Publications

Archives are mainly defined by the fact that they hold primary documents. However, as you may have noted, listed in the Quesnel Museum's holdings were newspapers, maps, government publications, and sometimes, books. You are correct in thinking that these items are indeed secondary or published documents. So what the heck are we doing putting them in the archives? Shouldn't they go in the Museum Artifact/Library collection? Actually, as will be explained below, no. These items are in our archival collection.

Newspapers
Since 1951, when the Quesnel Museum's collection was started, we had newspapers in the archives. In order to be consistent, we decided to continue to do so. Consequently, although mainly secondary sources, we consider them to be archival, as do many other archives.

Maps
Many archives keep maps, although published, in their holdings. Ask a staff member because there are sometimes exceptions. However, generally, we have decided that, like the newspapers, we will continue to keep the maps in the archives.

Government Publications
In some ways, a government publication is like an ephemeral document; it is short lived. To clarify, the Official Community Plan, published by Quesnel City Hall, is a living document that will change over the years. This is, of course, of great historical worth, and thus, is best to be in our archives.

Books
On the whole, books are considered to be a part of our Library collection - that is, our Museum Artifact Collection. Books have been a part of the Museum Collection since our Museum was established in 1951. So why would we be concerned with them in the archives?

As we discussed, a book is a secondary source. However, from what we have said, where would you put a book with handwriting in it. For instance, how would we classify Simon Fraser's book of published poetry that had his hand written comments throughout it?. Well, in effect, the handwriting makes it a primary document! Consequently, we would put it in the archives!