According to the Society of American Archivists, archives are "the non-current records of individuals, groups, institutions, and governments that contain information of enduring value." (SAA, 2015). This means that archival records are:

• Primary sources, not secondary sources
• Created by individuals, groups, and institutions in the course of their work
• Often unique records that are not duplicated elsewhere
• Usually unpublished and not intended for publication
• Uninterpreted materials: i.e. archives contain the records themselves, not commentary about the records
• Usually not the current records of an institution or individual
• Selected for preservation because of "enduring value"

Archival collections are different from library collections which usually contain published materials, most of which are considered secondary sources, not primary sources.

Archival collections are arranged according to two basic principles: Provenance and Original Order.

• Provenance dictates that records with different origins must be kept separate from each other. This means that records from one individual or institution should be kept separate from the records of a second individual or institution, even if their subject matter is the same.
• Original Order means that archival records should be maintained in the order established by the creator of the records, not in an order established by the archives.

Both of these concepts ensure that archival records preserve context as well as content.

Provenance and Original Order mean that archival collections are organized differently from library collections. Library collections are usually arranged by subject, with all the information on one subject grouped together. In archival collections, information on a particular subject may be scattered across many different collections.

Archival records are also indexed or cataloged at the box or folder level, not the item level. This means that archival catalogs and finding aids will not tell you the content of or even existence of every piece of paper in the collection. They will only give you a general idea of what is in each box or folder. The rest is for you to discover!