Rachel "Ivy" Clarke

A thank you note from an instructor at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.

Author's note: This essay was part of the winning application for the 2007 Sothern California Chapter of the Special Libraries Association Karen Sternheim Memorial Scholarship.

Increasing advances in technology allow increased access to primary source materials. Many archival institutions now offer online access to materials from their collections via the World Wide Web. Teachers are often a targeted audience for these materials, because of the educational potential of the collections for use in classrooms and curricula. A multitude of sources are available online; many are arranged by subject matter, such as California history.

Archives play a significant role in cultural and social history. While the field of established archival practice is fairly young, so too is America. The concurrent evolution of both America’s archives and the country’s history has intertwined the two. A symbiotic relationship has emerged: history influences archival practice and theory, which in turn influences further history.