An archive is an accumulation of historical records or the physical place they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the function of that person or organization. Professional archivists and historians generally understand archives to be records that have been naturally and necessarily generated as a product of regular legal, commercial, administrative, or social activities. They have been metaphorically defined as "the secretions of an organism", and are distinguished from documents that have been consciously written or created to communicate a particular message to posterity.
Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is a federal institution tasked with acquiring, preserving and making Canada's documentary heritage accessible. It is the fourth biggest library in the world. LAC reports to Parliament through Pablo Rodríguez, the Minister of Canadian Heritage since August 28, 2018.
The Society of American Archivists is the oldest and largest archivist association in North America, serving the educational and informational needs of more than 5,000 individual archivist and institutional members. Established in 1936, the organization serves upwards of 6,200 individual and member institutions.
The Archivist of the United States is the chief official overseeing the operation of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The first Archivist, R.D.W. Connor, began serving in 1934, when the National Archives was established as an independent federal agency by Congress. The Archivists served as subordinate officials of the General Services Administration from 1949 until the National Archives and Records Administration became an independent agency again on April 1, 1985. The position is held by David Ferriero, who was named to the office in 2009.
Trudy Huskamp Peterson was the Acting Archivist of the United States from March 25, 1993 to May 29, 1995.
Leonard Borejko Chodźko (1800–1871) was a Polish historian, geographer, cartographer, publisher, archivist, and activist of Poland's post-November-1830-Uprising Great Emigration.
Appraisal, in the context of archival science and archive administration, is a process usually conducted by a member of the record-holding institution in which a body of records is examined to determine its value for that institution. When it occurs prior to acquisition, the appraisal process involves assessing records for inclusion in the archives. In connection with an institution's collecting policy, appraisal "represents a doorway into the archives through which all records must pass". Some considerations when conducting appraisal include how to meet the record-granting body's organizational needs, how to uphold requirements of organizational accountability, and how to meet the expectations of the record-using community. While sometimes archival collecting is equated with appraisal, appraisal is still seen as a critical function of modern archival profession even though historical societies have been argued to contribute to the "general randomness of collecting", which stands against rigorous appraisal standards even as many collecting programs still "acquire the collections of private collectors" and some aspects require partnerships between varied institutions.
Ian E. Wilson is a former chief Librarian and Archivist of Canada. Appointed in 2004, he had previously been National Archivist of Canada. With Roch Carrier, the then National Librarian, he developed and led the process to link the National Archive and National Library as a unified institution. His distinguished career has included archival and information management, university teaching and government service. In addition, he has published extensively on history, archives, heritage, and information management and has lectured both nationally and abroad. Wilson retired as head of LAC in April 2009.
David Sean Ferriero is a librarian, library administrator, and the 10th Archivist of the United States. He was Director of the New York Public Library, and before that, the University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs at Duke University. Prior to his Duke position, he worked for 31 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology library. Ferriero is the first librarian to serve as Archivist of the United States.
The Archives Nationales du Sénégal is headquartered in Dakar, in the "Central Park" building on Avenue Malick Sy. It was first called "Archives Nationales" in 1962, but the collection existed since 1913 as the archives of the colonial French West Africa administration. It moved from Saint-Louis to Dakar after 1958.
The International Council on Archives is an international non-governmental organization which exists to promote international cooperation for archives and archivists. It was set up in 1948, with Charles Samaran, the then director of the Archives nationales de France, as chairman, and membership is open to national and international organisations, professional groups and individuals. In 2015 it grouped together about 1400 institutional members in 199 countries and territories. Its mission is to promote the conservation, development and use of the world's archives.
Archival research is a type of research which involves seeking out and extracting evidence from archival records. These records may be held either in collecting institutions, such as libraries and museums, or in the custody of the organization that originally generated or accumulated them, or in that of a successor body. Archival research can be contrasted with (1) secondary research, which involves identifying and consulting secondary sources relating to the topic of enquiry; and (2) with other types of primary research and empirical investigation such as fieldwork and experiment.
Daniel J. Caron was the Librarian and Archivist of Canada from April 25, 2009 until May 15, 2013. He is also a professor, author and public speaker.
Kent M. Haworth (1946–2003) is best known for his pioneering role in the creation of archival descriptive standards in Canada. He published widely on a number of topics of importance to the development of archival theory, lectured and presented throughout the world, and was a contributing member of many national and international archival committees and associations.
The National Archives of Nigeria is headquartered in Abuja, Nigeria, with branches in Enugu, Ibadan, and Kaduna. As of 2017, the current Director of Archives is Malam Abdulyekin Umar.
Respect des fonds, or le respect pour les fonds, is a principle in archival theory that proposes to group collections of archival records according to their fonds – that is to say, according to the entity by which they were created or from which they were received. It is one of several principles stemming from provenance that guide archival arrangement and description from the late 19th century until the present day. It is similar to archival integrity, which dictates that "a body of records resulting from the same activity must be preserved as a group." Closely related to the idea of original order – the idea that archivists ought to maintain records using the creator's organizational system – respect des fonds differs from that other foundational sub-principle of provenance in its concern with the integrity of the collection or record group as a whole rather than the organization of materials within that collection or record group.
Theodore Roosevelt Schellenberg was an American archivist and archival theorist. Schellenberg's publications and ideas are part of the foundation for archival theory and practice in the United States. In particular, Schellenberg is known for pioneering American archival ideas about appraisal.
Elizabeth Belle Drewry (1907-2000) was an American archivist, recognized for her long career at the National Archives and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. The first woman to become the head of a Presidential library, she was an expert in American World War I history and published Historical Units of the First World War (1942). In 1965, she received a Federal Women’s Award, presented personally by President Lyndon B. Johnson for her work at the National Archives.
Pierre Camille Le Moine (1723–1800), an archivist at Toul Cathedral and then in Lyon was the author of the first printed French monograph entirely devoted to archives and archival management and description, the influential Diplomatique pratique (1765) which advocated the classification of documents by topics rather than in chronological order which had been the standard up until that time.
