According to Jenkinson, the archivist's primary task is “to hand on the documents as nearly as possible in the state in which he received them, without adding or taking away, physically or morally, anything: to preserve unviolated, without the possibility of suspicion, every element in them, every quality they possessed when they came to him”Jenkinson,
Hilary. 1984. Reflections of an Archivist. In A modern Archives Reader, edited by Maygene F. Daniels and Timoth
Walch. Washington, D.C.: NARA quoted in “Authenticity in a Digital Environment”, May
2000. Washington, D.C,: CLIR (Council
on Library and Information Resources) pg. 13