On Mon, 23 May 2005, Tim Riker wrote: An archive is meant for the preservation of artifacts and information. The materials it contains are permanent, and usually older or outdated. A library is much more ephemeral. Its contents constantly rotate, migrate, and dissipate, and regnerate; it changes over time. An archive does not: it just keeps accumulating materials and rarely (if ever) deletes content. An archive is as useful as a library. However, an archive is more likely to provide historic materials, whereas a library contains more current information for study. This is the difference. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]