The aim of this investigation is to show the evolution of public discussions about archival classification in a Swedish context. The study covers the whole period from the introduction of the traditional Swedish classification system, det allmänna arkivschemat (AA), in 1903 until this day, when verksamhetsbaserad arkivredovisning (VBA) has replaced it as the standard model, starting in 2009. For this purpose, primarily journals and education books through the years have been used. Argumentation analysis is used as a method. The study is framed with theories about paradigm shifts by Terry Cook and theories of archival classification attitudes by Geoffrey Yeo among others. Results show that in the first directed wave of criticism against AA, the focus was mainly on its structural inconsistency. The criticism later developed to be more and more about that the classification scheme was outdated, hard to understand and clearly made for a reality of paper-based and not digital archives. AA was also accused of not reflecting the reality of business archives. This meant that when VBA was introduced, the model was heavily influenced by process models used in business life. The fact that VBA still is not so widely adopted as planned could be a proof that the new model is not much easier to understand. No views demanding that AA should be restored are however found in the sources. But the discussion will of course be a never ending story, and continue as long there are archives. This is a two years master ́s thesis in Archival Science.

This memo discusses and problematizes the work of organizing and cataloging the archive of the Environmental Advisory Council.The archive mainly consists of records concerning meetings which the Environmental Advisory Council has participated in, but also records concerning different tasks of the council and a few records concerning the coun-cil itself.The overriding problem, which is discussed in the final part of this memo, is the lacking knowledge about the creator of the archive and the creation of the archive itself and how this effects the work of ordering and catalog-ing. An attempt is made to evaluate the archive as a source of information to the Environmental Advisory Coun-cil and its work.This is a one year master’s thesis in Archival Science