Lesson 3 ARRANGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION OF ARCHIVES

1. Lesson 3 • ARRANGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION OF ARCHIVES • Lesson 3 examines the way in which the archival institution arranges & describes the materials in its custody. In arranging materials, the institution must follow the internationally accepted principles of respect for the provenance & original order of archives. Arrangement & description provide information about the content & context of archives. • Topic discussed include: • The concept of arrangement & description • Principles of arrangement • Arranging records into group & series • Describing archives

2. PRINCIPLES OF ARRANGEMENT Arrangement: The whole process of analyzing the organization of sets of archives, whereby their provenance and original order are understood & the archives are set into groups, series & items in an order that preserves & reflects that understanding. Arrangement reflects the way in which records were created & used.

3. Archives, as records of enduring value, are a distinctive form of information that comprises evidence of actual & processes. • In order to serve as evidence, archives must be reliable, complete & accurate. Thus, as a rule, the arrangement of archives must faithfully reproduce & document the order & processes used to capture, create, organize and maintain the records during their primary use for: • Government • Business • Organization • Individual

4. The arrangement of archives is governed by the key principle of respect des fonds • This principle requires that archives must be: • kept together according to the agency responsible for their creation or accumulation and • in the original order established during their use as current use.

5. Respect des fonds: Respect for the creator of the records or archives, involving the maintenance of provenance & original order. Provenance: The organization or individual that created or received, maintained and used records while they are still current. Original order: The order in which documents were created, arranged & maintained by the office of origin.

6. These principles require that archivists manage the records of separate agencies separately and maintain the original order or records received. The following principles apply: • Do not combine the archives of two agencies or organizations. • The private archives of different individuals must not be integrated, even if the individuals were related or experienced the same events.

7. Do not rearrange archives. In particular, materials must not be ordered by subject, date or medium of material if that was not how they were organized when created. • Identify levels of archives according to the hierarchical levels of arrangement used in archival work. - Group - Subgroup - Series - File - Item

8. Group: The primary division in the arrangement of records and archives at the level of the independent originating organisation. Also known as archives group, fonds, record group. Subgroup: A discrete subdivision in the arrangement of archives below the level of the group, usually the archives of a subordinate administrative unit with its own record‑keeping system. Series: The level of arrangement of the files and other records of an organisation or individual that brings together those relating to the same function or activity or having a common form or some other relationship arising from their creation, receipt or use. Also known as a file series, records series or class. File (1): An organized physical assembly (usually within a folder) of documents grouped together for current use or in the process of archival arrangement because they relate to the same subject, activity or transaction. Note: A file is usually the basic unit within a record series. Item: The basic physical unit of arrangement and description within a series.Also known as a piece.

9. THE CONCEPT OF ARRANGEMENT & DESCRIPTION • Arrangement & description bring control to the holdings of the archival institution. • Physical control • Intellectual control • Physical control • Physical control (administrative control) ensures that all series & items are accounted for in the repository and can be found & used.

10. Intellectual Control • Intellectual control identifies for users what materials are held, what subjects they deal with & where they are located. • The concept of functional analysis • Clear understanding of how & why records were created. • Clear understanding of how they were originally arranged & use. • Clear understanding of the overall organizational structure creating the records.

11. Purpose of functional analysis: • To ensure that the final arrangement & description accurately reflects & demonstrates the provenance & original order of the materials. • This analysis is done before the tasks of arrangement & description are completed & requires the archivist to conduct what is called “retrospective functional analysis”.

12. ARRANGING RECORDS INTO GROUPS & SERIES • Records should be sorted into groups & series to reflect the system used when the records were originally created & kept while in active use. • Identifying the Group/Fonds • A group consists of all the archives arising from a distinct organization or individual. Examples of groups include: • Records of the Ministry of Justice. • Records of Civil Service Commission.

13. The list of creating agencies is more than just a list of names. Each creating agency should itself have a description consisting of one of more of the following date elements. • The official or authorized name of the agency. • Other names the agency has been known by at any time • An administrative history, setting out the origins of the agency, the legislative or other authority under which it acted its functions and how the agency evolved over time. • It is useful to maintain this list of creating agencies as a computer database.

14. Reference codes of Groups/Fonds • The reference code are usually two or three letters, though some archival institutions may use number as codes. The use of three letters is preferred as this gives a greater range of options when creating new reference codes. • ‘Meaningful’ Codes • ‘CSO’ representing ‘Chief Secretary’s Office’ • ‘CAB’ representing ‘Cabinet Office’ • ‘WO’ representing ‘War Office’ • ‘JPA’ representing ‘Jabatan Perdana Menteri’

15. Advantages of ‘meaningful’ codes: • Easy to recognize & remember. • Disadvantages of ‘meaningful’ codes: • Source of confusion if different agencies have similar names or identical initials. • ‘Non-meaningful’ Codes • ‘BNF’ representing ‘Supreme Court’ • ‘PAW’ representing ‘Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam’ • ‘MYD 12’ represent ‘Pejabat Daerah Jerantut’

16. Advantages of ‘non-meaningful’ codes: • Increase the number of possible codes to choose from, as all letters of the alphabet in any combination can be used. • It also avoid confusion when the title of the agencies change or different agencies have similar titles. • As a general rule, the information held in the databases of creating agencies should be made available to users.

17. Following are the two possible options for determining groups • Adopt the name of the last transferring agency as the controlling group. This is a convenient method but it can cause confusion. For example, series may be listed as belonging to ministries that were not even in existence when the records were in current use. • List the series as a separate distinct entity and set up linking references to all the agencies that might have had some relationship to it. This method is more accurate but it may prove difficult to use.

18. Identifying Subgroups • Subgroup may exist within a group where the originating organization of the group has administrative or functional subdivisions, each of which created records that were managed separately. • As a general principle, it is better to have a large number of simple groups than a smaller number of complex groups, each containing a number of subgroups.

19. KEMENTERIAN PENDIDIKAN GROUP/FOND Bhg. Sek. Rendah Bhg. Sek. Menengah IPTA IPTS Subgroup Series 100/1 Sek. Keb. 100/1/1 Segambut 100/1/2 Kepong 100/2 Se. Jen. Keb. 100/2/1 Chong Hwa 300/1 ITM 300/2 UM 300/3 UKM 300/4 USM Files Minit Mesyuarat Pelan Bangunan Sekolah Surat Pekeliling 1/1967 Laporan Prestasi Items

20. Determining the Series • The term ‘series’ is used to refer to specific organized sets of records kept & used together as a system in the creator agency, and from which the archives have been selected. • A series documents a particular function or process in government or in the creator agency or in the activities of the person. • Series should be kept together & in their original or system

21. Files in a registered series will be kept together, as will be any other set of materials that share common feature of function, system or form, which show that they were used as a system in the creating agency. • The determination of series will usually depend on the size of the administrative structure of the agency.

22. Arranging Records within Series • The series is the basic unit of control of archives because it reflects how records were originally created & used. • Determining the arrangement of items within the series is usually based on the nature of the series & the original order of the archives. • The order id derived from the way in which records were created, used & kept by the creating agency or individual.

23. If the original order cannot be determined easily, then there are a number of other types of arrangement that the archivist can apply to make sense of the records: • Numerical order • Chronological order • Alphabetical order • Hierarchical order • Geographical order • Record type order • The archivist should determine the type of artificial arrangement in the from of artificial series that seems most suitable for the series.

24. Alternately, records may have been kept together because they result from or support the same transaction, activity or function. For example, all the records relating to organization and conduct of an annual meeting will form part of an ‘annual meeting series’. • Sometimes, records are found together in series because they are of similar format and relate to a particular function. 50 photographs of a construction site may be filed in the series on ‘PETRONAS Twin Towers’.

25. Records are usually in files, with a number of materials in each file, according to a subject, a time frame, issue and so on. • Before any arrangement is decided on, it is essential that archivists should investigate the archives & their originating agencies thoroughly, including doing background reading, so they understand the archives & their legislative, administrative & historical background. This process is termed ‘retrospective functional analysis’.