Few people, however, understand the true meaning of the word "archive", nor do they comprehend the true purpose of an archive, therefore this glossary article will clearly define what an archive is and what it is not. Using the definition presented, the article will then explain how the Australian Television Archive fits in with the definition.

The article is divided into the following sections:

General Definition Conventional Archives Archives and Libraries Is the Australian Television Archive an archive?

1. General Definition

Put simply, an archive is:

a collection of tangible or non-tangible objects whose primary purpose of existence is to preserve history.

A rather simplistic definition, we must admit, however, we believe that if a collection of anything cannot be aptly described with the above definition, then that collection is NOT an archive.

Let us focus on each of the highlighted words in the definition:

• collection of tangible or non-tangible objects - archives can be a collection of just about anything - not just books, dossiers and the like, although these are the sorts of objects one would find in a conventional archive. Even something as humble as, say, an igneous rock can be archived (a typical object, perhaps, in a geologists' archive).

  The objects themselves do not have to be in any particular order, however, there must be a considerable inter-relation between them - in other words, there must be a common theme - a theme that somehow tells a story about the past. The rock, for example, could be a part of an archive of artefacts retrieved from the site of the former Roman city of Pompeii, destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the 1st Century CE - the rock could, through dating methods, help confirm the written accounts of the event at the time.

  The objects do not even have to physically exist within the spatial realm - they may reside purely within the realm of thought. Ideas, stories, all kinds of oral traditions passed from person to person, generation to generation - in this sense, society itself acts like an archive. This type of archive has, in fact, existed in just about every civilisation since time immemorial, and it is through these oral traditions that we have learnt so much about other societies, past and present.

• primary purpose of existence [1]...preserve history - Preservation - the first word one should be thinking of when hearing or reading the word "archive", for it is one thing to keep, store or hoard a collection of objects, yet it is another thing entirely to preserve a collection, that is:
  1. If an object is in a bad condition, recover, repair or restore the objects to an acceptable/useful state.
  2. If an object is in an unstable condition, record or transliterate the object onto a stable medium if possible (this includes writing down stories normally transmitted orally, for example)
  3. Make sure objects in the collection remain in good condition.

  In short, ensure that the objects in a collection still exist for now and for posterity.

  A detailed discussion of the importance of history is beyond the scope of this article - suffice it to say that by maintaining the records of our history through archiving, not only do we learn from the rights and wrongs of the past, we also gain a deeper appreciation and understanding of who we are today, where we came from and what we have achieved.

2. Conventional Archives

Archives - in the conventional sense - have existed for thousands of years. The first conventional archives began to appear when various civilisations erected permanent settlements and invented for themselves methods for transcribing spoken words. With societies becoming increasingly complex, the powers that be felt the need to keep records of the activities, transactions, taxes etc. of their own society and other societies they had dealings with to help maintain order. Information was transcribed in a number of ways (e.g. cuneiform, hieroglyphics, hieratics, hanzi, etc.) onto different media (e.g. rock, papyrus, paper, etc.) and the type of information collected varied between societies and over time. As the amount of information collected was immense, storage facilities were built to house the media, to be constantly maintained by authority-appointed officials. It is thanks to the tireless efforts of the early archivists that archaeologists and historians have learnt so much about civilisations past and - ultimately - present.

While society and times have changed, the purpose of a conventional archive has not - conventional archives still collect, maintain and preserve documents of an historical nature. However, the types of documents found in a conventional archive have changed: initially one would have found documents such as laws, ordinances, bills, vital statistics, etc (one would still find these documents in modern archives!). Thanks to the likes of Caxton and Gutenberg, more and more books began to make an appearance and thanks to the likes of Edison, the Lumieres, Zworykin and Baird, one can now find film reels, video and audiotapes in archives. The security and restricted access policies that existed in the archives of civilisations past also persist - perhaps to a greater extent - in the archives of today, thanks to advancements in technology.

3. Archives and Libraries

It is a common mistake by many people to mistake an archive for a library, or even to go so far as to erroneously use the terms interchangeably. Although conventional archives and libraries are quite similar, they do have their fundamental differences in their aim and purpose. We can adapt our earlier definition of an archive to define a library (due to their similarity) to read:

a collection of tangible or non-tangible objects whose primary purpose of existence is to acquire, store and disseminate (on a largely loaning basis) objects in its collection.

As you can see, both archives and libraries collect objects. But it is in the manner in which those objects are accessed that the fundamental difference between the two lie.

One of the most important functions of a library is to disseminate - to give people largely unrestricted access to the materials contained within the library's collection for informational or entertainment purposes. Libraries might have their access restriction policies, however, in many cases a simple registration with the library operators will permit access and (possibly) loaning of materials (reference libraries are a special case of libraries that prohibit loaning).

On the other hand, due to a conventional archive's preservation policy, access to the archive's materials by the general public is restricted, for the integrity of the materials must not be (further) compromised. Organisations and individuals that maintain archives usually have strict access rules, including but not limited to:

• How may the materials be handled by the accessee?
• How long - if at all - may the accessee have an archive material in their possession?
• If possible, can copies of materials be made for external use?

and, most importantly,

• Does the accessee have a legitimate use for the materials? (in most cases, "solely for entertainment purposes" would not qualify as a legitimate use)

We must be careful with our definition of a library, however, as sections of libraries can (and do) function as archives, where access is restricted - perhaps some objects are too important or precious to be loaned out, so these objects are kept securely away from the general public.

So, in essence, all of those websites that purport to be archives are best described as libraries - after all, they acquire, store and disseminate text and/or multimedia information! [2]

4. Is the Australian Television Archive an archive?

Based on what has been said, one can come to the conclusion that while the Archive itself is a true archive, the Archive site however, is in fact a library.

The Australian Television Archive is an archive for the following reasons:

• It is a collection of videotapes, audiotapes, film-reels and equipment whose primary purpose is to preserve televisual history.

• Materials within the Archive are routinely maintained by repairing materials and equipment and transferring audiovisual materials to more stable formats.

• Access to the physical Archive is restricted and is left up to the discretion of its maintainer.

The Australian Television Archive Website is a library [3] for the following reasons:

• It is a collection of informative articles and multimedia clips whose primary purpose is to allow the collection, storage and dissemination of such materials.

• Parts of the website do have restricted access, however, a registration and contribution policy is in force - following the conditions set out by the website owners will allow access.

Footnotes

[1] Pretentious, so-called intellectuals would prefer to use the French words raison d'etre in place of purpose of existence. French - much-admired, much-used tool of authors of English-language essays with little substance everywhere!

[2] If you ever come across a site (other than this one - c.v. below for justification) that calls itself an "archive", please point the webmaster to this page - together, we can reclaim that word which has been incorrectly bandied about all too much on the Internet!

[3] Despite referring to the Archive site as a library, the name of the site shall remain unchanged, for the site acts as an online representative of the Archive - we think there would be confusion if we gave the two separate entities a different name. We are very careful, in fact, never to refer to the site as "the Archive" but always as "the Archive site" - we deem the distinction between the two to be very important.