archive

History's strongest ally is also its greatest foe. In the quest to remember just what happened, an archive provides a repository for materials relating to a specific construct. By maintaining these archives, we keep a record of our past; however, as these archives accumulate, we make it more difficult to really know what it was we wanted to remember in the first place.

An archive is composed of one or more collections, each of which was collected (or is being collected) for a specific purpose. The specific purpose specific purpose is outlined in the archives collections policy. The unit of measure of a collection is the linear foot.

An archive differs from a library in that a libraries major content is published material, and libraries generally catalog individual documents rather than entire collections.

Ar"chive (#), n.; pl. Archives (#). [F. archives, pl., L. archivum, archium, fr. Gr. government house, archives, fr. the first place, government. See Archi-, pref.]

1. pl.

The place in which public records or historic documents are kept.

Our words . . . . become records in God's court, and are laid up in his archives as witnesses. Gov. of Tongue.

2. pl.

Public records or documents preserved as evidence of facts; as, the archives of a country or family.

[Rarely used in sing.]

Some rotten archive, rummaged out of some seldom explored press. Lamb.

Syn. -- Registers; records; chronicles.

© Webster 1913.