The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) acquires, preserves, and makes available for research the records of enduring value that were created or received by organizations of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Federal Government. Records in the custody of the National Archives date from pre-federal times to the present. Most of the records are textual, but they can come in a wide variety of media, such as microfilm, maps and charts, architectural and engineering plans, aerial photographs, motion picture reels, video recordings, sound recordings, computer data sets, or still pictures.