How are archives organised?

How are archives organised?

Archives contain both published and unpublished materials, and this material can be in any format e.g., print, moving image, sound materials, artworks, artefacts; or digital surrogates of these items.

These items are organised based on provenance and original order, unlike libraries which are organised by subject or format type. Therefore, archival boxes can contain an eclectic mix of items such as letters, newspaper cuttings, photographs and notebooks all belonging to the same person.

Archival documents are given accession numbers and arranged into archival groups (or fonds), series, files and items.

• The fonds provides an overview of an entire collection. It is the highest level of description in an archive catalogue and describes the person or institution that created the records. e.g. Canterbury Christ Church University has its own institutional archive.
• The series relates to a particular activity or type of record, for example the departments within the university e.g. bursar or library.
• Within a series there may be files separating the types of documents e.g. inventories, minute books.

The example below illustrates how the university's records are organised within the archive: