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.

Photographs are a wonderful asset for archival repositories because of their broad appeal. The range of users for visual materials—including artists, designers, publishers, and producers—is wider than for textual records. Accommodating all these users can be a challenge, especially if they have unreasonable deadlines and expectations.

Archival appraisal determines whether materials have permanent, research value within the context of the institution’s collecting policy and mission. Appraisal activities include examining records to discover their contents, provenance, order and completeness, authenticity and reliability, condition, related preservation costs, and intrinsic value.

The role of archivists has significantly changed with the rise of digitized and born-digital collections.

In the past, we waited at the end of the records lifecycle, acquiring physical records that had reached the end of their everyday use and had transitioned into having enduring historical value. With the advent of digital files, archivists have had to meet the creators of records much sooner in the lifecycle, offering advice on how to maintain digital records that will be sustainable over time.

Archivists have traditionally played a crucial custodial role in protecting and providing access to long-term, historical collections on paper and film, but as the volume and diversity of digital content increases exponentially over the coming decades, digital preservation has become a community effort.

It’s worth exploring the potential benefits that partnerships can bring to archival institutions, especially in terms of digital archives.