Archives are the product of written transactions or activities completed by an organisation or person. In compliance with the rules for archive science, they must be collected by the organisation or person that has produced or received these archives. This collection of documents created by an archive producer is known as an “archive group” or “archive”. If the link with the archives producer has been lost we refer to a collection (e.g. a collection of maps).
A large number of new archives are created every day. As soon as these documents lose their original purpose of providing evidence or a source of reference, they are subjected to a strict selection process by the archivists. Only a small part is preserved on a permanent basis as a source for historical research. When we hear the word “archives”, we automatically think of written or printed documents. An archives document can, however, take the form of a map, illustration, photograph, sound recording or electronic file.

Which archives are stored at the State Archive?

• Public archives
• Private archives
• Collections
• Archives stored at other locations

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Can all archives be consulted freely?

In theory, all archives that are more than 100 years old, which have been deposited at the State Archives by a public authority, are public (Archives Law, 1955).
Provided this does not fail to respect the privacy of a living person, the State Archives will take every step to guarantee that very recent documents are accessible. Moreover, the law concerning the right of access to public documents guarantees that they are accessible from the point when they are first created.
It sometimes occurs that free consultation is limited in order to preserve the physical condition of archive documents. The consultation of originals is no longer authorised if a replacement copy exists, usually on microfilm or as a digital version.
Consultation is no longer permitted if the document is likely to suffer irreparable damage as a result.