Beaufort library showing off its new archives with public tours

Flickr user SpecialKRB

Celebrating an investment in a new space on the second floor and South Carolina Archives Month, the Beaufort District Collection will show off their archives collection at the Beaufort County Library

Visitors will get to see the collection that consists largely of various unique historical records to be kept permanently for record and research, visitors will also be able to see the methods the library uses to keep these documents safe and secure.

Two, hour-long tours remain, Tuesday, October 12, at 5:30 p.m. and Saturday, October 23, at 2 p.m. To register for a tour call (843) 255-6446. (You need to be over the age of 12 to attend.)

The downtown Beaufort library is at 311 Scott Street.

If you don't know what an archive collection is, here's what the library says on their website:

Archive Collections consist of unpublished unique
groups of related items, whose significance is directly related to other
items within the group. Materials are selected as a group and treated
as a group. Whenever possible the arrangement of items within the group
are left as they were received from their creator. Materials are
organized and described as a collection of records. A researcher uses
guides, finding aids, inventories, indexes, and online systems to
discover what is in the record group. These materials are customarily
stored in restricted areas with strictly monitored access. Records do
not leave the archives' premises. Oftentimes special procedures allow
researchers access while ensuring safety of records. Items housed within
an archives tend to be called archival records, archives, documents,
manuscripts, or ephemera.