Government archives were the most significant component of the profession until the 1970s when the number of academic archives increased. Since then, every survey of archives and archivists has indicated that colleges and universities have the largest contingent of archivists in the United States.

Calvin Coolidge once said, “The chief business of the American people is business.” This is true in many respects, but business has not traditionally received much archival attention.

The public records tradition realizes that government authorities are the creators and keepers of records, which takes place at all levels of government. There is also the assumption of public access and accountability—that records exist to be used by citizens.

Few ideas about strategy, goals, and operations for archives result in unanimous agreement. One idea that does? Support the archives program. Support must come from peers as well as those in leadership positions within the organization.

The basics of intellectual control of records are similar in concept to the levels of archival description with record groups, subgroups, series, and items.

Retention costs for electronic records are higher than for physical records in every respect, the only exception being the actual space it takes to store digital materials. But that downside is balanced because electronic records allow for the presentation and retrieval of information in ways that have not been possible in an analog world.

How do we want to manage archival records? What foundational ideas–the theory and principles of archival science—support archivists’ work?

With regard to digital records in archives, there is a three-tiered approach to thinking about what needs to be preserved. Each of these three levels of usability represents a valid preservation goal, depending on why keeping organizational records is necessary.

Digital preservation requires two activities: digitizing and preserving digital objects.

Digitization is a complicated task involving the coordination of several different types of activities. As a result, projects may need to focus on these functions to varying degrees at phases of their life cycle as they move out of a start-up phase and into creation and ongoing maintenance.

The primary responsibility of an archival repository is to gain control of its holdings to enable discovery.

Collections with legal restrictions, fragile or damaged materials, materials with high theft potential, or collections with ethical or culturally sensitive considerations require interventions by archivists and may not be accessible for users.