Archival science

Archival science is the professional study and theory of building and curating archives.

An archive is a collection of various materials. These can be paper documents, recordings, or photographs. Archives may exist in physical formats or digital formats. The field focuses on improving methods for appraising, storing, and preserving these collections. It also covers processing, which involves arranging and describing the materials. This work is essential because archival records must be trustworthy for society. An archivist ensures that materials are authentic, reliable, and usable.

To manage an archive, an archivist follows a specific sequence of steps. First, they must acquire and evaluate new materials to determine their value. Once acquired, the materials undergo appraisal to decide what should be kept. Archivists then work on storing and preserving the items. This often requires climate-controlled storage facilities to prevent decay. After storage, the archivist begins the processing stage. This includes arranging the items and creating descriptions so they can be found. Finally, the archivist must ensure the items are in an accessible location. This entire process is known as archive administration.

One of the most important concepts in this field is provenance. Provenance refers to the origin or the source of a collection. It involves information regarding the ownership and custody of an item. This principle dictates that records from different origins must be kept separate. Keeping them separate preserves the original context of the information. Archivists use two major concepts to apply this principle. The first is "respect des fonds," which treats records from one organization as a single group. The second is "original order," which keeps records in their first arrangement.

This method helps reveal the nature of the activities that created the records.

Archival science has a long and evolving history. It emerged from diplomatics, which is the critical analysis of documents. In 1540, Jacob von Rammingen wrote the earliest known archival manual. He was an expert on registries, or early archives. His manual was printed in Heidelberg in 1571. Before modern principles, many archives used the "historical manuscripts tradition." This tradition organized records by topic, similar to a library. However, this often caused the original context of the records to be lost.

Around 1840, the principles of provenance were adopted in Belgium and France.

The transition to modern methods was solidified by specific scholars and texts. In 1898, three Dutch archivists published a famous manual. Samuel Muller, Johan Feith, and Robert Fruin wrote this text. It provided the first formal description of the principle of provenance. They argued that "original order" was an essential trait for describing archives. This helped move the field toward more objective methods. Over the last century, many thinkers have shaped the discipline. These include Theodore Schellenberg, Sir Hilary Jenkinson, and Terry Cook. Other notable scholars include Verne Harris, Sue McKemmish, and Luciana Duranti.

Because there is no universal law for archives, professionals use various standards. These standards act as working guidelines for different needs. Common guidelines include the ICA standard, the ISO standard, and the DIRKS standard. In Canada, archivists use the Rules for Archival Description, or RAD. In the United States, they often use Describing Archives: A Content Standard, known as DACS. These tools help archivists describe materials consistently. This consistency makes it much easier for the public to access information.

Modern technology has introduced new complexities like digital documents and metadata. Metadata is contextual data that describes a specific record. It helps make archival materials easier to discover and search. Archivists use different standards to structure this metadata. Examples include Machine-Readable Cataloguing, or MARC, and Encoded Archival Description, or EAD. They also use the Dublin Core standard. These digital tools are necessary for managing electronic databases. Today, archival science is taught in many colleges and universities. It is usually studied within Information Science or History programs.