Johnny Enzed: The New Zealand soldier of the First World War, is the first in a series of about a dozen new World WarI history books being produced for the centenary.
Mr Frances said over half the photos in the 720-page book, which was written by Glyn Harper, a professor of military studies at Massey University, came from Wairarapa Archive collections.
"Although he would have been able to tap into huge numbers of photos all over the country, the fact is, by going to one place he's been able to use a lot in his book at great convenience to him," Mr Frances said.
"Some of the things that we are cataloguing may never be seen ever again, but it's amazing the strange and random things that do get asked for.
"We're doing it in an act of faith really. We can't guarantee that anybody is going to use this stuff ... but the fact that people like Glyn Harper are using our stuff confirms that what we are doing is worthwhile."
The archivists said many researchers had to make physical visits to other archives to track down hard copies of information.
They also said some photographs found from other online sources often did not have a lot of information with them.
"We put a lot of effort into describing them so they don't just get a picture, they get a story with it and most of the time we're able to say something intelligent about it.
"We're able to date it and we generally know the source of the photos," they said.
Mr Winter said "it was a bit of a surprise" when, earlier this year, the Masterton-based archive received emails from "an Indian chap" at the New Zealand High Commission in New Delhi.
The commission put together an Anzac Day exhibition with photos sourced from the archive.
Photographs from the Wairarapa Archive were even used in an app, called Nga Tapuwae: experience Gallipoli, which allows travellers in Gallipoli to visually experience what it was like during WWI.
Te Papa's Gallipoli collection and Sir Peter Jackson's World War I exhibition also feature photographs from the Wairarapa Archive collection, as do recently published books, such as Manly Affections by Chris Brickell and Shear History: 50 years of Golden Shears in New Zealand.
Manly Affections features the photographs of Robert Gant, 1885-1915, who was a "cross-dressing chemist" from Greytown, who was very interested in photography and theatricals.
"There's lots of photos of men and not so many of women, but there are some of men dressed as women, so they were interesting photos," said Mr Winter.
The Golden Shears, he said, have been held in Wairarapa every year except one, when it was held in Lower Hutt for the benefit of the visiting Queen Elizabeth II.
Mr Frances said a couple of Aratoi exhibitions had been largely based on the archive's collections.
"This is just a surface version of what use is being made of the photographs," Mr Frances said, of the archive's collection.
"People have either given us hard copy photos or they've given us collections to scan.
"They are entrusting us with the material but on the basis that it becomes publicly available.
"We're preserving them but we're not hiding them away, they're to share."
