n.a repository that holds records created or received for business purposesHolmes 1938, 183Whether our business archives are saved by business itself, by libraries and historical societies, or by government there should be, to return to the original theme of this paper, intelligent selection. It would not be difficult to agree upon the record categories that deserve to be retained. Most of the more important records, such as minute books, and contracts, are not bulky, and the camera might be used to handle those that were. The camera should also be used for sampling administrative control records and operative records.Lewis 1969, 21Which business records should be retained? Which business records should be discarded? Every business archives with a space problem has appraisal criteria, formal or informal, for maintaining and disposing of materials. Every business archives threatened by a space shortage inevitably must develop such criteria.Hives 1986, 56If past attempts to justify the establishment of corporate archives primarily as a tool for historical study have met with only limited success, then surely archivists must look beyond the purely historical justifications and consider other tangible contributions which might be made to the current operations of the corporation. While certainly not unimportant, the cultural aspects of business archives should be combined with other potential administrative functions. This is not, however, to suggest that corporate records should be maintained exclusively for the use of the company. For the value of preserving corporate material would greatly diminish if it were not ultimately made available for outside research.Fode and Fink 1997, 80Of course we are trying to make sure that records which are not worth keeping are not kept. Whenever we find large series of routine material we try to reduce the amount by keeping only part of it. We use several techniques in that connection: keeping only every fifth or every tenth year, keeping only certain months in those years, keeping only records from certain locations, and so on. We probably do what all business archives do in this respect.Goldstein 1997, 41Business archives are a repository of the corporate memory, preserving documents that are needed for administrative, legal, and fiscal purposes and can be used for strategic planning, advertising, public relations, research and development, and litigation support.Carpenter et al. 2011, 18As an extension of the business, the intersection of company proprietary information and researchers’ access needs puts the corporate or business archives in a unique position of balancing these two forces.SAA 2024Systematic preservation of corporate memory and documentation becomes all the more vital in such business environments. A business archives creates a reliable internal information system. It manages the information and significant records concerning a company’s key strengths—and its weaknesses. Without the ability to select and retrieve archival materials and information, a company forfeits access to its own history lessons. With an archives, that same company gains the advantage of remembering what others forget.