In order to use archives effectively, it’s important to understand how they are organized and why.
The foundations of archival organization are the principles of provenance, original order, and respect des fonds.
Unlike libraries, archival materials are not usually arranged by subject or material type. Instead, materials are organized according to their provenance in COLLECTIONS/RECORD GROUPS.
PROVENANCE refers to the origin of archival collections – the person, agency, organization, or other group who created, acquired, and used a body of records over the course of their work or life.
Because of the principle of provenance, archivists do not usually group archival materials together that have distinct and separate origins or that come from different creators. They also do not typically reorganize material by subject, chronology, material type, or other criteria. Collections that are not organized by provenance and are instead organized by subject, material type, or other criteria are called ARTIFICIAL COLLECTIONS/ASSEMBLED COLLECTIONS.
Another foundational principle of archival arrangement is ORIGINAL ORDER.
The principle of original order means that archivists will try to preserve the organization and sequence of records established by the original creator. Rather than imposing an artificial order, archivists will try to look for evidence of a pre-existing arrangement devised by the creators and original users of the archival materials.
Preserving the original order of archival materials as much as possible provides important context. The sequence of records provides information about how those records were used and keeps the relationship between separate items intact. For example, a single letter won’t have as much contextual meaning if it is removed from the series of letters of which it is a part.
The principles of provenance and original order are combined into an overarching principle called RESPECT DES FONDS.
The principle of respect des fonds says that archival materials from different creators should be kept separate and that the original order in which the materials were created and used should be preserved.
These three principles are about protecting the context and authenticity of archival materials.
Records have more meaning when seen in conversation with each other, and the singular documents that make up archival collections only communicate their full meaning when see in relationship to each other and the entity that created and used them.
