HIST319 - Intro to Public History - Dr. Burg

Archival processing involves organizing, arranging, and describing archival records using specific standards to ensure the materials can be discovered and accessed. Materials are assessed for long-term preservation needs and sorted into the most logical arrangement. The final step is to create a finding aid, which is a highly detailed description of the contents of the collection that includes an administrative history, subjects, inventory, and biographical information. Finding aids are made available to the public using an open-source digital asset management system. We use ArchivesSpace here at Shippensburg University.

Arrangement is based on hierarchal levels listed below, but a collection does not necessarily need to have all of the levels. Sometimes arrangement can be as simple as a Record Group, Series, Box, and Folder.

Record Group

Sub Group

Series

Sub Series

Box

Folder

Archival processing can be extremely time consuming. 

These are both standards used in archival arrangement. Below is a simple introduction into these two terms. There are other variables of consideration for each that are not included here.

Provenance:

Refers to ownership and creation - the chain of custody. Sometimes it can be a person or a place.

An easy way to understand this standard: A document created by Dr. Steven Burg should be kept with the folder or collection of Dr. Burg. A document created by the President's Office belongs in the President's record group. 

Original Order:

The act of preserving the order in which the documents were placed by the creator. (respect des fonds) The principle behind this standard is that materials should not be reordered for the convenience of researchers or the archivist. 

Original order can be the most difficult standard to honor. You could receive a collection that doesn't appear to have any kind of order, especially not any that provides an insight into the creators priorities. You could be given a collection that was already handled by someone else who has disrupted the original order of the creator. These are most common challenges of maintaining original order.

Always remember: Theories are great but can be different in practice.