Archival science

Describing records at the series level to ensure that records of different origins are kept separate, provided an alternative to item-level manuscript cataloguing.[14] The practice of provenance has two major concepts: "respect des fonds", and "original order". "Respect des fonds" rose from the conviction that records entering an archive have an essential connection to the person or office that generated and used them; archivists consider all the records originating with a particular administrative unit (whether former, or still existing) to be a separate archival grouping, or "fonds", and seek to preserve and describe the records accordingly, with close attention to evidence of how they were organized and maintained at the time they were created.[15]^{: 167–168} "Original order", refers to keeping records "as nearly as possible in the same order of classification as obtained in the offices of origin", gives additional credibility to preserved records and to their originating "fonds".[14] Records must be kept in the same order they were placed in the course of the official activity of the agency concerned; records are not to be artificially reorganized. Records kept in their original order are more likely to reveal the nature of the organizations which created them, and more importantly, of the order of activities out of which they emerged.[16]

Not infrequently, practical considerations of storage mean that it is impossible to maintain the original order of records physically. In such cases, however, the original order should still be respected intellectually in the structure and arrangement of finding aids.

Following the French Revolution, a newfound appreciation for historical records emerged in French society. Records began to "acquir[e] the dignity of national monuments",[17] and their care was entrusted to scholars who were trained in libraries.[16] The emphasis was on historical research, and it seemed obvious at the time that records should be arranged and catalogued in a manner that would "facilitate every kind of scholarly use".[17][16] To support research, artificial systematic collections, often arranged by topic, were established and records were catalogued into these schemes.[15] With archival documents approached from a librarianship perspective, records were organized according to classification schemes and their original context of creation were frequently lost or obscured.[16] This form of archival arrangement has come to be known as the "historical manuscripts tradition".

The principle of "respect des fonds" and of "original order" was adopted in Belgium and France about 1840 and spread throughout Europe during the following decades.[15] Following the rise of state-run archives in France and Prussia, the increasing volume of modern records entering the archive made adherence to the manuscript tradition impossible; there were not enough resources to organize and classify each record. Provenance received its most pointed expression in the "Manual for the Arrangement and Description of Archives", a Dutch text published in 1898 and written by three Dutch archivists, Samuel Muller, Johan Feith, and Robert Fruin. This text provided the first description of the principle of provenance and argued that "original order" is an essential trait of archival arrangement and description.[18]

Complementing the work of the Dutch archivists and supporting the concept of provenance were the historians of the era. Through subject-based classification aided research, historians began to concern themselves with objectivity in their source material. For its advocates, provenance provided an objective alternative to the generally subjective classification schemes borrowed from librarianship. Historians increasingly felt that records should be maintained in their original order to better reflect the activity out of which they emerged.

Although original order is a generally accepted principle, there has been some debate about applicability to personal archiving.[15] Original order is not always ideal for personal archives.[16] However, some archivists insist that personal records are created and maintained for much the same reason as organizational archives and should follow the same principles.[16]

Preservation emerged with the establishment of the first central archives. In 1789, during the French Revolution, the Archives Nationales was established and later, in 1794, transformed into a central archive.[15] This was the first independent national archive and its goal was to preserve and store documents and records as they were. This trend gained popularity and soon other countries began establishing national archives for the same reasons, to maintain and preserve their records as they were created and received.[11]

Cultural and scientific change reinforced the concept and practice of preservation. In the late eighteenth century, many museums, national libraries, and national archives were established in Europe; therefore ensuring the preservation of their cultural heritage.[11]

Preservation, like provenance, is concerned with the proper representation of archival materials. Archivists are primarily concerned with maintaining the record, along with the context in which it was produced, and making this information accessible to the user.[11]

Tout ensemble is a definition relating to preservation. This definition encompasses the idea of context and the importance of maintaining context. When a record is removed from its fellow records, it loses its meaning. In order to preserve a record it must be preserved in its original entirety or else it may lose its significance. This definition relates to the principle of provenance and respect des fonds as it similarly emphasizes the idea of the original record.[11]

Metadata is key for the preservation of context within archival science. Metadata, as defined by the SAA, is "data about data".[12] This data can help archivists locate a specific record, or a variety of records within a certain category. By assigning appropriate metadata to records or record aggregates, the archivist successfully preserves the entirety of the record and the context in which it was created. This allows for better accessibility and improves authenticity.[20]

Physical maintenance is another key feature of preservation. There are many strategies to preserve archives properly: rehousing items in acid-free containers, storing items in climate controlled areas, and copying deteriorating items.[11]

Digital preservation involves the implementation of policies, strategies, and actions in order to ensure that digitized documents remain accurate and accessible over time. Due to newly emerging technologies, archives began to expand and require new forms of preservation. Archival collections expanded to include new media such as microfilm, audiofiles, visualfiles, moving images, and digital documents. Many of these new types of media have a shorter life expectancy than paper.[11] Migration from older non-paper formats to newer non-paper formats is necessary for the preservation of digital media so they can remain accessible.[20]

Metadata is an important part of digital preservation as it preserves the context, usage, and migration of a digital record. Similarly to traditional preservation, metadata is required to preserve the authenticity and accessibility of a record.[20]

Preserved materials in digital archives can be accessed usually by specifying their metadata, or by content-based search such as full text search when using dedicated information retrieval approaches. These usually return results ranked in terms of their relevance to user queries. Novel retrieval methods for document archives can use other ranking factors such as contemporary relevance and temporal analogy.[21]

Professional archivist associations seek to foster study and professional development:

Smaller professional regional associations provide more local professional development. These include the New England Archivists, Society of Rocky Mountain Archivists, Society of Ohio Archivists, Society of North Carolina Archivists, and Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference.