Arrangement and description of small archival collections

my name is Bruce Smith we're in the public record office Victoria repository the public record office is the state archives of Victoria today I'm going to be talking to you about how archists document archives archists use the term Arrangement and description when they're documented [Music] archives Arrangement is the process of organizing your archives in accordance with accepted archival principles the principles of Providence and original order description is the process of capturing information about your archives in a standardized format for example in a database or on paper based [Music] forms Providence relates to the person or organization that created accumulated and used the records in course of their business or personal life the principle of Providence requires that the records of one entity and not physically mixed with those of [Music] another original order is the order in which the records were Captain organized by the person or organization that created them principle of original order requires that the records be documented in that order how do you find that order here is an example of some records that not be offered to you for your collection there may be order here how do you find it you need to examine the records look for information that helps you identify what the records are and the Order of those [Music] records archist document Providence using an admin history sheet for an organization or a brief biography for person they then record original order using what's called a series description sheet the individual archival items recorded in an [Music] inventory now let's look at an example of documenting archives here we have cash books but we don't know their Providence there's nothing ident no identifying features on the volumes to help us so we need to look in inside to see if we can find evidence of their Providence so when we look inside we're looking for something that helps us understand who created these records in this case we find little pink bit of paper it's actually a receipt from the trustees Executives company received from the Fitzroy Mission free kindergarten what this actually is is a receipt for the part of the salary of the kindergarten teacher who had died and the company were the executives so the Providence of these cash books is the Fitzroy Mission free kindergarten and we record that on our admin history sheet now we have the name of the Providence the next entry on the form is the unique identifying number for this entity in our system and we pop that into the appropriate place the next entry is for the date range when the kindergarten started around 1913 and when it ceased to exist 1955 then we'd add some administrative history just some notes about the kindergarten itself for example the kindergarten was established Circa 1913 the corner of Lester and young streets Fitzroy uh in 1931 the free kindergarten Union took over the running of the kindergarten as they couldn't find a committee then in 1935 a generous local Council provided money for the children of the kindergarten to receive a hot midday meal four times a week in 1955 the kindergarten name was changed to the Isabel Henderson kindergarten and we put note that entry underrated entities because it followed on the last two items on the form are the name of the preparer in this case me Bruce Smith and the date I completed the form returning to our cach books now that we've established the Providence of the books we need to look at documenting the cash books themselves and we do this using a series description sheet before we look at the sheet we need to Define what a series is and a series is basically those records that come from the same filing system for example chronological system or a numerical system or an alphabetical system or they are records that are kept together because they perform the same function in the case of our cach books although they're chronological uh they're kept together because they record income and expenditure of the kindergarten now to complete our series description sheet for the cash books the first entry is the name of the records I.E cash books next we add an ID number for this series in our archives the next thing is the Providence in this case the Fitzroy Mission free kindergarten the starting date of the series circuit 1913 and the end date of the Series 1955 because we don't know any more information we can't add anything for the next two fields that is if there was anything before these cash books or anything subsequent the next thing we would add is information about how to access these records and the sorts of information contained in the records and you'd explain how to use a cash book and the various pieces of information the next entry would be the quantity of the records in this case we say four volumes and then we'd add the preparer in this case Bruce Smith and the date I completed the [Music] form the next piece of documentation is to capture information about the individual cach books themselves we do this using an inventory of the individual items the items are the smallest unit in each Series in this case each cash book is an item and we do this by completing an inventory sheet now to complete our inventory if we assume the cash books are going straight onto the Shelf we would number each item for example cash book number one 1913 to 1929 cash book number 2 1929 to 1937 cash book number three 9 1937 to 1946 cash book number four 1946 to 1955 alternatively we could put a cash books into an archive box in that case we'd have to include the archive box number in our inventory so we could have box number one with item one cash book 1913 to 1929 cash book number two 1929 to 1937 cash book number three 1937 to 1946 [Music] Etc now having completed our inventory we need to put the cash books into an archive box in the same order as they were in the inventory so cash book number one cash book number two cashbook number three hash book number four what we'll do now is to give the Box a number and to place it on the [Music] Shelf the system of documentation we've been talking about is What's called the series system in this system information about Providence is captured in what's called administrative history sheet for an organization or a brief biography for a person information about original order and records is captured in a series description sheet lastly information about the individual items is captured in an inventry for each series series system for documenting archives works for the public record office Victoria in a large collection like this equally it can work for you in a small collection in your local Historical Society [Music]

Channel: Public Record Office Victoria

Views: 22,224

Keywords: small archives, archives management, arrangement, description, a&d, provenance, original order, series system, context, administrative history, series inventory, documenting your collection

Id: dxLIMGmVANM

Length: 9min 30sec (570 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 20 2013