Archivists appraise or evaluate documents on the basis of anticipated use in relation to the costs of description and retention. Archivists arrange information according to source and original order to sustain the integrity the documents had while in active use. Archivists describe documents in finding aids, guides, and inventories to facilitate long-term access to their informational contents and ongoing administrative control of the holdings. Archivists ensure the future availability of documents in a safe environment and on physical media that will remain accessible, renewable, or convertible for the period of expected use. Archivists promote and facilitate the use of documents to explain the past, provide guidance in the present, and accountability to the future.
Archival holdings are unique and treated as accumulated aggregates.
As such, they are not accessioned and retained as copies of information obtainable elsewhere. Instead, they are appraised and managed according to their potential value and the anticipated costs of processing, protection, and retention. As the repositories for information systems from all types of persons and human organizations, archives must cope with languages, superseded information recording formats, divergent physical materials, and vast accumulations of data. The three principal categories of archival materials are official files of institutions and organizations, publications issued by such organizations and institutions and the personal papers of individuals. Each of these areas has been impacted by electronic information generated, transmitted, received, and stored on disks, tapes, and other formats.