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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/7831 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Carter, Michael Charles |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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