28. Public Records, Archives, and Historical Sources

28.1 Identify the record and its custodian

An archive citation should locate a specific item within a collection. Preserve creator, item title or description, date, collection or series, container or item identifier, repository, and stable link when available. A repository's name alone is too broad to reproduce the research.

Historical documents may use names, institutional boundaries, or dating systems that differ from present practice. Retain the source's identifying information and explain necessary modernization. Do not silently change a document date because a later catalog uses an inferred or normalized date.

28.2 Distinguish an original from its reproduction

A scan, microfilm image, transcription, edited collection, and modern reprint are different access objects. Identify the version you actually inspected. If a transcription is uncertain or editorially supplied, compare the image where available. OCR can change names, numbers, negative words, and punctuation in ways that alter meaning.

28.3 Preserve production identifiers

Records obtained through a public-records request should retain the agency, request or production identifier, production date, and document-specific locator. If a production includes redactions or missing attachments, describe the limitation when it affects the claim. Receipt from an agency establishes provenance; it does not guarantee that every statement inside the record is accurate.

Fictional example. A produced memorandum refers to “the attached inspection report,” but the attachment is missing. The memorandum supports the fact that its author referred to a report. It does not establish the report's findings. Record the missing item and seek it when necessary.

28.4 Cite historical law by historical identity

An old statute may appear in a historical code with divisions that no longer exist. Preserve the historical title, compilation, year, section, and page as needed. A modern successor provision can help readers navigate, but it should not replace the identifier of the actual text discussed.

28.5 Explain source uncertainty

If handwriting is unclear, a page is damaged, a date is inferred, or the document lacks an identified author, say so with appropriate specificity. Avoid filling gaps with plausible details. The research record should distinguish what is visible on the item from what a catalog or later scholar supplies.

An archive remains useful throughout a career only when another reader can reconstruct those distinctions. Save an item-level record and a short note explaining why the source mattered, rather than a folder of undifferentiated scans.