Archivists differentiate between the significance of items, and the information they contain. In some cases, original documents are preserved. In other cases, where it is only the information that is recorded, recent technological advances sometimes allow archives to keep information in more practical, inexpensive forms than that of the original documents. If they become damaged, lost, or misplaced, they are no longer available. There are no extra copies.
Archival documents are often very fragile.
Archives have special security measures in place to ensure that the documents in their care continue to be available to future generations. Some Archives Terminology Collection Archival documents are sometimes referred to as collections . For example, the collection of John Doe. A finding aid is the tool or device which archives create to help researchers access the information found in a fonds or collection , or a group of fonds or collections . There are many different kinds of finding aids .