Overview

An archivist is a professional responsible for identifying, acquiring, organizing, preserving and providing access to records judged to have enduring value. These records can take many forms — printed documents, correspondence, photographs, audio and video recordings, maps, and electronic files — and are maintained so they remain usable as reliable evidence of past activities and decisions. As Richard Pearce-Moses observed, "Archivists keep records that have enduring value as reliable memories of the past, and they help people find and understand the information they need in those records." The work balances decisions about what to keep with practical limits of storage, cost, and legal or ethical obligations.

Roles and common practices

Archivists perform a range of tasks across acquisition, arrangement, description, preservation, and access. Typical duties include appraisal and selection of records, creating catalogues and finding aids, applying descriptive standards and metadata, managing physical storage conditions, and supporting researchers or the public. Many archivists also teach others how to use collections, negotiate access restrictions, and manage rights and reproductions.

  • Appraisal and selection — deciding which materials have long-term value.
  • Arrangement and description — imposing intellectual or physical order and creating tools to find items.
  • Preservation and conservation — stabilizing physical items and migrating or emulating digital content.
  • Reference and outreach — facilitating use by researchers, students, or the general public.

Archivists work with varied media; for example, they handle analogue photographs and negatives as well as moving images and sound recordings. They may also manage born-digital records that require specific technical strategies for preservation and access.

Training, standards and archival science

Many archivists hold degrees in history, library and information studies, archival science, or related fields, and rely on professional standards and ethical codes to guide practice. Archival science is the body of theory and scholarship that addresses appraisal, provenance, original order, and methods for long-term preservation. Practical standards cover descriptive formats, metadata schemas, and standards for digitization and storage. Effective archival work often requires collaboration with conservators, IT specialists, legal advisors, and subject experts.

History and development

The role of archivists emerged from earlier practices of recordkeeping and custodianship in governments, religious institutions, and large organizations. Over the 19th and 20th centuries the profession became more formalized with distinct repositories, professional associations, and training programs. Developments in records management, cataloguing, and later digital technologies reshaped archival priorities, pushing the field to adapt methods for new kinds of evidence and expanding public expectations about access and transparency.

Uses, importance and distinctions

Archives serve multiple social functions: they support historical research, provide legal and administrative evidence, preserve cultural heritage, and underpin community memory. Archives differ from libraries in that items are typically unique and maintained for their evidential rather than purely informational value. Institutional archives, special collections, government records offices, corporate archives and community archives each reflect different collecting mandates and user needs. Archivists also navigate tensions between openness and restrictions for privacy, confidentiality, or cultural sensitivity.

Digital preservation is a primary contemporary challenge: managing the volume of born-digital materials, ensuring file format sustainability, and maintaining accessible metadata over time. Archivists must address limited budgets, uncertain storage costs, and complex intellectual property and privacy issues. New technologies — such as automated metadata extraction, cloud services, and digital forensics tools — offer solutions but require new skills and policies. Public engagement, community archives initiatives, and increased attention to inclusive collecting are shaping a profession that continues to adapt to social needs and technological change. For discussions of preservation techniques and standards, see resources on digital stewardship and media-specific conservation.