Archives
Records of enduring value selected for permanent preservation, or the institution and facility responsible for preserving and providing access to them.
Archives has two related meanings. As a body of materials, archives are the records appraised as having enduring value — historical, legal, or evidential — and therefore selected for permanent preservation rather than eventual destruction. As an institution, an archives (such as the National Archives) is the organization and facility responsible for preserving those records and making them accessible.
When records move into archival custody, the emphasis shifts from active business use to long-term preservation and access for future researchers, the public, and the organization’s own accountability. Only a small fraction of records ever become archival; most are destroyed at the end of their retention period. Preserving archival records over decades — especially digital ones — is the work of digital preservation.