archief

Een archief is het geheel der geschrevene, geteekende en gedrukte bescheiden, ex officio ontvangen of opgemaakt door eenig bestuur of een zijner ambtenaren, voorzoover deze bescheiden bestemd waren om onder dat bestuur of dien ambtenaar te berusten.

.. bescheiden, ongeacht hun vorm, door de overheidsorganen ontvangen of opgemaakt en naar hun aard bestemd daaronder te berusten; 

The appraisal process must include detailed examination of the records, which remain the ultimate manifestation of functions and activities.

Helen Morgan, How do I appraise thee? Let me count the ways: the archival imperative and the construct of appraisal. Australian Science Archives Project

In the generally accepted professional terminology, the word "archives" written with a lower case "a" covers the documents still in use or retained in the creating agency, those stored in intermediate centres, as well as those transferred to Archives.

If any principle should govern archival theory, it is not the fonds, but rather the visualisation through description of functional structures, both internal and external: archival narratives about those multiple relationships of creation and use so that researchers may truly understand records from the past. If that is called the principle of (virtual) provenance, I shall not object, for it is the best continuation of the archival tradition of respecting the context of records.

Of all national assets, archives are the most precious: they are the gift of one generation to another, and the extent of our care of them marks the extent of our civilization.