Starting an Archives : A Decade Later

In the premier issue (fall 1972) of Georgia Archive, David B. Gracy II described some of the planning and preparation required to start an archives. Ten years later, his extremely popular article is still being studied by archivists who are beginning new operations as well as by those trying to make existing organizations more efficient and usable. Since the article appeared, archivists have rethought old practices, learned from experience, and borrowed techniques from friends in libraries, records management, and computer programming. Sources for professional development and education have broadened, financial situations have grown perhaps less certain, and the quantity and types of materials being collected have expanded. Technology has given new hope for processing massive amounts of materials. Also during this time, new archives have opened while others have expanded their staffs and their areas of collecting. Still the purpose remains the same as that stated by Gracy in 1973, to preserve and make available for research historically valuable materials--whether they be volumes, manuscripts, correspondence, microfilm, or computer tapes and disks