Archives exist to preserve unique, rare, or significant materials.

• The materials held in archives are used to write historical research, produce documentaries, support investigative journalism, or help us understand the lives and experiences of different communities and populations.

Archives collect materials to support their organization mission.

• For example, the Iowa Women's Archives collections chronicle the lives and work of Iowa women, their families, and their communities. Together with oral histories, these materials document the activities of Iowa women throughout the state and beyond its borders.
• To compare, the University of Iowa University Archive collects, preserves and provides access to information about the University of Iowa that is of enduring historical, fiscal, administrative, or legal value.

• Photographs
• Letters
• Diaries
• Newspapers
• Organizational records
• Scrapbooks
• Unique books
• Artifacts or Ephemera
• Audiovisual

Primary Sources:

• Original documents, often first-hand accounts. Usually written or made close to the time of events recorded. Original creative works.

Secondary Sources:

• Material that analyzes or interprets primary sources. Builds on factual records or data to make interpretive or argumentative conclusions.