"Archives: Records created or received by a person, family, or organization and preserved because of their continuing value" -Society of American Archivists 

"Archives can hold both published and unpublished materials, and those materials can be in any format. Some examples are manuscripts, letters, photographs, moving image and sound materials, artwork, books, diaries, artifacts, and the digital equivalents of all of these things. Materials in an archives are often unique, specialized, or rare objects, meaning very few of them exist in the world, or they are the only ones of their kind."

-Society of American Archivists