Page 17 - DLIS402_INFORMATION_ANALYSIS_AND_REPACKAGING

Information Analysis and Repackaging

Notes term was defined by Hilary Jenkinson as an accumulation “resulting from the work of an
administration which was an organic whole, complete in itself, capable of dealing independently,
without any added or external authority, with every side of any business which could normally be
presented to it.” In the National Archives the term “record group” is used and has been defined as
“a major archival unit established somewhat arbitrarily with due regard to the principle of
provenance and to the desirability of making the unit of convenient size and character for the work
of arrangement and description and for the publication of inventories.” The “record group,” as this
definition makes clear, is not precisely the same as the “fonds.” Although, in practice a “record
group” often will also be a “fonds,” sometimes it will include several “fonds” or only part of one.
The principle of maintaining records in the organic units in which they were accumulated has gained
universal acceptance in the archival profession. The usages growing out of this principle, however,
have varied considerably from country to country. These apply chiefly to the order in which records
within a fonds are to be maintained. The French circular in which the principle of respect des fonds
was first enunciated directed that records within a fonds should be arranged by subject groups, and
that items within such subject groups should be arranged chronologically, geographically, or
alphabetically, as circumstances might dictate. In Prussia, where records were properly arranged
by registry offices before they were released to archival agencies, the Registraturprinzip or principle
of registry, was developed, which provided that the arrangement given records in registry offices
should remain intact. The manual compiled by the Dutch archivists emphasized that the arrangement
of records is determined by the organization of the office that produced them, that the original
arrangement given the records should be maintained, and that the primary work of the archivist is
to restore the original arrangement where it has been disturbed. The propositions developed by the
Dutch archivists were accepted by archivists of other countries. Various rules for the arrangement
of records within fonds were developed, providing in general that the order given records within
an agency or a registry office should be preserved and indicating the methods that should be followed
in restoring the original order where it had been disturbed or lost or in devising a new order.
The principle of provenance has gained acceptance in the archival profession for a variety of reasons.
The principle serves to protect the integrity of records in the sense that their origins and the processes
by which they came into existence are reflected by their arrangement. Most Government records
are accumulated in connection with official actions, and as the actions of Government are related to
each other through function and administrative organization, so the records are most intelligible
when they are kept together under the identity of the agency or the subdivision of an agency by
which they were accumulated and in the general order given them by that agency. The principle
serves to make known the character and significance of records; for the subject-matter contained in
individual documents can be fully understood only in context with related documents. If records
are arbitrarily torn from their context and rearranged under a subjective or any other arbitrary
system of arrangement, their real significance as documentary evidence may be obscured or lost.
The principle provides the archivist with a workable and economical guide in arranging, describing,
and servicing records in his custody. Arbitrary systems of arrangement cannot be applied to records
without infinitely complicating the task of the archivist, for the complexity and diversity of their
subject-matter makes the application of such systems impracticable if not impossible.

1.10 Arrangement in the National Archives

In the National Archives an initial determination on the arrangement to be given records is made at
the time they are allocated to records branches. The allocation of records is made on the basis either of
their relation to some broad subject-matter field (such as defense, industry, or natural resources) or of
their technical character (such as cartographic or audio-visual). Subject-matter relationships, however,
are defined at this stage mainly in terms of the functions of the agencies that created the records. Thus
records created by the Department of Agriculture and by independent agencies concerned with
agricultural activities are allocated to the Natural Resources Records Branch, and within this branch
to the Agriculture Records Section.

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