Re: Library or Archive

I will probably offend every librarian and archivist I've ever met with this attempt to distinguish, but what the heck.  The main difference is how often the materials are accessed, and what goes into the catalog -- individual items, or boxes of objects that might many years later be of interest.
 A library strives to build a collection that will serve current or potential researchers. A library expects that a substantial portion of its materials will be accessed by patrons. A library catalogs every object -- book, monograph, serial -- so that each individual object can be accessed when someone needs it.
 An archive strives to capture a corpus related to a topic or an organization. The collected papers of Henry Ford, Theodore Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, Pope John Paul II, etc. As such, an archive collects piles of things -- all the papers they can find, all the letters to and from the subject, etc. An archive may catalog letters from John Q. Smith, 1944, as a single item. Later, a scholar who cares about letters from John Q. Smith, 1944, will have to go through each letter one by one. A library would not normally ever think of cataloging each letter individually.  /rich

 On Apr 7, 2005 6:00 PM, Laliberte, Matthew Dana <mdl[_at_]wpi.edu> wrote:
>
> This may seem a silly question, but what is considered an "Archive"?
> Section 108 of the Copyright Act provides exemptions to both Libraries and
> Archives for the reproduction of damaged, stolen or deteriorating works, or
> works whose format has become obsolete.
>
> What constitutes an Archive?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Matthew D. Laliberte
>
> Instructional Technologist
>
> Academic Technology Center
>
> Worcester Polytechnic Institute
>
> 100 Institute Road
>
> Worcester, MA 10609
>
> Phone: 508.831.6422
>
> FAX: 508.831.5881
>
>
Received on Sat Apr 09 2005 - 03:20:51 GMT