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The transfer of copies of vital event records into a government archives repository is necessary not only to ensure their ongoing preservation, but also to provide access and accessibility to them for all researchers in an appropriate setting. At present all vital event records gatekeepers in Canada, except two, do not have in place a system providing for such regular transferral. The central reason for this lack of process is the assumption that vital event records are somehow different in kind, and not just in type, from other public records that contain personal information. This thesis evaluates that assumption through an analysis of the history of vital statistics legislation and a comparative study of the privacy regime of that legislation with the legislative regime of access to information and privacy. Having done these two studies, the thesis then recommends a way in which legal transfer from the gatekeepers to the repository can be achieved. That recommendation is, first, that all discussion regarding access must be accomplished before their acquisition. Secondly, their acquisition and accessibility must be based upon the expiration of time—limits.

Arrangement is an important archival activity that precedes other important archival activities including description and access. Its objective is to identify the external and internal structures of a fonds. However, despite its importance, archivists have had difficulty establishing a standard method of arrangement that fully achieves its objective. This study views arrangement as a form of methodology bridging archival theory and practice. Arrangement must therefore be in accordance with archival theory yet be applicable in practical terms. The study first establishes the terms of analysis in regards to archival theory, and, in particular, the concept of the fonds. Difficulties in the practice of arrangement are then examined. These difficulties include (1) identifying the levels of arrangement, (2) identifying when an entity has sufficient autonomy to create a fonds, (3) identifying the provenance of record series that have been in the custody of many agencies, and (4) dealing with the effects that changes to the external structure of a fonds have on record series. The main methods of arrangement, that have been utilized throughout the archival world in the last 50 years, including the record group, fonds method and series system, are then assessed to determine how closely each aligns with archival theory and how well they perform in practical terms. A method of arrangement is then devised using the basic attributes of both the fonds and series system methods. The Department of the Provincial Secretary, of British Columbia, is the subject of a case study to confirm the validity of the methodology. The study first examines the external structure of the Department through the concepts of function, competence and organizational structure. It then studies the external structure through the concepts of functional series and documentary series. The study concludes by examining some of the implications of the method for various aspects of archival practice.

Information Science / D.Litt. et Phil. (Information Science)

The transfer of copies of vital event records into a government archives repository is necessary not only to ensure their ongoing preservation, but also to provide access and accessibility to them for all researchers in an appropriate setting. At present all vital event records gatekeepers in Canada, except two, do not have in place a system providing for such regular transferral. The central reason for this lack of process is the assumption that vital event records are somehow different in kind, and not just in type, from other public records that contain personal information. This thesis evaluates that assumption through an analysis of the history of vital statistics legislation and a comparative study of the privacy regime of that legislation with the legislative regime of access to information and privacy. Having done these two studies, the thesis then recommends a way in which legal transfer from the gatekeepers to the repository can be achieved. That recommendation is, first, that all discussion regarding access must be accomplished before their acquisition. Secondly, their acquisition and accessibility must be based upon the expiration of time—limits. / Arts, Faculty of / Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School of / Graduate

Arrangement is an important archival activity that precedes other important archival activities including description and access. Its objective is to identify the external and internal structures of a fonds. However, despite its importance, archivists have had difficulty establishing a standard method of arrangement that fully achieves its objective. This study views arrangement as a form of methodology bridging archival theory and practice. Arrangement must therefore be in accordance with archival theory yet be applicable in practical terms. The study first establishes the terms of analysis in regards to archival theory, and, in particular, the concept of the fonds. Difficulties in the practice of arrangement are then examined. These difficulties include (1) identifying the levels of arrangement, (2) identifying when an entity has sufficient autonomy to create a fonds, (3) identifying the provenance of record series that have been in the custody of many agencies, and (4) dealing with the effects that changes to the external structure of a fonds have on record series. The main methods of arrangement, that have been utilized throughout the archival world in the last 50 years, including the record group, fonds method and series system, are then assessed to determine how closely each aligns with archival theory and how well they perform in practical terms. A method of arrangement is then devised using the basic attributes of both the fonds and series system methods. The Department of the Provincial Secretary, of British Columbia, is the subject of a case study to confirm the validity of the methodology. The study first examines the external structure of the Department through the concepts of function, competence and organizational structure. It then studies the external structure through the concepts of functional series and documentary series. The study concludes by examining some of the implications of the method for various aspects of archival practice. / Arts, Faculty of / Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School of / Graduate

<p>I have for my one year master's thesis worked on arranging and cataloging the archives from the missions stations of Musana, Congo-Brazzaville and Sundi-Lutete, Congo-Kinshasa, belonging to the Swedish Missions Church (Svenska Missionskyrkan). The archives contained records written in Swedish, French and Kikongo, from primarily the years 1910 until 1961. Records have though been found that adhere from both prior to and after these years. These archives are deposited at the Swedish National Archive and it was therefore important to take the opinions and regulations of both parties into consideration, as well as relying onto archival theory.</p><p>The archives were initially scattered and had in some parts been organized by an archivist without formal schooling. The major difficulties in this work has therefore been to establish the provenance – to which creator the documents belonged to, and also to decide to which degree the principle of the original order should play a part. After considering different theories, I decided to respect the secondary order for the correspondence, since rearranging it would disrupt the concordance in the work already done by researchers.</p><p>To still make the archives accessible for the users in its existing order it required me to be aware of whom the user of the archive is, probable areas of research and how these archives are used. This information was then used when writing the archival description and the scope notes in the inventory. I have also taken decisions based on what is practically possible; it has because of regulations not been possible to physically bring the archive to one unit. Also, the circumstances of a shared custody of the archives also determined, in practice, how the inventory could be written.</p><p>This is a one year master's thesis in Archival Science, at the university of Uppsala, Spring semester of 2010.</p>

I have for my one year master's thesis worked on arranging and cataloging the archives from the missions stations of Musana, Congo-Brazzaville and Sundi-Lutete, Congo-Kinshasa, belonging to the Swedish Missions Church (Svenska Missionskyrkan). The archives contained records written in Swedish, French and Kikongo, from primarily the years 1910 until 1961. Records have though been found that adhere from both prior to and after these years. These archives are deposited at the Swedish National Archive and it was therefore important to take the opinions and regulations of both parties into consideration, as well as relying onto archival theory. The archives were initially scattered and had in some parts been organized by an archivist without formal schooling. The major difficulties in this work has therefore been to establish the provenance – to which creator the documents belonged to, and also to decide to which degree the principle of the original order should play a part. After considering different theories, I decided to respect the secondary order for the correspondence, since rearranging it would disrupt the concordance in the work already done by researchers. To still make the archives accessible for the users in its existing order it required me to be aware of whom the user of the archive is, probable areas of research and how these archives are used. This information was then used when writing the archival description and the scope notes in the inventory. I have also taken decisions based on what is practically possible; it has because of regulations not been possible to physically bring the archive to one unit. Also, the circumstances of a shared custody of the archives also determined, in practice, how the inventory could be written. This is a one year master's thesis in Archival Science, at the university of Uppsala, Spring semester of 2010.

This study focused on records management in churches, particularly the Friends Church (Quakers) in Kenya. The study sought to find out the record types and formats created or received, establish records management systems currently being used, investigate the challenges faced in managing the records, and assess the status quo in records management as well as recommend possible solutions for the Friends Church in Kenya. Both qualitative and quantitative were used to collect data from the field. Through interviews, data was collected from pastors, church administrators, and church members. Exploratory research design was adopted in conducting in-depth interviews among the participants in order to understand records management practices in the Friends Church in Kenya and provide recommendations for improvement. Purposive sampling technique was adopted to select a sample size of 24 participants who included individuals with relevant information about records management in the Friends Church in Kenya. The response rate for this study was 100 percent. The study discovered that records created or received by the Friends Church in Kenya were not properly managed. This was due to lack of an electronic system of records management, inadequate qualified personnel to manage records, inaccessible records when needed, lack of fire protected cabinets, poor leadership, among others. These culminated to time wastage in churches, conflicts, overspending on various church activities, unproductivity, loss of file(s) that contain vital information, poor organization and culture, and some committed church members left the church. The Study concluded that for the Friends Church to achieve operational efficiency, it is important that the church leadership establish records management offices that are equipped with requisite resources to effectively manage paper based records and electronic records. / Information Science / M. Inf. (Information Science)

The study sought to develop a framework for access and use of documentary heritage at the National Archives of Zimbabwe (NAZ). This followed the realization that access and use is the raison d'être for national archival institutions yet the level of utilization has for a long time been lamented to be low. The researcher therefore took a holistic approach and investigated the issues of bibliographic, intellectual and physical access to archives. Using a grounded theory research approach framed within the constructivism ontology and the interpretivism epistemological research paradigm, this study employed the observation technique, interviews and content analysis to collect the empirical evidence that was needed to develop a framework for access and use of the documentary heritage in the custody of NAZ. The study extensively discussed the methodological issues involved in the study as grounded theory is a rarely used approach in Information Science studies. An extensive discussion was therefore offered to enable readers to follow and appreciate how the not so common approach was actually employed. The findings of the study showed that the position of NAZ as a public information resource centre was threatened by many obstacles that were compromising the accessibility and use of the documentary heritage in its custody. Such hindrances included the absence of a national policy on access to public archives, the absence of an institutional access policy, the absence of a standing committee on access and use of archives, lack of a budget, increasing backlogs of unprocessed archives, misconstrued public perception, the absence of special facilities for the physically challenged, centralised access to archives, access restrictions placed by legal instruments as well as limited use of digital technology, no use of the print media and Web 2.0 technologies. Using the findings of the study, the researcher offered a framework for enhanced access and use of archives to serve as a baseline on which archivists may reflect and improve on their practices. / Information Science