INTRODUCTION to ARCHIVAL PRINCIPLES and STANDARD PRACTICES

1. INTRODUCTION to ARCHIVAL PRINCIPLES and STANDARD PRACTICES Salvacion M. Arlante

4. How Do You Start • Administering archives involves 5 broad areas: • Yourself • The information to manage • People • Financial matters • Facilities, equipment and storage • administrative • storage/repository • reference/outreach • conservation

5. Nature and Components Of An Archival Policy • Authority of the Archives Policy Document • Authority of the Archives • Purpose of the Archives • Definitions

6. ARCHIVES What do they keep? Records which are no longer required for current use but have been selected for permanent preservation because of their evidential or informational value.

7. General Conditions for ARCHIVES Priorities: • Provide a Suitable and Stable Environment • Make it Secure and Safe • Ensure that there is Adequate Space • Arrange or allocate the space so that it enhances the work flow

8. General Conditions For Archives • Arrange or allocate the space so that it enhances the work flow • Storage area ---- 60-70% of total facility • Processing area ---- 15-22% • Administrative area ---- 3.3 sq. m. of floor space per member • Public area Reading Room – 7-10% Exhibits Seminar/Training

10. Nature of the Archives Programme Components • Acquisition and Collection • Appraisal and Disposal • Arrangement and Description • Preservation and Storage • Reference and Access • Outreach Activities

11. Scope and Nature of ARCHIVAL REQUIREMENTS • Acquisition • Arrangement and Description • Preservation • Access to Archives • Community Education • Management and Administration

12. ACQUISITIONS • Resources • Physical Formats • Users

13. ACQUISITION POLICY • The acquisition policy needs to clarify the archives responsible for: • materials created or used directly in the work of the parent body • active and semi-current, as well as inactive and archival records • records, which, over the life of the organization, may have been lost or removed from official custody • records of preceding bodies or closely affiliated organizations • Personal papers of individuals closely connected with the work of the parent body • Various forms of recorded information, for example, will the archives acquire only paper or film based records; will it also accept objects and memorabilia?

15. RESOURCES • How available is the material proposed for collection? • Do other institutions or organizations already collect this or similar materials? • What are the estimated costs of acquiring the collection? • What related resources (i.e. library materials) already exist, or are easily obtainable, to support the proposed collection?

16. PHYSICAL FORMATS • Unpublished manuscripts and records • Printed and published material • Maps, plans and architectural drawings • Pictorial materials, including photographs • Audio-visual materials such as cassettes, reel to reel tapes, video tapes • Computer-generated material including computer tapes and printouts • Artefacts and memorabilia, such as coins, costumes, stamps, etc.

17. Resources (Institution) • Basic University Records • Directives (Memoranda/Administrative Orders) • University Publications • Messages • Theses and Dissertations • Faculty Papers • Conference Proceedings • Informal Campus Records • Vertical Files • Non-Print Files/Audio-Visual Materials • Posters/Photographs • Oral History • Memorabilia (plaques, trophies, pins, etc.) • Ephemera • Personal Papers

18. Personal Papers • Biographical Features • Correspondence • Financial Records • Legal Documents • Speeches and writings • Lecture notes • Clippings • Photographs • Memorabilia • Other records pertaining to professional, social and civic organizational affiliations

19. Services • Reference Service • Relationship with Faculty • Course offerings • Extension or Outreach Programs • Application of New Information Technology

20. Appraisal • Evaluation of the mass of source material and the selection of that portion that will be kept.

21. APPRAISAL Process of determining which records are to be retained as archives and which will be destroyed. Records have two basic characteristics which determine whether or not they are archives. These are often referred to as PRIMARY EVIDENTIAL or DOCUMENTARY VALUE and the SECONDARY.

22. Appraisal • Is the process of evaluating records to determine their value and ultimate disposition based upon their current administrative, legal, and fiscal use; their evidential and informational content; their arrangement and condition; their intrinsic value; and their relationship to other records. This process will aid you in determining the ultimate disposition of your records which may include placement in an archives, retention for a specified period of time, or immediate destruction.

23. Appraisal Considerations • Physical volume • Frequency of use • Administrative and operational need served by the record • Legal and fiscal regulations governing retention • Historical significance • Economic advantage of moving the records from high cost office storage to low cost records storage space or direct disposal • Whether this is the record copy or a duplicate

24. APPRAISAL • Record Values • Primary Value • Administrative Value • Fiscal Value • Legal Value • Historical Value • Secondary Value • Evidential Value • Informational Value • Other Values • Research Value • Intrinsic Value

25. Records have two basic characteristics which determine whether or not they are archives: • Primary, evidential or documentary value -- based upon the function the records had for the office or person which created and used them. Our interest as archivist lies in their value as evidence of how that office or individual conducted their business. The three major categories of records having evidential value are those that: • have continuing administrative, legal or financial use for the body or individual which created them, or for any subsequent bodies • record details which may serve to protect the civic, legal, property or other rights of individuals or community at large • reflect the historical development of the creating body, its structures, functions, policies, decisions, and significant operations; or which reflect the evolution of the individual’s career, interest or activities

26. PRIMARY VALUES • Administrative Value Examples: Agency histories, annual and biennial reports, budget and planning records, circulars, correspondence of high-level officials, directives, executive orders, hearing transcripts, interpretations, opinions, or memoranda of law, mandates, minutes and agendas of meetings and conferences, organizational and functional charts, policy and procedural manuals, political and public relations materials, regulations, special reports, staff studies, statutes, strategic planning documents, and vital operating records.

27. Primary Values (cont’d) • Fiscal Value Examples: accounting records, audit reports, budgets, financial journals, reports and statements, grant agreements, ledgers, payroll records, and vouchers

28. Primary Values (cont’d) • Legal Value Examples: agreements, articles of association, by-laws, civil and criminal case records, claim papers, contracts, executive orders, leases, legal dockets, licenses, ordinances, personnel records, property records, records which support judicial opinions and interpretations, rules, statutes, titles, veterans service and benefit records, and vital statistics

29. Primary Values (cont’d) • Historical Value Examples: annual reports, correspondence and administrative files, hearing transcripts, meeting minutes of boards, commissions and councils, photographs, records of births, deaths, and marriages, and certain records of defunct agencies

30. Secondary Values -- defined as those records which contain information which is of interest not only to the creating person or organization but also to researchers from a variety of fields of knowledge. Often such records contain information gathered originally for a purpose quite different from the uses to which the later researcher will put the records. Examples of records with informational value distinct from their role include property insurance maps and records used subsequently by persons seeking to restore old buildings to their original appearances; census data which is used for family history; or property cards and rate books, originally used to study changes in economic status or ethnicity in various neighborhoods.

31. SECONDARY VALUES • Evidential value Examples: annual reports, a census schedule as an example of how a census was taken and what information was collected, organizational charts, organization charters, policy and program documentation

32. SECONDARY VALUES (cont’d) • Informational Value Examples: case files, census schedule for the information provided within, land-entry papers, military service record, pension files and passenger list

33. Other Values • Research Value • Records of research value are use in scholarly studies and investigations • Intrinsic Value • Records of intrinsic value are considered to have inherent value due to some unique factor such as age, content, usage or circumstances surrounding its creation, signature or attached seals that requires the permanent retention of the document in each original physical form

38. Characteristics of Records • Age • Volume • Form • Functional Characteristics • Evidential Characteristics • Informational Characteristics

39. FUNCTIONAL CATEGORIES OF RECORDSGROUPED BY RELATIVE IMPORTANCE Usually Valuable Academic record cards Manuals, policy Acts, legislative Manuals, procedure Addresses Memoirs Albums Memorials Autobiographies Messages, official Briefs Militia lists Broadsides Minutes Brochures Muster rolls Budgets News letters Bulletins Orders By-laws Organizational charts Cadasters Platforms Calendars Poll lists Catalogs Proceedings Census rolls Proclamations Constitutions Recollections Credences Regulations Diaries Reports, annual Digests Reports, audit Directions Reports, research Directives Resolutions Directories Rolls Dockets Rosters Elections, certificates, Rules and returns Speeches Guides Statutes Handbooks Studies Histories Summaries Indexes Surveys Interviews Synopses Journals, research Tax returns Laws Testimonials Legal opinions Wills Logs

40. FUNCTIONAL CATEGORIES OF RECORDSGROUPED BY RELATIVE IMPORTANCE Often Valuable Abstracts Letters, personal Agendas Lists Agreements Maps Announcements Memorands Awards Monographs Books Motion picture films Cables Music Certificates Negatives, photograph Charts Order books Circulars Papers, personal Collections Pardons Contracts Payroll summary cards Correspondence Petitions Course outlines Photographs Despatches Plans Diagrams Poems Disk recordings Posters Documents Publications Drawings Recommendations Field notes Registers Files Reports, progress Files, personnel Schedules Files, research Scrapbooks Film strips Specifications, buildings Financial statements Subject files Issuances Tape recordings Journals Tariffs Kinescopes Telegrams Ledgers Videotapes Letterbooks

41. FUNCTIONAL CATEGORIES OF RECORDSGROUPED BY RELATIVE IMPORTANCE Often Without Value Account books Payroll deductions, Accounting statements authorizations Addresses, manuscript and notices version of published Property inventories Applications Purchase orders Appointments Reading files Authorizations of Receipts actions posted to Releases permanent records Requests Ballots Requisitions Bank statements Sales literature Bills, financial Slips Budget work papers Shorthand notes Cash books Speeches, manuscript Checks, cancelled version of published Claims Tickets Classbooks Tickler files Day books Time books and Invoices records Leases Trial balances Licenses Vouchers Manuscripts Warrants Mortgages Work orders Notes, lecture Work papers Notes, research Work sheets Orders, financial Outlines

42. FUNCTIONAL CATEGORIES OF RECORDSGROUPED BY RELATIVE IMPORTANCE Occasionally Valuable Usually Without Value Assessment records Oaths Duplicate copies Bonds Payrolls Stencils Cards Press releases Supplies Case files Program documentation Catalogs ADP Clippings Property control listings Committee files Recommendations Course materials Reprints or separates Examination questions Returns Folders Schedules Instructions Scrapbooks Inventories Sketches Jackets Statements Lectures Statistical tables Lists Tabulations Materials Tapes, transcribed Nominations Transcripts Notebooks Notices

43. Before Arrangement and Description • Accessioning – process of formally accepting and recording the receipt of records into archival custody

44. Accessioning • records information about origins, creator, contents, format and extent in such a way that documents cannot become intermingled with other material held by the archives • provides the basic level of physical and intellectual control over incoming material • must be done as soon as possible after the receipt of new records.

45. FINDING AIDS • signposts which lead the archivist and researcher to the information they are seeking. Finding Aids Prepared by Creating Institution or Person Essential: - Registers - Indexes - Filing System descriptions - Thesauri

46. Finding Aids Prepared by Archivist Essential: - Accession Registers - Descriptive Inventories - Bridging Aids Desirable: - Guides to Holding - Reports of Holding - Indexes to Descriptive Inventories

47. If Resources Permit: - Content Indexes Compiled Sources If Resources Permit: - Special lists - Subject Files - Sources Analyses - Reference Guides and Media Guides

48. WEEDING • Weeding is the process of examining records to remove file units lacking continuing value, a form of piece-by-piece selection also known as purging, screening, and stripping. Normally, the processor cannot justify taking the time required for weeding in a correspondence file, but this does not prevent a decision to cull certain types of materials. With appropriate qualifications, archivists and records managers have identified non record material that may be destroyed without further authorization.

49. Examples are: • Routine acknowledgement , circulars, notifications, request, and transmittals. • Duplicates or extra copies of letters maintained for temporary convenience or reference. Where duplicate copies of letters are found, the original or the sharpest carbon should be preserved. • Preliminary drafts of letters, memoranda, and reports; work papers; informal notes and routing slips. • Machine-readable records where the informational content has been recorded in textual form. • Shorthand notes, dictation machine tapes, and records that have been transcribed. • Stencils, hectograph masters, and offset plates. • Extra copies or stocks of publications, forms, and supplies. • Library and museum material acquired or retained solely for reference or exhibition purposes; catalogs and junk mail.

50. DISPOSAL SCHEDULES • are an important tool for identifying potential archives during their active administrative life. • systematic listing of records created by an organization which plans the life of these records from the time of their creation to their disposal. • lists: • records series created by the agency; • retention period for each series; • disposal sentence for each series, specifying whether records are to be retained as archives or destroyed; • the custody arrangements for each series, specifying when the records are to be transferred to intermediate storage and/or to archives