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NARA has described ERA as a "system of systems" with four primary functions: accepting electronic records from government bodies, assigning metadata to document those records, preserving those records, and allowing access to those records. [9] This adapts the traditional work of archival processing to digital records, a form of digital curation.
Archival descriptions of the permanent holdings of the federal government in the custody of NARA are stored in the National Archives Catalog. [35] The archival descriptions include information on traditional paper holdings, electronic records, and artifacts. [ 36 ]
Jenkinson, a luminary of British archival practice, specifically criticized the French and Belgian accessions of isolated private documents into national archives, saying "we cannot think that a stray paper from some dispersed family collection... is a fit inmate for a National Archive Establishment."
Modern archival thinking has some roots dating back to the French Revolution. The French National Archives, which possess perhaps the largest archival collection in the world (with records going as far back as 625 A.D.), was created in 1790 during the Revolution from various government, religious, and private archives seized by the revolutionaries.
The preferred method for storing manuscripts, archival records, and other paper documents is to place them in acid-free paper folders which are then placed in acid-free of low-lignin boxes for further protection. [21] Similarly, books that are fragile, valuable, oddly shaped, or in need of protection can be stored in archival boxes and enclosures.
Reimbursable charges are collected from both government agencies and the public for specific archival services, mostly pertaining to the cost of reproduction and, in some cases, hourly fees for specialized research. Collected service fees are placed into the National Archives Trust Fund.
In some countries, national libraries serve the same purpose as national archives - or have archival departments. Among their more important tasks is ensuring the accessibility and preservation of the information produced by governments, both analogically and digitally, for the government itself, researchers and the public.
Archival science, or archival studies, is the study and theory of building and curating archives, which are collections of documents, recordings, photographs and various other materials in physical or digital formats. To build and curate an archive, one must acquire and evaluate the materials, and be able to access them later.