4/26/2004
National Archives and Records Administration
4
What is a “Record”
•Made or received in the course of business or under law
•Kept because it
–Provides evidence of organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of their creators, or
–Contains valuable information
•NARA holds many records and record types
–Reels of motion pictures
–Maps, charts, and architectural drawings
–Sound and video recordings
–Aerial photographs
–Still pictures and posters
–Computer data sets
A Record – Documentary material of any form
•Today NARA holds in the National Archives of the United States and the Presidential Libraries an estimated 4 billion records nationwide.  The archives consist of the permanently valuable records generated in all three branches of the Federal Government, supplemented with donated documentary materials.

•These records span this country’s entire experience, across our history, the breadth of our nation, and our people.  Not surprisingly, with the passage of time, the medium of the records of the United States has become diverse in format.  While paper documents predominate, NARA holds enormous numbers of reels of motion picture film; maps, charts and architectural drawings; sound and video recordings; aerial photographs; still pictures and posters; and computer data files.  It is the last, the computer data sets, the electronic records, that is the fastest growing record keeping medium in the United States and elsewhere in the world, as well in most of your institutions as well.