Slide 1
An archive is a surviving selection
Archives preserve records created by people and institutions. They do not contain everything that happened, or even everything that was once written down about it.
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There are several stages between an event and a document available today: someone created a record, it survived, and it became accessible. A gap at any stage can affect the evidence. Absence from an archive therefore needs interpretation rather than an automatic conclusion.
Slide 2
Records began with practical purposes
Many records were created to administer, communicate or prove something. Their original purpose shaped what was included and what the writer had no reason to explain.
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A payment record can establish that a transaction was entered without describing how every participant felt about it. Asking why the record existed helps identify both its strengths and its silences. A document’s limitations follow partly from the job it was meant to do.
Slide 3
Selection involves decisions
Archival selection identifies records for permanent preservation. Institutions use criteria to judge historical value rather than keeping every document produced indefinitely.
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Those decisions influence future research possibilities. Knowing a collection’s selection history can explain why certain activities are richly documented and others appear only in summaries. It also prevents the surviving volume of paperwork from being mistaken for the full scale of past activity.
Slide 4
A catalogue is a guide to records
Archival descriptions help researchers locate material and understand its creators.
A catalogue entry is usually a description of a record, not the complete contents of that record.
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Searching only an exact modern phrase can miss material described under older institutional names or broader series headings. Following the creator and arrangement can reveal relevant records. Research therefore involves learning how the archive organizes evidence as well as choosing search terms.
Slide 5
Online access is another selection
Digitized records make research possible at a distance, but material available online is only part of many collections.
A failed online search does not establish that no relevant record exists.
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A catalogue may identify an undigitized file that requires a different access route. Separating discovery from digital availability helps a researcher describe the limits of a search accurately. It also reduces the tendency to treat easily accessible evidence as the whole surviving record.
Sources
- Selecting your records
The National Archives
- Discovery help
The National Archives
- Reading rooms
The National Archives