What use to society is an archive?

“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” – George Santayana

Beyond that, folks use archives to research things such as land ownership, genealogy, how certain practices come to be accepted as normal, and so on.

An archive serves as a collective memory.

Are we doing your homework for you?

Working on outreach, so it’s good to get opinions.

Well, then, in terms of performing arts, it is a way to try to explain how great a performance was. It isn’t always successful, but it is better than nothing. Certainly as our recording techniques improve the results will be closer to the original, but with performing arts you really have to have been there.

Thanks. Do you think in an archive we can ever get close to the original? If not, what is the point of keeping all that information?

Someday maybe we can get closer to the original, but even if we do we can’t go back in time and re-record those past performances. The one thing we will always lack is the individual experience of a performance, including the smell of the theater, the focus on specific details, and the thoughts aroused by the performance.

If we don’t keep some sort of record it will be as if past performances have never happened, so as a community we will have no memory at all.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer.

I’m a retired museum curator, so I believe very much in the importance of archives.

Thank you. Are archives just about collective memory? How can they be more about now than yesterday?

i used to work in the county archives. archives can be more about now than yesterday in that they can directly help someone do family history (aka genealogy). not only is the information invaluable, for example veterans’ records, maps, census records, etc. but just knowing that the document, map, book, before you, that you are touching, may be the same book, document, map that your ancestor touched, stood before (think of ellis island) decades or centuries ago. that brings the past to the present in a way that microfilming or google does not. the archives are literally living history.

Do you not think the information is what is important rather than the medium by which it is imparted?

Apologies – omitted thanks for the reply.

the information is great but for me personally i like the actual document. have you ever been to an archives? there are many different types – i’m sure you realize if you’re studying them. county, state, historical society, college, presidential, military, musical like the previous answer.

Thanks, it’s just good to get other people’s opinions

@Libby , you have posted several questions that sound a bit like homework questions. You’re new here (welcome!), so you might not realize that people tend to be suspicious of those questions and may hold back from answering them. Can you tell us whether you’re a student and what kind of “outreach” you’re talking about for an archive? Is this for real or a simulation for a school project?

I was employed as a temp for an opera company and although I have a passion for performing, I am just trying to think on my feet. Your help is very much appreciated.

An archive is a specialized collection, usually, but not always, housed in a library. It is helpful for researchers who are working in the subject area of the archive. Librarians pull together archives as a help to researchers.