The missions of the Archives: to collect, classify, conserve and communicate For more than 200 years, the Archives de Paris have been collecting, classifying, inventorying, conserving, communicating and promoting documents of historical interest concerning Paris or the former department of the Seine, whether they come from the services of the municipality, the department of Paris, the decentralised services of the State or private law organisations with a mission or a delegation of public service, established on the Parisian territory (prefectures, courts, the Paris council, schools, etc.). - Collecting: collecting public archives produced in the administrative area (the department of Paris), on the one hand, and private archives (archives of individuals, companies, associations or unions) of historical interest, on the other hand, by donation, deposit, purchase or bequest. The Archives de Paris is a key contact for archiving. To find out more about transferring (or depositing) public archives and to get advice on how to rationalise the management of your files, consult the"Public archive" section. - Classify: organise the archives collected in this way by sorting and eliminating them, if necessary, and then draw up a finding aid describing the content of each identified unit (call number) so that everyone can find out about them. - Preserve: preserve these documents, firstly as a preventive measure, by ensuring that they are well preserved in suitable packaging and stored in healthy and controlled premises; by making consultation copies (microfilmed or digital), to remove fragile documents from consultation; and as a last resort, curatively, by restoring or binding them. - Communicate: allow access to the information contained in the documents held by the library to all publics, directly in the reading room or remotely (digitised resources accessible online) or through a mediation action (exhibitions, workshops, visits, publications).