A Reflective Essay on the Arrangement and Description of Archives

This reflective essay delves into the principles of archival arrangement and description, emphasizing the importance of 'respect des fonds' and provenance in managing archival collections. It explores the four levels of arrangement (group, sub-group, series, file, and item) and highlights the significance of archivists' role as custodians. The essay identifies several issues, including standardizing descriptions, managing records from multiple organizations, and the skills and competencies required of archivists, especially concerning digital records. It also examines how description can be improved through various tools and methods. The conclusion underscores the ongoing challenges in archival management, advocating for archivists to prioritize data collection, maintain impartiality, and enhance professional standards to ensure the preservation and accessibility of historical records.

REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Arrangements and Description are principle which is Respects des Fonds which means we
have to respect the creator of the records that related with two important elements which
include its provenance and its original order. This should not be changed unless there was
some changed of the administrative history that have been passed. The level of the
arrangements can be divide into four important part which include group, sub-group, series,
file and item. This is why the arrangements and description are important to managing
archival collections. Archivists have developed principles their actions as custodians of these
collections. These principles have evolved into common practices that are both flexible
enough to accommodate the variety inherent in archives and standardized enough to provide
the consistency that is required, particularly in the environment. However even though
arrangement and description was used to facilitate the managing of the archival collections,
but it’s also have it issues when managing archival collections itself. In the next paragraph
the issues will be explained and the opinion will be given to discuss and exposed about the
issue of arranging and description of archival collections.
The first issues in this article are they are wrestle about how to determine the standard of
description. I figured out they're dealing with the problem of how to decide the definition
standard. Archivists should to consider how the records were physically placed on the shelf
or how it was possible to organise their lists to collect documents in ways that did not always
fit the physical structure of the documents they served. Different media contained in archives
are established: graphics, machine-readable documents, architectural features, textual
recordings, sound recordings, moving image materials, for example, by drawing up rules to
identify their respective media at the level of the archive, sequence, file and object. The
AACR2 rules are then used for the establishment of personal, geographical and corporate
naming and for the review of archival indexing issues and problems. Respect des fonds is
often used by the Canadian Archives Council to hold documents produced or accumulated by
a single record maker that must be kept intact and not confused with the records of other
creators. So, I agree with the use of respect for provenance by this organisation in what I
read, which is the belief that the way a creator accumulates the documents originally and
specifically would influence the way archivists arrange a fund. What I know, sadly, is that the
fund cannot be represented until it has been organised. At present, this company is
introducing physical control for their collection. Similarly, the level of arrangement will
decide the level of description, and the accuracy of the descriptions should reflect the relative

levels of arrangement, such as the context, the sequence, the file and the object. In order to
organise the overview according to the series that is part of the background of a fund, one
should have a description of the fund that includes the series in a section. Users should also
consider, in my view, the sense in which the records they consult have been made. It is
therefore up to the archivists, first at the level of the fund, to have intellectual oversight of
their holdings before progressing to lower levels of description.
Second issues in this article are the organisation and too much of the collections through their
same purpose. If the documents or materials is transferred from the first organisation to the
next associated organisation, it becomes one of the problems that may have frustrated the
records manager or archivist when doing the record descriptions. What I know, description
must also be done include the records of every predecessor and successor of any entity named
in the tittle of the record category and there are also a few records that have merged all the
records of many small or short-lived organisations that have the same functions. Often there
were records that had the same function, but the owner of the records was altered when the
records were transferred, but the same function still remained. This would confuse us if there
were records that too much or so many, so the records must first be established where the
records produced by which who is the first owner is used in which companies to make the
administrative history of the records to make the details so that users or researchers know the
records relationship inside the organisation. In order to avoid all the records from
overlapping, we may infer that details of the administrative history and also classify records
that served the same role must be specified.
The third issues are activists must have skills and competencies. Activists need to be prepared
to help them understand more about their careers, since they may be the only experts in their
records, and they may need to prepare themselves to cope with the complexities of potential
digital records for staff who may be new to archives. The majority of activists carelessly learn
about the archives and do not pay complete attention when doing their job. For activists who
are beginning to think digitally about a problem, there are several posts or books that can be a
good guide. At the end of each book, the archives initially examined must learn to make
additional readings and a list of sources. In the volume reference section, a good and full
glossary and bibliography, which reflects such material, is great for new activists to learn and
can be said to be a necessary thing to know for each archive. If they have this common sense,
there are several archival activities that can be clarified by this. An activist has admitted that
there are many things they need to learn. It is work that analyses risks when dealing with

digital documents as they have to make decisions, log them in regulations, find instruments or
processing plans so that they make their output the best and can continue to be used. It is
easier to do anything than not do something, so it will obviously result in a loss. Acceptance
of this imperfection with secret confession clearly invites problems because digital
preservation is about risk management and business decision making is the key to the success
of a book.
Lastly, the issues in this article are how can description be improved. Description is important
in order to arrange document. In archival world, notes are important because it can determine
the action that need to be taken by the archivist. This can lead to the confusion if the archivist
cannot know and understand the term that been applicable in archival in all over the world.
There are many ways to add description to archivist collections, whether it is a collection
guide, inventory, or register. The important step is to have information about collections
documented in some way. This descriptive information must be written down and preserved
to promote a sustainable future for the important material that archivist cares for and creates.
One can be creating descriptions at the collection level, series level, item level, and even a
complete RAD compliant finding aid with nothing more than a simple word processing
program. If archivist have a lot of information, especially at the item level, spreadsheet tools
or database programs can be very helpful. Collection management software provide more
sophisticated tools for internally documenting collections. All organizations should decide
how to organize its descriptive information, both internally for staff and archivist. Many
institutions use a combination of these tools to maintain intellectual control over description
and agreement, and provide better understanding and access to archivist.
The conclusion is it not so easy to solve all the inherent problems found in the archival
management. When there are issues of separation, distance, cutbacks, and perception, it is not
so easy to put all in one small, tidy box. The public has no clear understanding of what
archives are and how important they are to the management of archives. We can therefore see
that archivists are trying to come together for the sake of the common good, with the hope of
coping with this problem. Archivists should focus their attention on the handling of archives
and their specifications, work hard to ensure that data is collected, and define procedures that
safeguard the dignity and impartiality of records. Archivists will go a long way in endearing
themselves by improving the standards and giving more attention to the profession.