Chances are, you’ve used libraries in the past for leisure reading, special programs, school projects, or a host of other activities. Libraries and their look, feel, and organization are familiar to most of us. Archives, not so much. At the most basic level, libraries and archives are both providers of information, although they provide information in different ways and the type of information they contain is often different.
For example, libraries contain published works (books, magazines, newspapers, electronic databases, etc.) created for education, information, and entertainment, while archives contain mostly unpublished materials created by individuals, organizations, and governments in the course of a typical day. -The latter are often collected at the end of a day’s activities and only later preserved because they tell us something important about the past. The library’s collection is not unique, as most of the works it receives are made in multiple copies and sold to other libraries across the country. However, archival collections are unique. You will not find archival records in one repository duplicated elsewhere. There is an old cliché that says: “libraries are for readers, and archives are for writers”. Libraries are used by different people, but those who plan to create knowledge for others use archives. Although there are exceptions to this cliché, we hope you get the point.
Due to their unique holdings, archival institutions often have well-developed preservation, conservation, and security plans designed to protect and preserve their collections. After all, if an archival document is destroyed or stolen, it cannot be replaced. A factor that limits libraries in replacing missing documents is money – does the library have the funds to purchase replacements? As a result, most libraries allow their materials to circulate outside the library and then replace lost and stolen items if necessary. Archival materials are almost never removed from the archive because they cannot be replaced.
Libraries and archives also process materials differently. In general, libraries catalog resources at the item level. You can search the library’s online catalog by subject, author, title, keyword, etc. and find individual items that focus on your topic. Archival collections are maintained and processed at the collection level, and many collections contain literally thousands of items (some much larger). Instead of cataloging individual items in archival collections, archivists create finding aids for the collections as a whole. These finding aids, rather than library catalog records, are access tools for researchers. You can read more about how finding aids work below, but archives are also staffed by archivists who assist researchers as part of their job. Feel free to ask them for help!