The twelve diverse scientific contributions collected in this volume explore contexts that documents, sources and archives are exposed to in different stages of their existence. Legal environment, organizational culture, traditions and habits, personal preferences, political situation, paradigm changes in memory institutions - these are only some examples that have an impact on how a historical source is shaped and the way it is or was employed by the users of an archive. The volume contains texts regarding the distant past of different archive types as well as documentation being generated nowadays, changing trends in archive institutions and the work put into making historical sources and information about them available to users.