Archives are records no longer required for current use which have been selected for permanent preservation because of their continuing value.
Records are “documents containing data or information of any kind and in any form, created or received and accumulated by an organisation or individual in the transaction of business or the conduct of affairs and subsequently kept as evidence of such activity.... Records are the information byproducts of organisational and social activity.”
Manuscripts are handwritten documents. The term has been used more broadly to describe all kinds of archives, particularly within the library community. This broader use is becoming less common.
