All must be kept, at least temporarily. Some documents expire with time and are either recycled or trashed. Others, from death certificates to old oyster-tax receipts, must be saved. Thus, the state archives. South Carolina's History Center resembles a corporate campus, 12.5 acres surrounding a massive brick and smoked-glass museum.
Visitors sit in a library-like reference room.
The Dewey Decimal System, however, won't get you anywhere here. That's not to say the archives are poorly organized. In North Carolina, records are kept on three floors, along long, dark rows of shelves. The boxes and folders are broken up by county and state agency. They're kept at a cool 68 degrees.