The term archives has many meanings; it encompasses a complex array of institutional, political, social, and cultural aspects. Archivists think about archival materials in terms of what they acquire, arrange, describe, preserve, and make accessible, but many think in more abstract ways.

To establish context when performing arrangement, archivists start with an understanding of the overall body that produced the records. Archivists keep evidential and information values in mind to create a scheme that protects both. As part of archival collections management, they also think about audiences, as archives usually have more than one.

As technology has advanced, so has the effect it has had on traditional archival activities. The digital era has transformed collection development, appraisal, arrangement and description, preservation, and research services.

Technology has changed how archivists do their work. The impact has been dramatic, but it has occurred over decades, so the transformations have been gradual.

Archivists bring new materials into their institution’s recordkeeping systems through accessioning. Accessioning occurs when collections are physically and legally transferred to an archives.

Collection analysis is a process that helps clarify the archival repository’s goals in the context of its mission and budget, supplies data used to set collecting and funding priorities, and builds a base for long-range planning and administration.

Archivists often talk about the function of archives in our society. But what do we mean, exactly? Has the meaning changed over time?us institutions. These organizations establish archives for several reasons and develop archival collection policies.

Archival repositories tend to fall into three categories. No matter what type of archives you have, a collection policy allows you to make sound acquisition decisions.

Since photography’s conception at a time when buildings were a frequent subject for the lens, photographic documentation has been instrumental in raising awareness of our architectural heritage from the ancient to the modern, urban to remote, grand to vernacular.

Viewers usually engage with the world’s great monuments through images and plans, which act as representations of the architecture itself. Rather than neutral reproductions of the past, architectural records are visual constructions with historical, aesthetic, and cultural frames of reference and connotations that evolve in response to changing contexts.