National Library of Israel, Archives Department/ הספרייה הלאומית, מחלקת הארכיונים

In addition to its extensive collection of print materials, the National Library of Israel has, since its inception, developed a variety of other collections. Among these is the archive collection; indeed, for many years the Library was the only institution in the country that collected archives. The collection dates back to 1927, with the arrival of the first large archive – the rich personal archive of Ahad Ha'Am, which he bequeathed to the Library in his will. 

the Library's Archives Department houses over 1000 personal archives, the majority of which bear testimony to the activities of outstanding Jewish personalities from a wide variety of spheres: writers and poets, humanists, Rabbis, Zionist leaders, scientists, journalists, critics and others. The Library is also in possession of a small number of institutional archives, for example that of the Israel Folklore Society (Yeda Am) and various community archives. The Archives Department also boasts a number of special collections, many of which consist of visual materials. Among these are the Avraham Schwadron Autograph and Portrait collections, the Broadsides and Posters collection, the Ketubbot collection, and the Photograph and Postcard collections. The latter two collections feature approximately a million items focusing on the land of Israel in the nineteenth century and Diaspora Jewish communities. The materials contained in all the aforementioned collections are in a wide variety of languages including Hebrew, Yiddish, German, English, Russian and French. The individual archives vary in scope from a handful of documents and letters to dozens of shelf meters of special archival storage boxes. Some archives, specifically those of Martin Buber, S.Y. Agnon, and Else Lasker-Schüler, contain entire book collections. Materials (both original and secondary) are still being added to some of the archives.