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Organizing Archival Material [by Laura Coles, 1988]
Now that you are bringing material into your archives, what are you going to do with it? The next step in your archival activities is processing: organizing each accession following the principles of arrangement, then packing, labelling, and storing the records so that they are under physical control.
Unlike library books, which can be classified by subject, given a number, and stored on a shelf in a set order, archival materials contain information about numerous diverse subjects and cannot be physically organized by subject. Whenever possible, the records in each archival accession are arranged and filed in the order in which they were originally created, maintained, and used, not according to any artificial or arbitrary arrangement. The two most important principles of arrangement are provenance andoriginal order.
Provenance refers to the "office of origin," or the person or body that created or received the records in the course of business or personal activities. This is sometimes also referred to as respect des fonds or respect for the source or creator. Each new accession of records represents a distinct unit, and the relationship of various items in this unit must be maintained. For example, do not divide and interfile the Robinson Papers with the Jones Papers, regardless of any relationship between the two families. Do not interfile the official records of the hospital board of directors with the personal papers of Dr. Joseph Hanson, even though he had been a member of the board. Each medium, such as maps or photographs, may have its own storage requirements, but you ought to be able to identify all the items in each unit and bring them all back together whenever necessary.
A second rule of archival arrangement is to preserve or recreate original order: the order and organization in which the documents were created and/or stored by the creator or office of origin. if a corporate director filed documents according to the various departments in the organization, you need to maintain or reconstruct that departmental organization. If Mr. Adams' family documents are sorted into personal correspondence, family photographs, and business records, then that is the order in which to keep the material. Original order is most evident in corporate, institutional, or government records, where organization and ease of retrieval were important factors in their creation and use. Private manuscripts and papers, on the other hand, often show little discernible original order. items may have been kept in a cupboard or in a box in the basement; their creator may have found a filing system unnecessary. Consequently, original order cannot be as inflexible a rule as provenance.
Provenance and original order are the essential building blocks of archival arrangement. Think carefully before reorganizing any large bodies of records. An archival rule of thumb is: when in doubt, leave it alone. You can always change the existing arrangement later, but it is nearly impossible to reconstruct the original organization of materials once it has been altered.
Most accessions brought into small archives are not huge quantities of government or corporate records. They often consist of one photograph, three maps, a few pamphlets, or a single letter. Accession each new body of records as its own unit, regardless of its size or scope. Give each new accession a unique accession number and complete the accession record fully. Then organize and store the records according to archival principles. Do not incorporate small groups of material or single items into a large artificial collection, such as "Photographs of Downtown" or "Documents about the Centennial," thus obscuring their origins. Respect provenance and original order and use your descriptive finding aids to illustrate the relationship between various archival materials.
To save storage space, however, you may wish to store small accessions and individual items together in the same container, provided their accession numbers and physical location are clearly identified on all storage containers and finding aids. Items such as photographs or maps may be stored physically by type, as long as their relationship to the rest of their accession remains clear.
Many archives also house groups of material "collected" for some reason, perhaps by a member of the community or organization, a previous archivist, or a local historian. For example, a member of the local historical society might have collected references to New Caledonia's railway construction, and in the process he might have removed individual letters, photographs, and maps from larger bodies of material, such as the records of a local construction company which helped build the train station or the papers of a citizen who worked on the railway. Once these items were removed from their original location, their provenance and original order were lost. The records then became an "artificial collection" drawn together from diverse (and often unknown) sources. Trying to return these records to their rightful source or organize them according to any original order might well be a waste of time. instead, treat these artificial collections as one closed group of records and do not add to them for any reason. Adding new material would simply destroy the integrity-however dubious-of the original collection. Simply keep such groups together as units and use your finding aids to identify their contents.
Any acquisition larger than one box will probably have to be organized according to the following levels of arrangement.
Repository
Record group or manuscript group, and subgroup
Series, and subseries
File
Item
Examples of Levels of Arrangement
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The repository is simply the archives itself. All the materials in your archives are "arranged" at the repository level, even if you haven't opened the boxes yet.
The record group (for public or corporate materials) or the manuscript group (for personal papers) is the point at which you actually begin to arrange records. A record or manuscript group (sometimes called fonds) is a body of records created or kept by a person or an organization. In a municipality, the mayor's records would be a distinct record group, and the records of the Department of Roads and Public Works would be another record group. The Franklyn Ansell Papers and the James Naughton Papers would be separate manuscript groups. Each record or manuscript group will contain only material created by, received by, or pertaining directly to one individual or distinct group.
Sometimes a record group can be divided into subgroups: records created or kept by a person or agency subordinate to the creator of the larger record group. The Department of Roads and Public Works might include the Division of Road Construction, and these documents would be a subgroup of the department's record group. if Cecelia Robinson created a large body of papers within the Robinson Family Papers manuscript group, she might deserve a subgroup of her own. Subgroups do not always exist, and they are less common in private papers and manuscripts than in government or institutional records.
The next level to distinguish is the series level. A series is simply a grouping of records according to their use, their physical type, or various subjects. Of all the levels of arrangement, the series level best illustrates the actual activities of the creator.
The creator usually organized series of records according to specific functions or activities; this is reflected in the filing systems. For example, the Department of Roads and Public Works might have kept financial statements in one file drawer, correspondence in another, and maps in a map case. These records series were organized according to their functions. Series organization by function is less common among private papers, which may have been stored in boxes, cupboards, or drawers.
As a guideline, maintain organization by function whenever possible. However, if the original order of a series is nonexistent or obscured, you will have to impose an order. A common order is by type of material. if the Frederick O'Connel I Papers were al I placed into one big box i n no apparent order, they can be sorted i nto series such as photographs, maps, and correspondence. Common types of material include:
| Administrative documents | Minutes |
| Personal or family correspondence | Original art, prints, paintings, or drawings |
| Diaries | Photographic material, films, or videotapes |
| Financial documents | Printed or published material |
| Legal documents | Reports |
| Literary manuscripts | Scrapbooks |
| Maps, charts, and plans | Sound recordings |
Avoid organizing records series into chronological or subject order unless the material was organized in this fashion originally.
There can be subseries within series, just as there were subgroups within record groups. Within the Robinson Papers might be a series for correspondence. This series might contain a subseries for letters sent and another for letters received. Or in the Department of Roads and Public Works record group, the series containing financial statements might include different subseries for audit reports, budget statements, and general correspondence re: financial statements.
Arranging archives at the file level involves grouping material-usually documents-together in one file folder, to be treated as one unit. Many records, especially from larger institutions or organizations, will have been filed accordingtoan established system. Maintain this system as long as it is discernible and consistent. if there is no apparent file order, however, chronological and subject organization of files is acceptable. Records can be put into file folders in order by date of their creation or their receipt, or alphabetically by subject, geography, or personal or corporate name. Personal papers often exhibit no order; they might not even have been filed, in which case you will have to organize them according to one of the systems mentioned above.
The item is simply the individual record: the letter, map, journal, cassette tape. Within record groups and series, single items may be filed chronologically, alphabetical ly, geographically, or by physical needs. For example, the letters in a folder might be filed chronologically by date, whereas maps may be filed geographically or by size, and photographs by type, such as negatives or prints.
If you are arranging a large body of documents, use the different levels of arrangement to break down the task of arrangement into manageable portions. You might begin by arranging material to the record group level, then sort it to the file level, or you might just leave it at the series level. if you tried to organize all material item by item as soon as it came to the archives, you might never complete any project. Ask yourself, how much time will you spend on this group of documents? Do the records deserve detailed arrangement or can they simply be sorted into groups and series and then boxed and shelved?
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As a general rule, strive for record group- and series-level arrangement of all holdings before continuing with file- or item-level organization of large accessions.
How do you apply these concepts-provenance, original order, and the levels of arrangement-when actually arranging archival materials? And how do you go about physically organizing the documents?
Always work with only one accession at a time, no matter how large or small. Put the entire accession in an area with adequate shelf and table space, where other materials will not become intermingled. First, examine all the materials carefully, without rearranging them yet. Try to identify:
Any distinct record groups and series
A logical and valid original order
Any series or filing arrangement
Take notes about any record groups or series you identify, any filing order you determine, any decisions you make or questions you have about the records. As you work, also record information you might need when describing the records, such as important subjects, significant events, or well-known people. Try to gain an understandingof the creator of the records: what he or she did, what activities he or she was involved in, how much material he or she created, and how much of it is valuable. Read books or articles about relevant subjects. Learn as much as you can about the records and their creator before you begin any actual arrangement.
As you go through the material for the first time, evaluate its physical condition. Remove paper clips, staples, pins, string, rubber bands, or other harmful items. Replace clips or staples with plastic clips if necessary. Unfold and uncurl pages and make sure all the material is as neat and flat as possible without changing the original order. identify any items that need special care, so they can be removed later. Also identify media items which will be stored separately, according to their physical needs. These usually include:
Photographic material
Film and videotape
Prints, paintings, and drawings
Maps and plans
Sound recordings |
Books and other printed or published material
Artifacts
Computer diskettes or tapes
At this time, also make note of any material that is obviously not worth keeping, such as envelopes (watch for valuable stamps or cancellation marks), doodles or scribbles, duplicates, and blank paper or stationery.
Once you have determined your priorities for this accession, begin to organize the material physically.
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 Sort records into groups according to the arrangement you have chosen. Sort first into series; continue with file and item arrangement if the records warrant the attention and you have the time. |
Next, place the sorted material into appropriate containers. Use standard-size archival storage containers whenever possible, such as legal or letter size acid-free folders and boxes. Use proper containers for the type of material. For example, do not fold legal size documents to fit them into letter size folders; use larger folders instead. Do not force large items into small boxes. instead, use larger boxes and surround the material in acid-free tissue to keep it snug. Never pack folders or boxes too full, but never leave them too empty. As a guide, don't fill folders beyond the pre-marked fold lines, and make sure the box lids will close properly without pressure. A tightly packed folder or box will press the materials together, damaging them. An underfilled box or folder will cause the items to sag and slip, and they could be bent out of shape. Remember too that you will have to lift and move the boxes and folders regularly. if they are too heavy or awkward you might damage the records or hurt yourself.
 Use appropriate archival quality containers when packing all materials. |
Mark all storage containers with the accession number and the box number. Add the accession name if desired. Always label each folder and box clearly, numbering each as "file 3" or "file 1 of 4" or "box 6" or "box 4", so that losses or gaps will be noticed easily. if any materials are restricted, mark the boxes with a large red sticker or tag, to remind you to check the accession record before allowing researchers to use the records.
Once everything is organized, filed, labelled, and boxed, the boxes need to be shelved in your storage area. It is difficult and unwise to organize your archival storage area in subject, alphabetical, or chronological order. Every time you receive a new accession, you will have to shift boxes to make space. it is better simply to establish a consecutive numbering system. Number each shelf or storage space, add each new accession to the next vacant place on the shelf, and record the accession name and number and location number on a location file. Remember to keep the location file up-to-date with the locations of new accessions.
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If you store different media material separately-perhaps keeping photographs in a cabinet and maps in another room-identify each storage area clearly and include this information on the accession record and location file. (See Chapters 7-11 for information on the storage of specific media items.) Regardless of the size or complexity of your archives, keep accurate records of the physical location of all archival material.
| TIP: You may find that you have so many different jobs to do as archivist that you lose track of your work with various accessions. You may wish to develop a worksheet or checklist of basic activities to remind you what has been completed and what needs to be done. Make this form as detailed as possible. if you decide that certain activities are not appropriate for a particular accession, simply mark n/a on the form for "not applicable." |
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Make sure to label all folders and boxes clearly before storing them.
Regardless of the type of materials or the size or shape of containers, note the location of all records on a location file; keep one copy of this finding aid in the archives' storage area.
Store boxes consecutively in the next free space on the shelf.
