ABSTRACT
Documentary research is concerned with the latter, the use of written records as a source of information. In the past, this limited our access to those cultures that possessed a system of writing and to those matters about which they chose to write. Documentary research is associated principally with the discipline of history. However wherever a research project in the other social sciences involves any study of, or comparison with, a period before the present, documentary sources immediately become the main source of information for that period. If they are not properly used, comparison with the present will be misleading or at worst completely wrong. An archive is any collection of original documentary material, such as letters, lists, diaries, drawings etc. However the fact that an archive exists does not mean that it is available for inspection by researchers.
