Archive

The term archive comes from the Latin ( archivum ), it describes a collection of specific objects, such as maps, plans, files, documents, images, films, audio material, etc., which have significant content that is worthy of preservation. These are recorded, indexed and, depending on the content, made accessible to certain groups of people. Sometimes the term archive is also used to define the building housing archive material.

Specially trained people who work in archives are called archivists, this is an apprenticeship. The training extends over 3 years, and there is also the training branch of the specialist archivist. The term archive itself is not a protected term, i. H. everyone could, for example, call their collection of matchboxes an archive. The main feature of archiving is the long-term preservation or storage of the archive material. The term archiving is also used in today`s "digital" era, meaning the storage of data and content on storage media such as hard drives or blank CDs and DVDs. But one should differentiate here, because the pure storage of data for backup is not archiving in the true sense, since this content is not necessarily stored long-term. Because long-term digital storage is not always easy to achieve due to the durability of the data carrier. Even today, information that was backed up on magnetic tapes 40 years ago can no longer be read because some of the tapes are damaged or the technical equipment needed to read the data is missing. But old documents also require special archiving, otherwise they would be destroyed by the "Acid food" could be destroyed.