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Re: "Archive" vs "Archives"



I sometimes hear the singular "archive" used as a synonym for "fonds" or
"record group," and I can see some sense in that. By that logic, your
holdings could be referred to collectively as "archives" and the records of
a particular institution or office as an "archive." But U.S. archivists, in
particular, tend to frown upon using the singular form of the word -- and
indeed I find myself avoiding it.


Thomas J. Wood
Archivist
Archives/Special Collections LIB 144
University of Illinois at Springfield
P.O. Box 19243
Springfield IL 62794-9243
217-206-6520 | wood@uis.edu |  <http://www.uis.edu/library/lib-arch>
http://www.uis.edu/library/lib-arch


-----Original Message-----
From: Baird, Cathleen D [mailto:CDBaird@CENTRAL.UH.EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2002 11:44 AM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: "Archive" vs "Archives"





Hospitality Industry Archives & Library



Students in my graduate class on archival management are asking for
clarification.  It seems that there are no clear guidelines on the usage of
archive vs. archives, not even in the book  A Glossary for Archivists,
Manuscript Curators, and Records Managers.  The students' reading
assignments from the Archival Fundamental Series use both forms
inter-changeably, even when referring to a single subject collection.



I use the plural form of the word because we have multiple number of
separate collections on over 40 different hospitality companies.  However,
when we only had one collection from the office of Conrad N. Hilton, founder
of Hilton and Hilton International Hotel corporations, I used "archive" in
the singular form.



I figure with over 2000 members on this listserve that perhaps we could get
some good answers.



Many thanks for your input.   Cathleen Baird, Houston, TX

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