What Are Archives? - an introduction

Archives are vibrant places where the first-hand materials of human history are actively collected, preserved, managed, and made accessible. The word "archives" can refer to collections of historical records, the place where they are stored and used, or the organization responsible for them.

In under three minutes, learn more about different types of archives, what archivists do, who can use archives, what is missing from them, and why they are valuable.

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This open educational resource is made available to educators, cultural heritage professionals, and everyone else through a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.

(That means you should definitely feel free to use it! Just please do not modify or adapt the video, and do not use it for commercial purposes. The credits at the end provide all necessary attribution.)

Instructors, teachers, faculty, librarians, archivists, and museum staff are especially encouraged to:
- assign the video to students
- use it for staff training or professional development
- show it during in-person and remote classes, presentations, orientations, conferences, symposia, and other events
- embed it in online tutorials, modules, digital learning objects, learning management software, and hybrid or asynchronous courses
- share this link with students, instructors, scholars, researchers, patrons, visitors, donors, administrators, funders, stakeholders, and community members

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Atlas Systems is dedicated to making archives and special collections discoverable and accessible to researchers worldwide. Through support and software designed by archivists for archivists, Atlas ensures that researchers find what they're seeking and get what they need.

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Created by Robin M. Katz
Directed by Josh Shayne
Narrated by Christine Holloway

[erinc.alghandoor]

Fantastic video. When we have college students visit our archive, we always show it to them. Thank you for this amazing resouce.

[qyxskgn]

Love it! Certainly the archive is more than a place. I would say the source of knowledge that will remain recorded.Its value lies in the content, regardless of the support it is made.

[penseemohran]

Please keep this on! This was so informative! Keep it up!

[laurazoller]

Thanks for sharing. Good for the layperson too.

[bgazzar]

This is informative and so well done!!