Jedi Archives

"There is more knowledge here than anywhere else in the galaxy."

- Jocasta Nu

The Jedi Archives was the Jedi Order's repository of knowledge on Coruscant, rumored to hold the sum total of all galactic knowledge.

The Archives were overseen by the Council of First Knowledge.

History
Established in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant by the Jedi Order early in the Temple's history, the Archives held the remnants of the texts once stored in the Great Jedi Library of Ossus. The Archives contained historical records dating back thousands of years; maps of the entire galaxy; scientific, mathematical and astronomical journals; engineering and technology documents; and Jedi records on the Sith. It detailed the geography and cultures of various planets and species across the galaxy, as well as their zoology and botany. Secrets about how the Jedi used the Force and biographies of numerous Jedi and their identification details were also housed in the Archives.

Built near the top of the Temple Ziggurat, the Archives was a two-story cruciform chamber centered around a large rotunda. Four wings branched out from the rotunda and held tens of millions of books. The central reference desk was located at the heart of the Archives.

The Chief Librarian, assisted by associate librarians and JN-66 and SP-4 analysis droids, administered the Archives. During the Clone Wars, it was overseen by Jocasta Nu, who assisted Jedi in finding the information they needed and also controlled access to the restricted Holocron Vault within the library. Before the Battle of Geonosis, Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi tried to find information on the planet Kamino to find the bounty hunter Jango Fett. He and Nu discovered that there was no information on the system. Kenobi and Yoda deduced that a Jedi had erased the information on Kamino.

After the rise of the Galactic Empire, Emperor Palpatine allowed the Grand Inquisitor to study the records about the Jedi and their combat forms. It was at this time Nu, who survived the fall of the Temple, returned to the Temple. Unnoticed by the Grand Inquisitor, Nu entered a secret vault within the Archives, where she retrieved a list of every known Force-sensitive children, as of just before the purge. Though intent on leaving without conflict, upon sighting the Inquisitor again, Nu accosted him with her lightsaber, offended that he dared to read her books only to toss them aside. After a brief lightsaber duel however Nu was bested, but as the Inquisitor prepared to deliver the final blow, he was interrupted by Darth Vader's blocking saber. On orders from Emperor Palpatine, Vader demanded her alive. In the verbal confrontation that followed, Nu Force pushed the two and fled. Retreating to a computer in the library, Nu subsequently purged all the archive files. As Vader continued his pursuit, Nu retrieved a weapon stored in the archives that was capable of fighting Vader.

Later, the Emperor converted the Temple into his Palace. The Imperial Security Bureau took control of the remaining secrets within the Archives, removing all Jedi-related material and destroying much of their history in the process within a year of the library's seizure.

Behind the scenes
According to Pablo Helman, during the scene where Obi-Wan Kenobi speaks to Jocasta Nu, the room includes busts of himself, George Lucas, Rob Coleman, and John Knoll.