The Corporate Archives is a significant repository of Sandia's active historical records and serves as an information center for Sandia's history. The Corporate Archives assumes a key role in promoting the value of Sandia's history by identifying, locating, preserving, and making available the historically valuable records that represent the Laboratories' corporate memory. The safekeeping of historical records is mandated by law as well as by public interest and the Laboratories' need for historical documentation.
The Corporate Archives is used primarily by employees for business purposes. The nature of Sandia's work in the nuclear weapons complex means that many of the Labs' records are classified. However, materials that have been published (e.g., photographs) can be obtained by contacting the Archives. Further, unclassified DOE reports have long been available through the National Technical Information Service. Many of Sandia's recent formal technical reports (known as SAND reports) are available in pdf format on the Sandia Technical Library web site. In addition, some records in the Corporate Archives were reviewed for declassification during 1997; those that were declassified are now available through the Department of Energy's OpenNet.