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Re: [ARSCLIST] Archive/Archives
Archives is commonly used as the singular, but in my experience mostly
by archivists. We were actually instructed to use archives as the
singular in library school, referring to collections of documents, not a
building. Also note that here in the US it is the National Archives and
Records Administration not the National Archive and in Canada it is the
Library and Archives Canada/Bibliotèque et Archives Canada. Whether or
not these uses are singular or plural or refer to institutions or
collections is debatable, but you rarely see archives without an "s" at
the end, except maybe as a verb. Even then, archivists don't often use
the verb as archiving is not a single function (sort of like doctoring
or lawyering) and greater specificity is usually required when talking
about "archiving" something.
David Seubert
Mike Richter wrote:
The report "Copyright Issues Relevant to Digital Preservation ..."
uses the word 'archives' as a singular, typically in a phrase such as
a libary or an archives ...
That's a construction new to me and not reflected in the OED. It seems
unlikely to be a typographic error, so can someone explain the
distinction between 'archive' (singular) and 'archives' (singular)?
Mike