected for permanent or long term preservation on grounds of their enduring cultural, historical, or evidentiary value.  This means that archives are quite distinct from libraries with regard to their functions and organization.  They have been metaphorically defined as the secretion of an organism and are distinguished from documents that have been consciously written or created to communicate a particular message to posterity.  This records are unique and rare to find due to the content they contain.