Libraries, museums and archives in the digital future: The blurring of institutional boundaries by W. Boyd Rayward, November 1995.
Differences between libraries, museums and archives as per Rayward article.
LIBRARIES are focused on acquisition (printed material/journals/books) with interlibrary loans to address gaps and specific clientele. A collection of resources (print and digital) with information covering an array of topics. Patrons all have different requirements in terms of the information they need, and as a result information is typically stored so that it can be easily accessed on demand. Libraries need to be weeded continually in order to keep information current.
Libraries are busy colourful place/space with regulars, visitors attracted by the programs and changing offerings. Each week there is a story time for pre-schoolers and during the school holidays activities are provided for children. Libraries generally deal with information resources that are currently needed to meet the information needs (including recreational) of the users. While the resources may be organised in such a way that similar resources are grouped together, each individual resource stands alone.
MUSEUMS concentrate on all living (botanical) an non-living such as, artifacts denoting a time in a place in society. All items are stored and viewed in context complete with explanation. These may specialise, e.g. Railway museum. Collections of physical objects that are viewed as a group and within a specific context. When a collection is exhibited, all patrons are presented with the same information (in the form of the objects and the descriptions that accompany them). A lot of information may be stored and not easily accessed by patrons (i.e. collections not on exhibition).
All information presented is extended beyond the item and included era, habits, size, location, diet - a complete 'story' of facts as researched by others. Quite an educational place to visit.
ARCHIVES - the collection of daily documents of a government/organisation (authors not identified) to track changes/incidents over time . Eg maps, printed documents, motion pictures, photographs....
Documents of by-gone eras saved for future generations to use for individual research pursuits.
Archives collect documents for the purpose of keeping complete records. Often it is important for legal reasons to document the work of a particular agency.
How does it change what information we might want to organise and retrieve?
It seems that there is a place to store just about everything, but where does it stop. Obviously space will ultimately be used up and hard copies will no longer be kept, instead resorting to scanning and saving information on the computer in an effort to free up space.
Libraries are the most likely of the three to require weeding, while both museums and archives often need to keep things for their historical value.
It appears that the needs of the users that are different and the descriptions of these collections are created with these needs in mind in order to make access to the information easier - hence why a museum piece may come with a lengthy annotation or explanation because the user doesn't want to have to go elsewhere to find out about the piece/document/display while a library record will focus on basic elements that simply help users find the information, letting them make use of the information once it is found.
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