According to different scientific and technological activities, scientific and technological archives can be divided into four categories: natural phenomenon observation and analysis archives, design and scientific research archives, production technology archives and management and maintenance archives. The archives of natural phenomenon observation and analysis record and reflect the achievements of various basic disciplines of natural science from the macro world to the micro world, and often record the new discoveries of human beings and the systematic understanding of the laws of natural movement and development, which has long-term and permanent use value. The longer the material is accumulated, the more uninterrupted and complete it is, and the greater its use value will be. Design and scientific research archives record and reflect the design and scientific research achievements of products or engineering projects that meet people's certain needs, often reflecting the creative labor process of scientific and technological personnel, with high reuse rate in a certain period of time, which directly plays a role in production and construction and has long-term or permanent reference value. Production technology files are produced to meet the requirements of design and scientific research in material production or construction, with specific contents and a large number. With the rapid development of technological innovation or technological revolution, the contents of such files are updated rapidly, which mostly reflect people's development and creative achievements. Using it has a certain effect on promoting the development of productive forces. Management and maintenance files are necessary management and maintenance tools for users of equipment or engineering projects, which are obviously attached to equipment or engineering projects. With the use, operation, transformation and maintenance of equipment and engineering projects, new file contents are constantly supplemented.
According to different fields and specialties of scientific and technological activities, scientific and technological archives can be divided into scientific and technological research archives, agricultural technical archives, industrial technical archives, traffic technical archives, capital construction archives, urban construction archives, equipment and instruments archives, medical and health archives, geological archives, surveying and mapping archives, meteorological archives, astronomical archives, hydrological archives, earthquake archives, environmental protection archives and so on.