Page 18 - DLIS402_INFORMATION_ANALYSIS_AND_REPACKAGING

Unit 1: Information Analysis, Repackaging and Consolidation

A second determination of the arrangement of records is made when they are allocated to record Notes
groups. A record group consists, as a rule, of the documentation produced by an administrative
unit at the bureau level of the Government. In their entirety, however, the record groups embrace
all governmental agencies from which records have been accessioned by the National Archives,
and their number will be increased as required to encompass accessions from other agencies.
Determinations on the placement of record groups in the stacks are made within the records branches
of the National Archives. Various factors have made it difficult to arrange the record groups in a
completely logical pattern. The most important of these is the character of the Federal Government,
which produced the records.
The multiplicity of Government agencies and the complexity and fluidity of their organization make
impossible a completely logical arrangement of all record groups. Another important factor is the
manner in which records were accessioned. In its initial years, the National Archives was concerned
with bringing into its custody the large volume of records that had accumulated in the Federal
Government since its establishment.
This accumulation of records was released to the National Archives piecemeal, in innumerable
small lots. The volume of records to be attributed to a particular record group, therefore, could not
be anticipated; and advance calculations on the space required for each of the record groups could
not be made with accuracy. The records to be attributed to a particular record group could not be
identified until their origins had been analyzed. And the availability of stack space and equipment
was often a factor in determining the placement of records.
It is important to have an ideal stack plan as a guide for all physical movements of records so that
gradually increasing quantities of records can assume relatively fixed positions. If all record shifting
is done with such a plan in view, the number of shifts and their magnitude will be minimized.
Basic to any plan, of course, is the establishment of some fixed points of orientation in each stack
area. Because of the diversity of the shapes of the several stack areas and of the ways in which the
equipment is laid out in them, no general rule can be prescribed for the establishment of these
points. But, whatever the starting points may be, the order of the rows should be established along
the wide aisles on which they abut, counting from left to right. The order within a row should again
be from left to right by sections; and within each section from left to right and from top to bottom.
An ideal plan of arrangement can be accomplished only gradually over the years as the two variables
for each record group — the intake and the outgo — approach stability, that is, when all records
worth preservation up to a practicable and convenient terminal point have been accessioned and
the maximum reduction in volume has been achieved by disposal, microfilming, or the removal of
records to Federal Records Centers.
This stability is reached first, naturally, with closed record groups. It will be speeded up or slowed
down according to the availability of labor resources for moving records into and out of the building.
The continued existence of unequipped areas in some branches is recognized as a complicating
factor. With open record groups stability can be only relative and partial, and any plan of arrangement
for them must leave some space at least for future small increments. In planning the arrangement of
record groups, two guiding principles can be followed:
Record groups should be arranged in an organizational or a functional relation to each other. —
The object to be attained in the arrangement of Government records is to show by their placement
in the stacks the organization and functions of the agencies that created them.
The organizational method of arranging record groups is ordinarily preferred when it is practicable.
This plan of arrangement should be followed whenever record groups have been established for
each of the several bureaus or offices constituting a large Government agency, such as an executive
department. When this is the case, the groups should be arranged in conformity to the hierarchical
structure of the larger agency. The record groups representing the secretary’s and staff offices would

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