Resource: archives, Archives, or archives?
What Are Archives?
The word archives can be used in three different ways:
The word archives (usually written with a lower case a and sometimes referred to in the singular, as archive) refers to the permanently valuable records—such as letters, reports, accounts, minute books, draft and final manuscripts, and photographs—of people, businesses, and government. These records are kept because they have continuing value to the creating agency and to other potential users. They are the documentary evidence of past events. They are the facts we use to interpret and understand history.
An Archives (often written with a capital A and usually, but not always, in the plural) is an organization dedicated to preserving the documentary heritage of a particular group: a city, a province or state, a business, a university, or a community. For example, the National Archives and Records Administration in the United States, Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan, The Coca-Cola Company Archives, and The Archives of the Episcopal Church are all responsible for the preservation and management of archives.
The word archives is also used to refer to the building or part of a building in which archival materials are kept, i.e., the archival repository itself.
From The Society of American Archivists website, excerpted from The Story Behind the Book: Preserving Authors’ and Publishers’ Archives by Laura Millar
