This paper studies development and utilization of the archives of museum collections, and investigates several archive-based research projects initiated by the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, the United States. The author analyses four major projects: Getty Vocabulary as Linked Open Data, the Getty Research Portal, Research Guides & Bibliographies and the Project for the Study of Collecting and Provenance, which represent the top of the method and mode in the field. Under the circumstances in which the importance of development and utilization is underestimated compared with the accession and collection management, Getty Research Institute’s experience could be a salutary lesson. As the conservative notion outdated for the era of knowledge-driven economy, it is necessary to reflect on the Getty’s and explore a way for our museum archival work, in order to rediscovery the value of archives of collections and improve development work.