Archives & Special Collections

Provenance is a fundamental principle of archives, referring to the individual, family, or organization that created or received the items in a collection.

Respect des fonds is the principle maintaining records according to their origin and in the units in which they were originally accumulated. This can also be referred to as original order.

A record is: 

• Data or information stored on a medium and used as an extension of human memory or to support accountability
• A piece of information or a description of an event that is written on paper or stored on a computer
• Anything preserving information and constituting a piece of evidence about past events; esp. an account kept in writing or some other permanent form

Records are at the core of archives. The creation of a record does not mean that a collection is created, rather that items can become archival if they end up having historical value.

The life cycle of a record is another core concept in archival theory and can be broken into four stages:

1. Stage One, the record is created, presumably for a legitimate reason and according to certain standards
2. Stage Two, the record goes through an active period when it has maximum primary value and is used or referred to frequently by the creating office and others involved in decision making. At the end of stage two the record may be reviewed and determined to have no further value, at which point it is destroyed
3. Stage Three, relegated to a semi-active status, which means it still has value, but is not needed for day-to-day decision making At the end of stage three, another review occurs, at which point a determination is made to destroy 
4. Stage Four, reserved for inactive records with long-term, indefinite, archival value and specific activities are undertaken to preserve and describe the record

This theory was popularized in the late 1990s by Philip Bantin and Gerald Bernbom. 

Archival Theory can be complex and overwhelming. However, it is important to understand key concepts in order to understand why archivists do the things that they do and how to search through archives more efficiently. This section provides the key terms, principles, concepts, and practices in archives.