When undertaking research or creating a wireframe for an article it is vital to use historical archives to ensure all information is correct and accurate. For journalists there are few worse allegations than lazy journalism or incorrect facts. These will instantly undermine an article or story or feature and render it meaningless to a reader. Archives come in all shapes and sizes and can be very big or very small.

It is important to look in all types of archives as a story from one source may not be validated from other sources. Archives store the information that you want but can also prompt causal narrative in your stories which wasn't actually there when the events happened. There are archives which have been stored online which can make research a lot easier than it was many years ago.

Researchers before the internet and public computers were forced to read through old books and microfilms to discover information that now is available to anybody who knows how to use a search engine. Given this proliferation of information it is important to be able to filter all of the useless information and concentrate only on the information which is relevant and valid.

Some online archives can only be accessed by a subscription paying service. As more media organisations opt in to a paid system in a few years we may find a situation where information is no longer free and will need to be paid for. If you do want to access free archived information this is also possible but may require some careful searching.