Archival processing is the act of surveying, arranging, describing, and performing basic preservation activities on the recorded material of an individual, family, or organization after they are permanently transferred to an archive. A person engaging in this activity is known as an archival processor, archival technician, or archivist.
Ideally, when an archives receives a collection of papers or a group of records, they will have been arranged by the originator (the original person, persons, or organization that created or assembled the collection or records) and boxed up for the move to the archives in such a way that this order has been preserved. However, collections and record groups are often semi-organized, and sometimes lack any discernible organization. Observing the organization of delivered materials, imposing organization where it is lacking, then describing the organized material are tasks covered by the terms "archival processing", "arrangement and description", "archival listing", or "cataloguing". [1]
The first step in archival processing is to survey the collection. The goal of a survey is to gain an understanding of the originator, determine the context of the creation of the collection, to observe the material's overall size and scope, to ascertain if the collection has access limitations, to locate any existing finding aids submitted with the collection, and to discover any underlying organizational scheme in the collection or record group. [2]
Collection surveys should be carried out with an archival principle, respect des fonds, in mind. In following respect des fonds, which may be translated as "taking into consideration the entirety of the collection", [3] the survey must include activity to ascertain whether the materials in hand are all, or only a portion, of the entire fonds . If the archivist is in a repository that holds other parts of the fonds, he or she should assemble a plan of work that encompasses, or at least acknowledges, the entire set of materials from the same originator.
Surveying collections is a strictly observational task, without making any changes or rearrangements to the materials. [4] Because many organizations require use of a template or worksheet to ensure the surveys are thorough and consistent, the typical end products of a collection survey is a completed survey worksheet and a processing plan. [5] After the completion of the survey, the materials may be made available to researchers without additional processing, stored for future processing when resources are available, or progress to processing immediately.
Arrangement of materials should be completed with two archival principles that fall within respect des fonds in mind: provenance and original order.
According to the principle of provenance, an originator's materials should be maintained together and separated from those of other originators. Under the rules of provenance, maintenance of the materials must include making them searchable and retrievable together (known as their intellectual arrangement) and could include keeping them physically together, if it is practical to do so. Additionally, if the materials have changed hands beyond the originator, the provenance of an item includes all those who came after the creator and any changes they make to the collection such as insertions, deletions, rearranging. [6]
According to the principle of original order, the originator's arrangement of the materials holds value, because it reflects how they originally used and accessed the collection, as well as how the records relate to each other, which can both inform the initial purpose of the records. [5] Depending on the collection, rearrangement of the materials may not be required if a logical original order appears to have been maintained, the arrangement provides contextual clues about the purpose of the records and the arrangement does not interfere with researcher access to the materials. [7] If rearrangement is required, archival processors will arrange the materials at the collection level, series level, subseries level, box level, folder level, or item level. [5] The level of arrangement is determined by a number of factors, which include but are not limited to the orderliness of the material, the probable researcher interest and research value in the collection, [2] and the policy and resources of the repository.
If arrangement tasks are required, arrangement is the first phase of physically processing the materials after the survey. In addition to rearranging the materials, there may also be weeding of material that does not meet a repository's collecting guidelines, as well as the preservation activities described below. [8]
More detailed descriptions than that which results from a collection survey of the material are generally attempted. Beyond the survey, the individual processing the collection may create a listing of the "series" [9] and "sub-series", [10] listing of box contents (also called box-level description), folder lists (folder-level description), or even complete inventories [11] that include administrative histories or biographical notes, scope notes, acquisition information, and information as to the archival processing treatment the material has received. [12] [13] Some repositories will conduct item-level description of selected documents within a collection or group of records, if the research value is deemed to be extremely high, heavy use is expected, or the risk of theft is heightened. [5]
The written description of a collection is generically termed a finding aid. The main purpose of a finding aid is to facilitate access to a collection of materials by users, [14] and can also useful for other archivists who provide reference services to the materials currently and in the future. The earliest finding aids were known as "calendars" and generally consisted of a listing of individual documents in chronological order, which was the preferred organizational method of historians, who were their primary users at the time. [15] [16] Currently used forms of finding aids vary in length and fall into several categories by type, with the inventory predominating in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Many archives post their finding aids online to widen exposure to their holdings and some are encoded (see Standards section below) to facilitate recognition by web search engines. [5] [17]
Several standards govern archival description, some national and some international. ISAD(G), the General International Standard Archival Description, defines the elements that should be included in a finding aid. Other content standards also pertain. In the United States, proper names may be checked against the Library of Congress Name Authority Files and subject headings are drawn from the LCSH. Genre terms are often taken from the Art & Architecture Thesaurus. Many finding aids are encoded (marked up) in XML; in such cases, the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) standard can be used. In addition, repositories may follow local practices designed to make finding aids serve their particular mission.
The Society of American Archivists (SAA) has published a number of best practices for American archivists; two important ones are Archives, Personal Papers and Manuscripts , often abbreviated as APPM, and Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS). [18] SAA's publication Standards for Archival Description: A Handbook provides an overview of relevant standards for all phases of archival and manuscripts processing. The Research Libraries Group has published a best practices document for use with EAD.
The Archives and Records Association, the British equivalent of the SAA, has published a number of best practices for U.K. archivists on topics ranging from school records retention to historical accounting records. [19]
The Australian Society of Archivists published Describing Archives in Context: A Guide to Australasian Practice in 2004, which provides the basis for description using the Australian Series System. [20] Series description is based on the primacy of the series as a basis for arrangement and description, rather than on fonds as is the practice in other jurisdictions.
Archival processing often includes basic preservation practices such as removing staples and paperclips, placing materials in acid-free folders and boxes, isolating acidic materials to avoid acid migration, photocopying damaged or acidic documents, and unfolding papers. [21] There has been a trend for archives and manuscript repositories in the past few years to try new ways to reduce backlogs and provide access to materials as quickly as possible, described and encouraged by the 2005 article, "More Product, Less Process: Revamping Traditional Archival Processing" by Mark A. Greene and Dennis Meissner. [1] Their method discourages these basic practices in the interest of accelerating processing to provide quicker access to researchers. Their argument also acknowledges the assumption of proper climate control in modern institutions, which would slow the deterioration of acidic paper and rusting of metal fasteners. [1]
| Authority control databases: National |
|---|
Aorical records]] or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located.
An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist can consist of a variety of forms, including letters, diaries, logs, other personal documents, government documents, sound and/or picture recordings, digital files, or other physical objects.
The Society of American Archivists is the oldest and largest archivist association in North America, serving the educational and informational needs of more than 5,000 individual archivist and institutional members. Established in 1936, the organization serves upwards of 6,200 individual and member institutions.
In archival science, a fonds is a group of documents that share the same origin and that have occurred naturally as an outgrowth of the daily workings of an agency, individual, or organization. An example of a fonds could be the writings of a poet that were never published or the records of an institution during a specific period.
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) is a standard for encoding descriptive information regarding archival records.
Archival science, or archival studies, is the study and theory of building and curating archives, which are collections of documents, recordings and data storage devices.
A finding aid, in the context of archival science, is an organization tool, a document containing detailed, indexed, and processed metadata and other information about a specific collection of records within an archive. Finding aids often consist of a documentary inventory and description of the materials, their source, and their structure. The finding aid for a fonds is usually compiled by the collection's entity of origin, provenance, or by an archivist during archival processing, and may be considered the archival science equivalent of a library catalog or a museum collection catalog. The finding aid serves the purpose of locating specific information within the collection. The finding aid can also help the archival repository manage their materials and resources. The history of finding aids mirrors the history of information. Ancient Sumerians had their own systems of indexes to locate bureaucratic and administrative records. Finding aids in the 19th and 20th centuries were paper documents, such as lists or index cards. In the 21st century, they can be created in electronic formats like spreadsheets or databases. The standard machine-readable format for manuscript collection finding aids, widely used in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Australia and elsewhere, is Encoded Archival Description.
The Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, was a United Kingdom Royal Commission established in 1869 to survey and report on privately owned and privately held archival records of general historical interest. Its brief was "to make inquiry as to the places in which such Manuscripts and Papers were deposited", and to report on their contents. It remained in existence until 2003, when it merged with the Public Record Office to form The National Archives. Although it technically survives as a legal entity, its work is now entirely subsumed into that of The National Archives.
Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS) is a standard used for describing materials in archives. First adopted by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) in March 2004, DACS was updated with a Second Edition in 2013. DACS is broken down into a set of rules used in crafting archival descriptions, and guidelines for creating authority records in archives.
ISAD(G) (General International Standard Archival Description) defines the elements that should be included in an archival finding aid. It was approved by the International Council on Archives (ICA/CIA) as an international framework standard to register archival documents produced by corporations, persons and families.
Archival research is a type of research which involves seeking out and extracting evidence from archival records. These records may be held either in collecting institutions, such as libraries and museums, or in the custody of the organization that originally generated or accumulated them, or in that of a successor body. Archival research can be contrasted with (1) secondary research, which involves identifying and consulting secondary sources relating to the topic of enquiry; and (2) with other types of primary research and empirical investigation such as fieldwork and experiment.
A memory institution is an organization maintaining a repository of public knowledge, a generic term used about institutions such as libraries, archives, heritage institutions, aquaria and arboreta, and zoological and botanical gardens, as well as providers of digital libraries and data aggregation services which serve as memories for given societies or mankind. Memory institutions serve the purpose of documenting, contextualizing, preserving and indexing elements of human culture and collective memory. These institutions allow and enable society to better understand themselves, their past, and how the past impacts their future. These repositories are ultimately preservers of communities, languages, cultures, customs, tribes, and individuality. Memory institutions are repositories of knowledge, while also being actors of the transitions of knowledge and memory to the community. These institutions ultimately remain some form of collective memory. Increasingly such institutions are considered as a part of a unified documentation and information science perspective.
Respect des fonds, or le respect pour les fonds, is a principle in archival theory that proposes to group collections of archival records according to their fonds. It is one of several principles stemming from provenance that have guided archival arrangement and description from the late 19th century until the present day. It is similar to archival integrity, which dictates that "a body of records resulting from the same activity must be preserved as a group." It is also closely related to the idea of original order – the idea that archivists ought to maintain records using the creator's organizational system. However, respect des fonds differs from that other foundational sub-principle of provenance in its concern with the integrity of the collection or record group as a whole rather than the organization of materials within that collection or record group.
Original order is a concept in archival theory that a group of records should be maintained in the same order as they were placed by the record's creator. Along with provenance, original order is a core tenet of the archival concept of respect des fonds. A primary goal of keeping records in their original order is to preserve additional contextual information about the records' creator and the environment of their creation. Original order also encourages the archivist to remain neutral as opposed to applying any interpretation to the records.
"More Product, Less Process: Revamping Traditional Archival Processing" is a 2005 archival science article written by Mark A. Greene and Dennis Meissner that first appeared in the Fall/Winter 2005 issue of The American Archivist. The paper argues that traditional archival processing is too slow, and advocates for the use of minimal processing in order to reduce backlogs and provide access to archival collections as quickly as possible. The ideology presented in the article, abbreviated as MPLP, has since been widely adopted in modern archival theory with subsequent praise directed primarily towards the ability to increase user accessibility without prohibiting the option for future processing.
The Rules for Archival Description (RAD) is the Canadian archival descriptive standard. It provides a set of rules based on traditional archival principles, whose purpose is to provide a consistent and commonly shared descriptive foundation for describing archival materials within a given fonds. RAD was first published in 1990 after being developed by the Bureau of Canadian Archivists' (BCA) Planning Committee on Descriptive Standards. It is currently overseen by the Canadian Committee on Archival Description of the Canadian Council of Archives. RAD was last revised in 2008.
The Digital Transgender Archive (DTA) is an online resource based at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, in collaboration with more than sixty international colleges, universities, nonprofit organizations, and private collections. It was established to enable researchers to locate and make use of transgender-related materials in digital and physical collections. It serves as a finding aid for archival materials and an online hub for born-digital materials and digitized historical materials. According to the archive's website: "In order to address these significant barriers to the accessibility of trans history, the DTA virtually merges disparate archival collections, digital materials, and independent projects with a single search engine. With rich primary source materials and powerful search tools, the DTA offers a generative point of entry into the fascinating and expansive world of trans history."
Archives management is the area of management concerned with the maintenance and use of archives. It is concerned with acquisition, care, arrangement, description and retrieval of records once they have been transferred from an organisation to the archival repository. Once records have been selected and transferred to archival custody, they become archives.
Kathleen D. Roe is an American archivist. She has recently retired from her position as Director of Archives and Records Management Operations at the New York State Archives. She managed the archives records management program and provided services to “63 state agencies and 4,300 local governments as well as the archival programs operating State Archives archival facility holding over 100,000 cubic feet of state government records.” She also overlooked several statewide programs that “provide training and advisory services to over 3,000 historical records programs.” She was the president of the Council of State Archivists and later chaired the Government Relations Committee and the Survey Management Team. Roe was the 70th president of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) from 2014–2015. She is currently traveling and speaking on archival processing and the importance of archives.
Jackie M. Dooley is an American archivist who has served with the Library of Congress, UC San Diego, Berkeley, the Getty, OCLC Research, and as council member, vice president, and president of the Society of American Archivists. She has published several notable works that have been extraordinarily useful in the archival profession in the United States and in the United Kingdom. She has been most influential in her work to utilize the internet and blogs in her archival work, reaching hundreds of thousands of people working in archives or simply interested in the field. She has helped promote several institutions online including the Society of American Archivists and the Library of Congress.
