library archives
Stored old documents
Library archives are the collections of historical documents, records, and materials preserved within a library for research and reference.
Unlike circulating materials, archives typically contain unique or rare items—manuscripts, photographs, institutional records, personal papers—that document the past.
The university's library archives held letters from the Civil War era.
The term also refers to the department or space housing such collections.
- indexingSystematic organization for retrieval
- manuscriptsHandwritten or typed originals
- white glovesPale formal handwear
- dust jacketsProtective paper book sleeves
- oral historiesRecorded spoken recollections
card catalog · call numbers · encapsulation · climate control · rare books · special collections · personal diaries · microfilm · thesauri · restoration · primary sources · archivists · reading rooms · catalogues · pest management · provenance · institutional memory · UV filters
- librarieslibrarians, public libraries, research libraries, university libraries, national libraries
- book collectionscomplete works, box set, boxed set, collected works, volumes
- archivesarchive box, national archive, collections, repositories, archive folder